[IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025
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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.
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@Zarabada-0h92w38 said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
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?
Looking through the Terms of Service,
"Fees are refundable at J-Novel Club's sole discretion. There is no prorated refund of any fees upon any termination or cancellation."
That suggests if I cancel now, I will lose all of my (reduced) premium benefits for the rest of the year without a partial refund.
I'd ask JNC how they expect Premium members (who have not had an automatic change in membership) on how we should handle this reduced service. Are we expected to continue with reduced service for up to 11 months, or are you using your "sole discretion" to allow a partial refund if we switch to a lower membership level?
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I don't care about the price increase per say. It's probably long overdue.
I do care that instead of rewarding your existing premium members, who have been paying at a higher price for many years now, it feels like we are being punished instead. Our existing coins just got devalued. Our existing perks just got slashed through the removal of catch-ups. Nothing has been added in to try and balance these losses except slightly better discounts if we buy extra coins.
And yes, the total lack of communication was terrible, obviously.
As someone that had his membership for... 7 years now I think? Going on 8?... I'm not mad but I am very disappointed.
