[IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025
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Better late than never, I guess. Although an announcement in advance is usually expected for such changes. From a customer service perspective it would have been better to run timely announcements, rather than implement the changes in time. Especially since we didn't expect any changes at a particular date due to the absence of announcements. I'll give JNC the benefit of the doubt and assume the implementation had to be rushed because the company was about to go under otherwise.
Also, your list of changed features is missing the coin discount change, which is especially important for the premium tier, as it's its only additional perk compared to regular member (the 699 coins can also be purchaced seperately).
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@admin said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
@Travis-Butler Thanks for you comment. I (Sam) have been focusing on making sure the implementation of the changes was finished on time, and setup the youtube stream to explain the changes as soon as I was able to before the launch date. The lack of additional communication was an issue we are dealing with internally, and we'll strive to have a full-stack communications plan for any further major changes in the future.
Thank you.
Might I suggest that instead of setting up the youtube stream, it would have been better to prioritize the website, or at least the forum announcement? The website is something everyone following prepubs visits every day, while I have no idea where the youtube stream was even announced; I certainly didn't hear about it until someone mentioned it in a forum post.
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This probably hurts more for people who want to go back to stuff with catchups, but as someone who's here for only a couple "in progress" series (and rarely a new one that just starts), this feels like a better way to do the service overall. Personally I'd rather the service stick around, and for that you need to make money in ways that make sense. It sounds way better to give people a cheap option to try stuff rather than have someone cancel to wait for a catch up, or forcing them to buy volumes of something they're unsure they'll like (which I doubt happens in reality). If you're using catchups to read/reread something in full, maybe you should consider buying it if you need more than a few volumes. I think there is a bit of room for exceptions here though, with more of the stuff on here now hitting over 20 volumes. At a certain point I think it comes a bit unreasonable to buy a backlog for some series (cough smartphone)
Edit: I didn't see the 3 "OR SO" part originally, so I assume there will be wiggle room for some at least.
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It isn't currently in your FAQ list, but what happens with downgrading or upgrading a partially completed annual plan?
Do we change the type of subscription on your website and automatically get a partial refund/extra charge for the remainder of the year?
Alternatively, should we cancel our existing subscription (with partial refund) and purchase the new plan?
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@Fractured said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
I think there is a bit of room for exceptions here though, with more of the stuff on here now hitting over 20 volumes. At a certain point I think it comes a bit unreasonable to buy a backlog for some series (cough smartphone)
unfortunately this doesn't work for that either. neither Smartphone, nor any of the Bookworm franchise is included in the "Readers' Library. I haven't done an exhaustive search but a quick search of my favorites that I believe to be "oldies but goodies" that to the best of my knowledge are 'complete: for example Outbreak Company, Anagami Park, maybe half were available. I know there isn't any rhyme or reason (from my POV) as to what's there and what isn't - I'm sure it has to do with how much licensing costs, and popularity and metrics and things beyond my ken.. put the most popular ones seem to be missing (because they are ongoing?) My point, for someone who has NO membership, it's a good deal (there are many gems in the collection) For someone who is a current "club" or Premium club member, you need to take a look and see if it is worth it to you (and vote with your dollars) for me, I'm all about the prepubs
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@Fractured said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
or forcing them to buy volumes of something they're unsure they'll like (which I doubt happens in reality).
Happens on all other services as no one else has prepub services or a netflix like service (the new Reader plan)..
I just bought I’m Just a Villager, So What? (https://hanashi.media/im-just-a-villager-so-what/) because I had no other way to know if I would even like the series. There are 7 out in Japan as of now, and I fully expect Hanahsi to continue translating. But the only way for me to find out is to buy it.
I love the JNC membership plan that let's me read prepubs to find out if I want something enough to buy it. I also love that I can jsut pay my membership and read it all in prepub and never buy it.
The new Reader plan will get you many 50 full series right now and more to come, not to mention volumes 1-3 of more series. So it is well worth the $3 add if you are exploring things to buy, or just want to read things Netflix style.
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To me it seems the Premium Club at $11.95 has less functionality than the Reader's Club at $7.95. (no All You Can Read of the Readers Library list that is the successor to the now discontinued monthly Catch Ups) So I'm downgrading.
I'd also like to see some sort of Curation or monthly recommendation list now that Catch Ups are gone. Is there any "Most popular by our readers this week" stats page or other reader recommendations source?
Is there also any "People like you who've read X also like Y" recommendation linkages between books like what amazon does?
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@Innovan or a disrecommend list.
Which starts with My Little Sister Can Read Kanji.
Which is also in spot 2, 3 and 4.
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@Arthur-Guijt that is how I found out about this too. I’ve been a premium member since day one admittedly I tend to just binge catchups and spend my coins every other month but signing into the app to zero catch ups made this quite an unhappy suprise. For now I’ve paid the additional $to upgrade my level but still might downgrade before renewal….
(The overall price increase I have no issue with, it has been years and the price hasn’t changed but the cost of everything has )
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So my understanding of this is that, for those on the "Legacy" Premium Annual Plan, it's better to just stay on the current Legacy plan? Switching to the "new" Premium Annual Plan is $12/year more, gives 1200 coins/year more, but we can spend $12 to get 1333 coins.
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@subarctic I recommend this thread as additional resource
https://forums.j-novel.club/post/409039It is thanks to @AnimeMayhem that I got to see the information on the forums early on and in such detail before. Otherwise this news would have come as surprise.
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@Serah I appreciate the link, but that doesn't provide anything new - my current subscription price is $120/year. Switching off the legacy plan gets me an extra 100 coins a month (so 1200 coins a year), and costs $12 more ($132/year total).
Buying $12 worth of coins is 1333 coins, more than switching would give me for that same dollar value.
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Considering the increase coin price for books, I miss more the old system where we got credits redeemable 1:1 for books.
1 credit = 1 ebook
instead of this pseudo currency which punishes everyone who held back their coins for future releases.
Sorry for my bad English - it is not my native language
Give Pens Down, Swords Up: Throw Your Studies to the Wind a try. It is that good! ♡(>ᴗ•)
I like it as much as Realist Hero ♡ -
Since they sent this recap last week in the newsletter, I think they should have either posted it immediately on the forum or sent to all subscribers regardless if they choose to receive mails or not. Seems like an important enough communication. Anyway, the important thing is that the process will be improved in the future.
Compared to catchup, the new Readers subscription seems easier to use since you don't have a strict time limit to read the books. On the other hand you only get the first volumes for ongoing series, so if you discover a new series and want to read the prepubs the only options seems to buy the previous volumes instead of waiting for a catchup.
It's undeniable that the previous subscriptions were downgraded since we don't have catchups anymore, the replacement requires additional payment and prepubs are slightly less useful as mentioned above. It doesn't affect me much since I'm already up to dare with basically everything I'm interested in, but it's still not a good thing.
I'll have to think a bit of my reading habits and decide if it's better to stick to my current subscription or choose a new plan. -
I'm an epub-buyer-only of JNC. I'm trying to not throw a huge fit, but I'd still like to say that I really hate that I only found out about this right now, when all epubs prices are already increased. I have no idea the stream even exists. You already got my money because I had to purchase these coins, the idea that even Microsoft abandoned like a decade ago. Now you devalue it without sufficient advance notice.
@admin said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
@Travis-ButlerI (Sam) have been focusing on making sure the implementation of the changes was finished on time, and setup the youtube stream to explain the changes as soon as I was able to before the launch date. The lack of additional communication was an issue we are dealing with internally, and we'll strive to have a full-stack communications plan for any further major changes in the future.
With all due respect sir, I would like to think that "communication" with the customers is a crucial part of the implementation. Maybe even the most important one. If communication is still lacking, as you admitted, why not push back the launch date? Why am I punished for this?
This really left a bad taste. I can accept increased price for new books going forward but retroactively increase the price of the old books. Really?
I still applaud JNC for DRM-free, but that is probably the only good thing left (admittedly, a very important one)
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@Jyuichi said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
(The overall price increase I have no issue with, it has been years and the price hasn’t changed but the cost of everything has )
Yes, the price increase is perfectly fine. The price hadn't changed since at least 2020, it's now a 21% increase (I'm including the coin discount loss, otherwise it's only 14%), which is less than inflation over the last 5 years here in the Netherlands (or the USA).
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I mentioned this the last time there was a planned server outage that took me completely by surprise because I almost exclusively use the app, hardly ever check the website, and am not signed up for newsletters.
Advance notice of membership changes and other important information that affects all paying members are something that should be emailed to all members directly regardless of newsletter subscription status.
Also, the wording regarding premium membership (“will not be automatically upgraded”) is confusing. Exactly what services are old premium members still being offered/able to access?
The new membership chart is useful, but a chart showing how people’s current memberships are changing (since most people are probably part way through a subscription) would be far more useful.
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@Serah So do I.
I was a premium sub since JNC launched. I bought a ton of coins as most of JNC's titles back then were rather interesting and I wanted to support them. So I got a lot coins left over with the subscription perk. What I got at the end was same punishment here, "use your coin now or lose them all" when they switched to pseudo currencies.
Now I don't trust/use any of subscription service JNC put forward. Only buying DRM-free ePub.
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@presea said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
Also, the wording regarding premium membership (“will not be automatically upgraded”) is confusing. Exactly what services are old premium members still being offered/able to access?
Current premium members will retain their subscription terms except for coin discounts - it will be 10% instead of 15%. You will also be credited 699 coins as always..just that it wouldn't be enough to buy an ebook per month like it used to be.
This post adds another aspect: https://forums.j-novel.club/post/409666 -
@wanderer_1204 Thank you! I did find that post shortly after posting and have been browsing through it.
It doesn’t actually affect me all that much since I haven’t purchased coins in a while, but it definitely doesn’t seem fair that they just cut the Premium discount without offering some sort of refund or a grace period based on the number of months remaining in the current subscription for members who paid for a full year subscription.
