[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.
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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.
