Great Novels that aren't being translated and probably never will be.

or it could be that the english readers hasnt matured yet
i think most of the readers are from countries like ph, isreal,aus/us where xianxia/wuxia is something new and novel
JY novels has only recently been sold in the US bookstores

compared to the CN readerbase where there are many critical readers.
for example, there are many sports novel that are popular too
there is a soccer novel where the mc has a system and allowed him to become do stuff like using his tongue to score and he's already top of the uefa league now lol

i also recall seeing many basketball cn novels that are really popular as well but i dont think these have been translated yet

then we also have to consider that xianxia are just much easier to translate since there are many groups at WN who are giving us edited MTL right now and earning tons of money from these

 

Yeah, being a trailblazer is also expensive. Spending $2000 to fund the translation of a unique novel only for people to read it on pirate websites.
WW model that pays authors based on their own earnings is better instead of paying per chapter regardless of whether people read the novels or not.
It's not easily scalable since your translators will easily get poached by someone offering to pay per chapter

 

The Chinese site has been around for more than 15-16 years I think (not sure) . So much time has passed, the site has grown. There are probably millions of work on qidian out of which only thousands or so have been translated. To add many of which are mtl quality. I'm not talking about lnmtl. Many novels aren't being translated due to just being ignored, translator feeling novel won't get any traction, hard to translate. Also this readership is a niche group currently.

 

I still think the best scenario is to treat translators like authors. If they get paid via sales only, the quality will increase.
Focusing on original English novels is also a good idea.
It is free to get original novels unlike translated novels

 

For Qidian novels, it's almost free to get translated novels as well, since China Literature already owns the copyrights for those novels.

Consider that they are either making 70% revenue from a translation (subtracting just the chapter flat rate to the TL and the 30% revenue to the author) or for TL's with royalties, 40% revenue from a translation (subtracting the 30% to the author & 30% to the TL).

In addition, the advantages of a translation:

Typically the novel is already a success in their original market.
Typically a large quantity of chapters are already written allowing for faster releases by TL's.
Contracted Chinese authors are locked into who can translate their novels(Webnovel).
​

Comparatively, consider that Webnovel earns 50% from contracted English novels. It might be argued that since there are more Originals being posted to WN than translated novels that Originals will bring in more money in the long term, but considering the speeds of chapter releases for Original's vs TL's even that is suspect.

As it currently stands, just comparing power stone votes for the Top 100s, originals are only receiving ~25% what a similarily placed translation receives in the Top 100. That's a pretty good indicator on popularity(and thus what's bringing in revenue).

In addition, there are a greater number of choices for Original authors(and thus more competition for Webnovel).
Authors can:

Sign a contract with Webnovel.
Patreon model along with self publishing.
Traditional publishing route.
​

Note: I mention traditional publishing because they must view Webnovel(and web-serial sites in general) as a great opportunity for them to find authors who are already relatively successful, with a proven reader base. It's much easier to consider a $50k advance on a novel when there is already a market.

 

sounds swell until you realize that if contract with WN, they own your novel and it's entire franchise.
also if your novel is somehow successful and you do not contract with them, they won't promote your novel and you'll eventually lose the bots that are voting for their favorite dbz/harry potter fanfic or sex cultivation novel

that said, i think the top spot goes to the "my neighbor, the unreasonable and angry CEO" right now