[IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025
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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.
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@Zarabada-0h92w38 said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
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.
Ultimately I believe any clarification they post would be that you need to email them if you want to refund your remaining annual subscription or downgrade to a lower tier if they're allowing people to do it (which I believe they are, they processed refunds on credits when they switched to coins back when that occurred). From what I understand those mechanisms are entirely manual on their end, so it's unlikely that there will be a non-emailing solution or it would have rolled out with the new updates.
But you are correct, even if you sent an email today, it likely would not be dealt with until sometime on Monday.
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@Soapturtle you aren’t the only one and that’s extra annoying for me due to that’s how I have got exposure to many series I would have never read before. I didn’t know there was a YouTube channel, considering income here to READ and not watch videos lol.
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@Jyuichi me too. The price increase isn’t the issue for me but the lack of notice and disappearing of monthly catchups I guess I’ll try another tier that lets me read whatever but a banner notice on the website or a pop up in the app would have been helpful. This reads like a lack of staff issue and the poor stack admin had everything dropped on him.
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@TheWickerMan It is probably is legal. The discount applies to future purchases. J-Novel Club is not retroactively going into your saved coins and removing 5% of the balance if you are a premium member who purchased at a 15% discount before the October 3rd date, but decided to remain at the current tier and now only has a 10% discount. Also, if you go into their terms of service, they have clauses saying they can make modifications to them. If you use Wayback Machine, you will see those clauses have been in their TOS since the beginning.
They have also given notice. They have sent out emails, held a stream, even posted on their website. I personally saw the stream and got the email before the October 3rd date.
The only argument you could make would be that J-Novel Club did not require active acceptance after altering the terms and conditions. Normally, if you have a software program, you get a popup stating that by you continuing to use the software and/or clicking OK on the notice box that you accept the new terms and conditions. If you refuse the new terms and conditions, you usually have to stop using the software. The same applies with credit cards, if you don't agree to the new terms and conditions you are usually barred from using their service.
@Serah Also, like with credit cards the points (or "miles") are constantly devalued so that you always need more to obtain the needed travel reward. It is a positive mark for J-Novel that they held out this long on devaluing the J-Novel coin by raising their prices on the eBooks. Also real currency constantly loses value to inflation, so long period of not raising prices here when the ebooks were more expensive elsewhere is admirable.
The only recourse I can think of would be for an old tier premium customer to email the staff and argue that since their contract of membership said 15% discount on coin purchases, was entered into contract with J-Novel before October 3rd, and there was no requirement of active acceptance of the new terms and service on their site before use, they would be able to argue that they keep their 15% discount until their membership renewal date.
It would be up to J-Novel staff if they would accept that reasoning and restore 15% discount. However they would be able to counter it, specifically: If you had already changed membership tiers, purchased any additional coins on or after October 3rd, or had a membership renewal on or after October 3rd then you would have already agreed to the new terms and conditions.
I personally just upgraded to Premium Readers Club Membership to maintain my 15% discount and get access to the catch up replacement service because the amount of time I would have to devote to claw back that additional 5% discount on the coins is worth way more than the $20 I would have saved on the old tier. ($60 vs $40 savings when buying the maximum number of coins in a transaction). Catch ups are not mentioned in their terms of service nor was specific to the premium membership tier only. So there would be no way to "bring it back" for the old premium membership tier.
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Im not particularly fond of the credit I earned from last months premium subscription being not enough to buy a book this month. And finding out about it after the price change went through. No before price change get it while you can event, which would of softened it all.
The actual price change I do not mind. Just that month not equalling a book credit despite that being its purpose.
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@morbelek said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
They have also given notice. They have sent out emails, held a stream, even posted on their website. I personally saw the stream and got the email before the October 3rd date.
The problem is that they only sent the email to newsletter subscribers. The video was only posted on YouTube and may not have been pushed to users unless they were YouTube followers. So they haven't given notice to all users per se. The post on the website was placed yesterday, after the implementation...
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@morbelek Thanks for the detailed response. I figured it would be more or less something like that. Although I disagree with you on the subject of notice - I certainly did not receive any from J-Novel until after they had already changed my ongoing membership and plenty of others have said the same. And I still today haven't received a single email from them on the subject. But that likely is irrelevant to any legalities based on your other points.
I'm just going to stop buying any coins for the remainder of my subscription as I feel I've been cheated out of the 15% discount I signed up for. I'm not under any illusions J-Novel will lose any sleep over that, but I'd probably have bought 30-40 books over that time, so it's still a chunk of money they've thrown away over not treating members fairly.
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As a premium subscriber this is a breach of trust.
I was holding twelve months worth of coins which means I could have bought twelve books if I was warned before this change. Now that the value of coins has decreased, I can only buy ten.
I wouldn't have minded increasing my monthly subscription, I understand why prices for every service are increasing, but with what you just did I have lost my trust in you.
This thing wouldn't have been possible with the old premium credits system that was replaced by coins three years ago.
Since the catchups are also gone I don't have any use to keep my subscription active.
I have hence canceled my subscription.
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Adding my voice to those unhappy with the implementation of this change. If I had received any notice, as a user who visits the website multiple times per day and checks my email compulsively, I would have thought nothing of the price increase and would likely have upgraded my subscription without a second thought.
Instead, the announcement on the website went up AFTER the change had gone through, and I still have not received any notice via email. I don't spend much time on youtube and similar sites because, unsurprisingly, I prefer READING my news. The idea that the website itself wasn't the first and highest priority venue for this announcement is ludicrous. The coins I have been sitting on have decreased in value, and the 38 (I counted after reading this announcement) books I was intending to purchase around the holidays are more expensive. I would have absolutely made different decisions with even 24 hours notice.
I have not yet decided whether to renew my subscription in February or not, but prior to this it wasn't even a question that I was going to continue, and now it very much is. I will likely only purchase half of the books I was intending to this winter as well.
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With my reading habits, I'm not particularly affected by the change to club membership. I enjoyed the occasional Catch-Up series, but I've been here long enough that most of the time I had already tried all the series on offer. I will miss that short moment of hope each month that there will be a gem in there, but the randomness of it meant that it always felt like a bonus when something good popped up.
The reader's tier looks completely worthless to me, though it might be good for someone new to LNs. At most, I would buy a month's subscription to it, read the handful of decent series in there, then cancel. If it was a ~1$ add-on to the club membership, it might be worth it, but it's not worth a 60% increase. Put another way, the 0.50$ discount to have both is insultingly low.
And finally, the way this has been handled makes me exceedingly happy I never got around to upgrading to premium, and has ensured I never will. Screwing over your biggest supporters with no warning is a bad look. I still get enough value to continue my club membership, but this whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth and I'm going to be reminded about it every month when I wonder what's on Catch-Up.
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I'm in the unfortunate boat of having renewed my year's subscription just in September, and not getting what I paid for only a month later. I must admit, the monthly catchup is 80% of what I pay for, followed by 20% weekly update reading on a couple novels I'm invested in.
The lack of communication here really is horrible. Having opted out of the newsletter, I still feel like if they were going to alter the terms of the subscription service, they should have sent a special communication just to cover their legal bases. To have nothing, not even a banner on the website, is really unforgivable.
The other piece is how the catchup feature has morphed into a library feature. This to me is not a replacement. I see the argument for not making things time-bound, but it doesn't tie into the non-reader subscriptions as well, given that the only reading benefit these subscriptions offer is the prepub release access. The library doesn't let you catch up to current at all - it's just select volumes.
It's hard not to be bent out of shape here. I still believe in the work that JNC does and I believe in supporting translators and editors, but this was such a carpet pull that I'm starting to feel regret in spending money on a subscription. I feel taken advantage of. The current legacy model is nothing without the monthly catchup feature. I could have easily taken the hit to the discount in coin purchases - indeed, I might not have even noticed.
I really feel like they should bring back the monthly catchups for the next year just for the legacy subscription holders, and not allow legacy renewals. That seems like the most fair way to transition. The chosen model really sucks, and like many others here, I feel like my trust has been betrayed.
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I'm going to miss catchup. The way they usually put LNs adapted to anime on it when said anime were airing was a convenient way to catch up (see what I did there?) on series with enough traction to see an adaption in the first place.
In that sense the reader library is much worse since partial availability doesn't allow actually getting fully caught up on a series. I've also already read a number of the complete series included in it, reducing its value for me.
With 51 series being in the full availability category, that would be the rough number of catchup series if we only had 4.25 series a month, and catchup was usually 5-6 IIRC, so currently it's also numerically weaker than catchup. This might change over time, but I'm not exactly sitting around watching glacier racing here.
I'm also in the camp that the communication from J-Novel regarding the changes failed to reach me and I'm fairly unimpressed about it.
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Found many of the series I love through the monthly catchups. There has been over a year since there appeared something new that I liked and hadn't known about. I will miss the catchups but oh well. In a few decades nothing will matter to me anyway so why getting worked up.
In the meantime, this made me rethink my premium subscription - I don't have enough time for the new things in my life so there's vanishingly small chance I'll return to read anything again. I rarely ever buy the books, opting to sit on a pile of coins that will probably remain unused. But in line with the tone of the changes, that people should be paying fairly for what they get, I downgraded to regular membership.
