Pre-Pub question...
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About the Pre-Pubs, @Sam-Pinansky , I would like to ask you what made you take the decision of making them unavailable as soon as the Ebook launches? It makes me feel like I'm in this need of read the things I want to before the Ebook launches, just because I would have to buy it after it is released. Wouldn't it be better if the Pre-Pub stuff could only be read by members after the release of the Ebook? It would at least make being a normal member more worth than just reading the new Pre-Pub as they release and not being able to after the Ebook release. Or else I could just stop being a member and wait for the Ebook release and read everything at once instead of waiting for the new chapters to release, as I would be having a more complete experience with better quality containing things that the Pre-Pubs aren't getting. It would be a good idea of, at least, make the Pre-Pub members only after the Ebook release, or, if you would like to, use a system like Crunchyroll with the one week delay and ads on videos and etc..
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Wait... Once the books are out we cannot read them on this site even as premium members anymore?
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After the publication date, you have to buy the novels yes.
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Why did I even bother to sign up for premium member then? >_> The books are only 9 CAD on amazon.ca and I'm paying 10 dollars USD each month for this service. Sure there might be 50% more resolution in the pictures, but I signed up because we could read them on here anytime I thought.
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Well, I signed up because the idea of being able to download epub version of Light Novels in a better resolution sounds really good to me. I mean it'd be interesting to see if Premium members could read the novels after publication date and keeping out the final part for purchase or something.
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For premium members they should allow us to read finished light novels on the website regardless since we are paying a subscription for it. I literally signed up just for Grimgar, so 120 USD for Grimgar pre-read does nothing to me when I already read the FTL up to volume 4. I know we get premium credits, but it feels like I'm over paying since the actual Ebook is cheaper on amazon, and so far we haven't seen the special stuff we get with premium Ebooks yet.
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If you've subscribed for the Premium Service, you're essentially paying for one monthly high res ebook and a subscription to read the new released chapters. The monthly ebook credit allows you to follow at least two series a year.
Its worth it for me as I can read Little Apocalypse early (I've waited years for someone to pick it up) and get the high res ebook.
If you don't care about the high res ebook or reading the latest chapters, the serivce may not be for you.
As for special stuff, some series have material not found in the LN release. For example, LN volumes only released with the bluray release (ie: To Aru LN specials), short stories found in mags (ie: Konosuba. The manga chapters of Aqua selling water/soap, Bamboo Hunting, and Kazuma going back to Earth for a day aren't manga original; they're actually short stories released in magazines.)
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How much is this ebook credit worth exactly? The equivalent of 1 ebook?
I was considering signing up for the premium membership, but it said "save ~12% off retail ebook price". Does this mean I only get a 12% discount on one book per month? If so, then the basic membership is all you really need, as you can put that savings toward a monthly ebook instead. Am I misunderstanding something?
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1 credit = 1 book
The "Save 12% off retail ebook price" is probably the savings if you get the annual premium subscription and read the weekly chapters + monthly ebook rather than just buying the ebooks when they come out.
The premium sub is good if you're planning on getting ebooks /w high res images and reading the weekly chapters.
If you don't care about the weekly chapters, well, then it depends on whether or not you care about high res images.
Just note that I'm buying most of Yen Press' LN releases on the Google Play Store and the images are total garbage compared to even fan translation pdfs with lower res images.
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@Bryan Premium Membership is there to help people who were going to buy at least 12 ebooks in a year save some money off buying them from retail stores, get higher quality epubs than you can from kindle directly, and generally support both the streaming and ebook parts of our business model.
If you're just interested in reading stuff on the app or the website and occaisionally or never buying an ebook, you can just have a normal membership.
The pricing works pretty simply:
(Monthly) It's $4.95 a month for a normal membership, and $10.95 for a Premium Membership, so the ebook credit is "worth" $6 (legal disclaimer, this credit is not trade able for cash equivalent value). Retail prices of our ebooks are $6.99 so you save $1 off retail cost of the 12 ebooks you'll get credits for.In other words, simply put: If you were going to buy at least 10 ebooks over the next year from J-Novel Club, Premium Membership is the better deal.
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@Sam-Pinansky I still want to know why make them unavailable for paying members though, it would make sense if it were for non-paying users but if I'm paying for this service I don't see why make them unavailable.
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@theMario3721 There are a couple of reasons, but the basic one is that the subscription is about reading the latest translations before they are available as ebooks, not to have a huge library of light novels you can read online whenever you want. So think about the Membership more like a magazine subscription... each week you get ~300-400 pages of light novels to read, but back issues you'd have to pay extra for.
In the future when we actually have enough content, we might create a new type of subscription that allows that, but right now it's only financially viable to have a low-priced subscription + ebook sales.
Also, when you think about it: Subscriptions like Crunchyroll or even Netflix don't give you access to TV shows forever... it's only for as long as the license to the content continues. Crunchyroll takes down content after a few years all the time.
But buying ebooks from us or Amazon means you actually own the book and can keep reading it for as years and years. Being a premium member basically gives you 12 credits to buy these ebooks for you to keep forever. What you are asking for is essentially a subscription which allows you to read all the ebooks we publish for an entire year for free, which is about ~50-60 volumes we hope. Right now we can't really offer something like that for $10.95 a month. If it's a series you want to read but don't care about owning, just read it as it comes out!I tried to be as clear as possible about the expiration of the pre-pub releases (we say when they expire on each page, FYI, and will give a big shoutout a few weeks before they go down so people can catch up).
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@Bryan As I explained above, the normal membership without any monthly credits is $4.95 (USD), so you are getting the ebook for $6, basically.
Current amazon retail is $9.32 CND, which is ~$6.95, so as long as you redeem the credit for the ebook you're saving $1.
If you're not interested in reading anything online and ONLY want the ebooks then yeah, maybe subscribing isn't for you. Although the ebooks you get direct from us will have higher quality images than the kindle editions and also some bonus content (which will vary from book to book, depending on the kind of materials we get...)
Note though that any "bonus content" will really be stuff that is extra and not even included in the usual Japanese release, like things produced for special in-store pack-ins or additional content we create ourselves. -
@Sam-Pinansky Well, thanks for the answer. I'll be considering Premium membership as it is more valuable for me in terms of advantages. As for the expiring shows on crunchyroll, it's only logical as contracts expire and stuff, but they still remain there as long as possible: don't forget contracts can be renewed. But still I'm not asking to read everything for free, I'm still paying for the subscription value, I only suggested that although you will take down the prepub chapters, they should only remain for paying users or something like that. I understand that, as this website os still new and you guys don't have a lot of money at the moment, it isn't exactly viable but at least you should consider something like this at a possible future.
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@Sam-Pinansky so for someone like me who only cares about owning the e-book, the better choice would be to wait until it is finished and then buy it on amazon, is that right?
"I drowned a fish, killed a dead tree and made medicine sick"
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@ImIlyaz Yup! If you're never going to use the reader or apps and just want the epubs, then go buy them. You'll be able to purchase premium credits to buy epubs directly from us soon, too (although you won't get as good a price as Premium Members would).
