[IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025
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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.
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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.
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@Zarabada-0h92w38 said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
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 mean that line basically is there so people can't subscribe, buy a ton of coins on discount and then request a refund on their membership immediately. If you really want to cancel and find out if they'll refund you anything, send them an email and they'll likely be willing work something out whether you want to cancel or just downgrade due to the changes.
@Serah said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
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.
The main problem with that implementation was that they couldn't sell anything that had pricing that deviated from the norm. Back then Beatless was not available for sale on JNC's site due to it's higher price of 999 coins per volume. It would also prevent manga from being sold on their site as that's also priced higher than LNs still. It was nice that we got credit sales instead of select volume/series sales back then though.
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@wanderer_1204 said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
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/409666I am curious if this part relating to the coin % discount changing for active memberships that have already been paid for is actually legal. Just a question, not an accusation, for anyone out there more legally knowledgeable than myself. I admittedly don't have a copy of the T&Cs I signed up to, so it may well be that they never actually promised this discount to last the full term of your membership and I was simply foolish to trust the implication that that would be the case.
A more "correct" approach in my eyes would have been to leave the coin discount the same on the old tiers, but enforce that your next renewal can't take place without switching to one of the new tiers. That avoids devaluing paid-for memberships, which makes me at least feel like I've been conned, but ensures a limited time (and they've already been paid for that period remember) until everyone becomes fully switched over.
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@jpwong said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
@Zarabada-0h92w38 said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
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 mean that line basically is there so people can't subscribe, buy a ton of coins on discount and then request a refund on their membership immediately. If you really want to cancel and find out if they'll refund you anything, send them an email and they'll likely be willing work something out whether you want to cancel or just downgrade due to the changes.
I'm trying to prompt them to communicate with the many Premium members that they have left in the lurch here. As a secondary goal, I was pointing out to other premium members that they may want to hold off on cancelling until we get an answer, as the current terms say you get nothing.
I'm hoping that this is just a case of poor planning on the part of JNC (making a poorly communicated change on a Friday) and we get a reasonable proposal when they are back in work.
Emailing them directly is an option, but there is no point flooding their inboxes if they are able to offer a solution to everyone on Monday.
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I cancelled, and it just stopped the renewal. I'm still a member until my subscription expires in April.
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@admin for me as someone who really only interacts with the app, it was frustrating when catch-up just disappeared without some kind of notice on that interface screen. I had to go digging in discord to see there was an announcement. I don’t do twitter, etc, so I’m not going to see social media notices on other platforms. I am going to see it if it’s in the app that you own. That and the website were the first places this should have been.
