I have seen this in the many webtoon/web novel platforms where the materials are broken down into chapters with the introductory parts given as free for a platform member and the remaining chapters will be paywalled upon release. This type of model is being proposed at my creative/fiction work which I am at crossroads. Someone at Sales who are also a fan of webtoons also saw the rising income of platforms that host webtoons and/or webnovels. As a reader, I don’t like this and this perspective gives me the path to piracy. As a creator, I see this as an opportunity to retain the audience’s attention and increment income. Colleagues and acquaintances in the writing world are split and we have debated whether we should take the plunge or not. We did have the pros and cons and if we’re judging on the financial side (which many of us do need at this time), many would rather lean to the subscription model. However, some still lean towards a one-time payment for a complete copy. If you were to decide, would you go for a subscription model? What would be your reasons for that? If you have an audience, what do you think their response will be? I included a poll for those who want to participate but not by replying. More context: - We publish in English so there are no issues about illegal translation. But we do acknowledge (by way of NUF) that piracy can still happen. Hopefully, we don't get pirated coz that will suck. - I do have experience in a sort of subscription context because I did some module writing in the past. However, there is now a financial element and of course, the material has to be tweaked to make sure readers will tune to the next release. If we go by the subs model, we will have to rework some of our existing material and propose new material under this model. - We are also sending out Google forms to our core audience if there are amendable to this. I am posting to get more opinions that we might not have covered. - More likely we might have to implement this by June
TLDR , paywall with a complete block off will lead to aggregator usage, paywall for reading ahead will lead to more people paying when they hit a good cliffhanger. I can wait patiently since i'm not paying, but force me to pay and i'll happily go elsewhere and i assume that this goes for the majority of the readers.
Why not use the same model they use in Japan? Release your content for free online up until you've got enough content for a small novel. Then go back and remaster that into a book that you sell on kindle or somewhere. Then just rinse and repeat releasing a new book when ever you get enough content and reach a logical break point in your story.
The issue is whether your view count for your novel means anything. If you don't care about/don't receive kickback for view count, I believe a subscription method is viable. I myself stay away from all paywalls; video games, novels, or otherwise.
Hmm... Frankly speaking i don't know. Classic publication rely on whether you can make your works interesting enough for readers to buy and continue the series. So if you have confidence that your works is good enough to sell you just go with it and see if it could work through the editorial process. But since you're talking about webfiction that primary audience is casual readers with lower editorial bar frankly speaking this is a new frontier. At least that's what I'm seeing.
Even if you put it free, aggregators will happen, because piracy will always happen. Now, talking from the side of the readers, paywall sucks, paying for reading ahead is palatable. Subscriptions unless you manage a big catalog will not be attractive. So in the end depends on what price you set, what currency you choose to be the pay option, and the geolocation of your audience. So that ppl at sales, hope they made a good market research, when deciding those things, and not simply imitating what they are seeing in other platforms. Anyway, good luck, with your enterprise.
Totally agreed with @elengee and few others here. Of course, as the author, paywall is required because everything needs moneh now, but the main question is, how much of view count you have per chapter. Views statistic can be a big deciding factor in this situation. If you get a huge fanbase, you probably can get away with paywall. But either your reader base is a lot or not, with paywall, new reader probably won't even consider to read at all.
I recommend the Jump/Viz business model. Subscription entails total access to its publication release per month. Sell completed books separately.