News Qidian's Announcement

This. I could really understand paying for physical books (which I totally intend to do for JP WNs that I've read), paying/donating to the translators for their work, paying/donating to the authors for their idea.

But for a shitty middleman who does nothing other than host the story and gets off with 30~50% of profit? Fuck no.

 

leaving all the politics of this aside.
i honestly don't mind paying to read as long as some money goes to the author/translator.
I pay for korean light novels which is like $3 for a novel(ebook)? maybe more if it's popular? or like 50cent ~10cent a chapter.
I feel like only united states doesn't have an official light novel business which oversees all the business side of things.
I guess it's nice that we can read things for free, but I feel people shouldn't get spoiled. usually these are paid content to begin with.

For example, the whole series moonlight sculptor costs 139,590원 in total. which is about $124.96. But everyone in the USA reads it for free. when I think of this, I feel guilty to the author. (I already bought an electronic copy of this)

It's like you pay rent to open a store. The building owner just has a giant space and they don't do anything, but they are perfectly justified billing people rent.

being the middleman is work too... who would want to work for free? I'm not saying one person is right or one person is wrong... i just feel things have to change sooner or later if we really want light novels to take off

 

Last time I checked building rent is a fixed price, so bad analogy.

Sure being a middleman is work, but it's not a reason to get off with at least 30% of the profit when most of the input comes from the author and the translator. Oh wait, the middleman gets to own the work too. Sounds like blatant ghost writing rather than a middleman work.

 

if coiling dragon was released as a book i'd be very very happily to buy it and other titles that i read or have read but without fan based translators doing the work to start with you wouldn't get any books from china as no one would know about them as china doesn't give a damn to what's on the other side of the great wall you could say
but the problem with webnovels is that loads just stop ( mad snail is the my fav hater for doing that and now he's pissing about with ToDG with one release a month with less and less words in each release ) or are basically crap or rip offs of other books with just renamed characters
at least on WW i can read dotate to books i liked also to other sites without feeling i'm forced to pay for the rest of the stuff i don't care about
and when i do dotate i normal would be paying more then i'd buy a book for in the uk from a real publisher
the paywall bs is shown not to work apart from a very very few sites but i don't like the way qidian is forcing it's way into a market they didn't give a damn about and treat their workers like slaves

 

that's why i started my post with leaving the politics aside........ did you really read my post..... i just said I don't mind paying to read as long as trans/author gets a cut of it. The rest people can keep debating among themselves...

 

I think someone was talking about how WW is justified when they earn money from translations without permission from authors, the reason was... what was it... "site maintenance"? Qidian provides space (to host novels online), organizes events (online & offline, writer's party, direct writer-reader interaction sessions, etc.), buys ads (to promote web literature in China), hires editors to help writers determine the direction that would gather most fans, etc. You don't honestly think they are just a blank server right?

Qidian signs contracts with authors and *buys* their work. If an author doesn't like Qidian's terms he leaves Qidian (as many have already done, including a few very established writers such as 烟雨江南 and 更俗). It's not like Qidian is pointing guns at authors head and forcing them to work.

 

I mean i don't know why you guys are 'shocked' by the fee of qidian it's how it work for everything.

 

The thing is, it doesn't work like that with everything; and WW is a great example. The middle player is not needed anymore.

 

It's kind of like being a spoiled sport when something doesn't go your way you go.. You know what.. Screw you I'm taking everything away including the stuff I gave to you before.

Unfortunately reality doesn't work like that.

Having all of the novels centrally located and big bold letters saying their business name is good for business.

I wonder if they could have compromised and been like.. You know, yeah we will have these ones licensed. The only thing we want from you is a minor site alternation of putting Qidian Novels with Qidian novels and say they are from Qidian.. Generate interest in themselves that way (hell, might he cheaper to pay for that than a court case.).

 

WuxiaWorld communicated with the authors and donated to them on multiple occasions. Translators get revenue on visits (according to what was said). It's not simply "site maintenance"

Sure, they do that stuff in China. But it has absolutely nothing to do with the translated stuff. Are they planning to take the authors across every single country that speaks English and host events there? Don't think so.

Qidian buying their work? No shit they can't use their work on another platform/media even if they don't sign the contract. It's either getting paid or getting robbed.

 

Right, and Qidian doesn't pay the authors and simply do site maintenance, very good reasoning right there.

Qidian buys the copyrights of the novels on the site from the (Chinese) authors. That includes the right the translate the work into other languages (or not, in which case the *author* holds that right). If a translator does not buy the right or obtain permission to translate said novels then s/he would be violating copyright laws.

I don't get the anger here: "No shit they can't use their work on another platform/media even if they don't sign the contract. It's either getting paid or getting robbed." I mean you are translating someone else's original work, of course by law you can't use that for your own financial benefit. It's like I can't just translate World of Warcraft and call it my game and try to earn money with it.

 

My opinion is the same. People might be forgetting but if there is no Qidian then there is no WW in the first place.

 

Looks like someone's ignorant of WIPO here and could only use "for author's sake" to Qidian's involvement. I'm outta here.

 

Wrong. If there is no Qidian then there is some other site that hosts original authors in china. If there is no WW? The chinese novels wouldn't even be known in the widspread western community.

 

It's all about copyright and money dude. Is it that hard to understand? Both sides are fighting for it specially because of money

 

let's boycott QI!!

 

*watches and eats popcorn*

 

Some authors & publishers know how to take advantage of the popularity gained from Piracy. Others block off their copyright-infringing audience, and gain infamy. Qidan has proven to be the later.

...would be very interested in knowing how the original authors feel about this "Qidian vs Wuxiaworld" conflict .

 

Well, Qidian's the site that changed the whole webnovel scene and made it into an entire industry. And even if what you said is true and someone else came along and did Qidian's work, they would most likely just be another Qidian (with a different name). Either way, without an aggregate site for originals there would be no translation site.

 

Well I don't know how they would feel in this case, but most authors are pretty pissed at people reading pirated Chinese copies of their books, especially when pirate readers claim "the books would have no popularity without them".