$20 for a sponsor chapter = WINNER

You can buy a brand new book for 20 dollars. 1 whole volume. I dont see 20 being worth it for 1 chapter. But this is what we get for trying to obtain novels overseas that may or may not ever get shipped/tled for the west. But i agree with estalion the current xianxia novels arent worth 20 a chapter.

 

wow. Just wow.

well, sponsored chapters means that the readers will have a guarantee for their payment

I do want to do sponsored chapters to make it rewarding for the readers(Specifically donators) but I do want to release the chapters when I finish my TL.

 

I'm just speaking about things from a personal point of view. I don't think translators should change their pricing or anything.

For me, a Chinese web novel chapter (or rather, most web novel chapters in general) would not be worth 20 dollars. And I find it hard to understand why anybody would pay that much.

But seeing as there are plenty of people who seem willing to pay top dollar to feed addictions, I think the current system is great. Translators list the amount they want to translate, and people willing to meet that price or more are paying to get what they want. Everybody happy.

 

Agreed, if the readers are fine with it, let's not bother talking about the worth.

 

Sponsored chapters are in the end up to the translator and then the fans to support what they have deemed their time costs. There is no right amount of money for translators who use the sponsored chapters system. It all depends on what they value their time as and the fans and what they are willing to do. Some people may find $80 too much for a chapter of something while others may think the cost is reflective of its quality and the demand it has.
For some novels $20 could be too much because of a lack of demand for the novel itself. Or quality of translations. We deem what is a good amount by results of our donations.
$20 is a lot easier to support and get quicker results from that support but it is still dependant on demand, just not as much as say CD was with its $80 per chapter. Demand for CD was so high i believe Ren only ever had the queue be empty for 1 chapter with an $80 bar set. Other novels with half that amount set may not see half the support that CD had.
So low donation amounts won't necessarily make it easier to get money for TL'ing.
My rant which may or may not be off topic. I really can't be sure. :/

 

It would cost less to learn chinese well than to sponsor 10 chapters of translating

then u can read the authors work for free (wow)

 

i just want to point out. Its not a guarantee that the translations will happen. What you bought is more or less a promise. Its up to the tl to uphold his/her end. But you know with life, shit just hits the fan. You can go from days to weeks to months without a tled chapter and maybe the project will just poof. i still disagree with the current pricing but what can you do.

 

Legality of taking "donations" to translate chapters aside, it's definitely not something I'd participate on. Either paying for it or asking for money for services rendered. Even if I start translating (and I might; my Japanese is good enough but I hardly have the time) I seriously doubt that I'd ask for money.

Still, if the readers believe that $20/chapter is good (it might be $2/person * 10 people), then good for them. As for me, I was happy to pay $2 for a 300-page novel translated from Russian (complete with all the proper publishing procedures) and not a penny more.

 

You can't really put a price on time
Chinese is pretty difficult language to learn; say if you master primary level in 2 years then you can be considered a genius

 

well yeah, the only difference here is that in the hyperbole, you would have to feel enjoyment from having someone dig up a clump of dirt from 8 feet down, its just that you could use the same amount of money to buy something else that you can enjoy for more time (or in my case, buy it and never use it)


in the end this is all just personal choice, some people dont understand why others are willing to spend $15-20 to go to the movies when they could literally just watch it for free on the internet, or why others buy expensive cars when in the end, there is little to no difference between a sexy new benz for 100k and a used 2008 honda for <15k

 

its the whole idea of long term and short term. Long term you gain a new language and can spooge the rest of the time reading novels for free. Short term you waste more money for a few chapters and isnt worth the long run because the cost outweighs the benefits. Its up to how readers really want to do it.

 

u also spend ur time earning that money you pay to for a guy to translate it (not referring to parent credit card bandits)

 

Eh.... I thought donations are pooled? Like donate 1$ if you want then it progresses the bar. Do you have to sponsor an entire chapter?

 

I am just a leacher, 20$ or 80$ too expensive for me.
long live leachers

 

its pooled which makes it a nicer option. I just disagree with pricing to per chapter. Otherwise its pretty dandy.

 

Sure you can. Predict the amount of money you make per hour working over the next two years, and then simply project.

No difference at all. Utility is pretty much relative. I like dirt less than phone. I like web novel chapter less than game. In both cases, they cost the same.

My reply to you was just illustrating that it doesn't matter how expensive it is to hire a normal translator. It only matters how much enjoyment I get out of it, and how much enjoyment I can get from alternate sources for the same cost. Incidentally, I'm a translator too, so you don't have to say "what do you expect" like that.
amin is here
(sorry, troll friend.)

 

You obviously don't have a very good grasp of hourly wages or salaried work with timecards. What people pay money for isn't your time, it's your skillset and the work you produce.

Paying someone for putting the time and effort in to obtain a skill is ridiculous and just doesn't work. You don't see people paying me for working my ass off in school to learn a specific skillset. Rather, I'm stuck dishing out over $30,000 a year for tuition as an investment so that I can get a good job that pays well.

 

Yea a low price with good quality is indeed better. They have regular chapters though so donations are optional. Atleast the novel is not pay per chapter.

 

Never hire Bill Gates to learn Chinese by the hour. There's such a thing as opportunity cost, after all.

 

*sigh*
i guess no one read rwx's writing or even know economic's law
translating is like digging a hole, it's tiring and can be boring
the "sponsored" was a motivation of some sort so they can keep going
the pricing can be expensive, but mostly to shut the leechers demanding for more cuz hey, TL's have lyfe and works and if u want extra maybe u should spend a wee bit of money to motivate them.
And low price can break u, just look at snow, drowning in debt for tdadp

As for those trying to learn chinese from scratch, good luck. *shrug*