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Potential problem?
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Don't give much importance to the title. Wasn't sure what to name this -,-''
So i've been wondering this for a while. But in your website the users who started using it for more time have a greater advantage from the user that will subscribe for example next year. Since a lot more volumes will already be translated and if they want to read a series they will have to buy a lot of volumes before they can read in J-Novel. And the users that subscribed in the beginning read all those series without that much of effort. I subscribed quite recently and had already some worries if it had much volumes already translated and if i had to buy the first volume of most of the series that i was interested and only then could start reading at J-Novel, it would give me 2nd thoughts if i should subscribe or not.
Where i'm trying to go with this is... I that subscribed when most the series are still in their 1st or 2nd volumes had some worries in becoming a member. So I do think that it will be harder for newcomers to get into J-Novel as more volumes are being released.Maybe i'm just giving it too much importance, but i do consider this a potential problem. Wanted to hear your guys thoughts about this and if it can indeed be a problem in the future.
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It does seem to be a problem, especially for standard subscriptions. An easy solution, if they could work with the publishers on it, would be to have series cycle back to volume 1 and continue on occasionally, especially once they catch up to Japanese releases.
Still, it seems like they treat the prepub releases as a sort of bonus for supporters, with the main draw being Ebook seller or premium releases. I hope they comment though, as I'm curious too. I know they expressed interest in Goodreads giveaways potentially too. =)
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@Terrence Nice seeing that i'm not the only one that thinks that this could be a problem.
And if it indeed ends up being one, that could be a possible solution u.u
Hmmm... The website is being advertised as a place where you can "read the latest volumes as they are being translated!". So even though that is also treated as a sort of bonus for supporters, it's at the same time a place to read light novels as they are being translated, so it ends up being for everyone xD
That Giveaway also seems a nice idea :3 -
I have been thinking of this myself. It might be harder to gain new members a couple months from now if there are only one or two series where you can read volume 1s of.
I'm thinking of myself when I first started reading English Shonen Jump. I would have never tried it out, if not for at the time, I was able to connect the most recent volume of Hunter x Hunter with the most recent SimulPub chapter in one of the backlog issues I could buy. Then I decided I could try to continue other series that were in progress. Naruto was easy because I was almost caught up, and others like Toriko were kind of easy to get into, but some others just required previous knowledge.
But, unlike Shonen Jump, eBooks become available before the prepub expires, so you have a chance to catchup without there being a gap between what is available legally.
I think also, at the beginning of each volume there could be a "previously on" which helped me when getting into Shonen Jump.
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We're aware of this and have various strategies to keep attracting new subscribers!
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@Sam-Pinansky Thank you for answering. It's really reassuring hearing that you alreay have a way to keep it from happening :smile: I have a tendency of getting overly worried about this kind of stuff. :confounded:
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Maybe make users select the LN's they want to start reading and give them a time limit to read the previous volumes like say 1 week~1 month to read that volume before it becomes unavailable for a new subscriber? That way you still give new users a chance to catch up to what they are interested in and willing to subscribe.
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@Bryan Having a "grace period" for new subscribers is one idea, though I'm not sure the way you propse would work exactly, because it would be a "perk" that would only apply to brand new members, it's not exactly fair to older members.
One thing we do plan on doing in the future is special promotional periods for series. Like where all volumes are available for 1 week for a certain series as promotion. We might tie that in with releases of new ebooks, for example. "Catch up" periods, you might say.
The ulterior motive for these things is it gives people incentive to actually read things. If everything was available at all times, there's no "pressure" to actually read stuff and you end up with less pages read overall. Windowing the content helps with that as well.
In any case this is something I've been thinking about very hard since the very beginning, and I'm sure we will iterate and evolve over time!
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@Sam-Pinansky What about giving this to everyone who subscribes? Everyone gets every single multiple series title available to unlock for a set period of time for them to finish it before it becomes inactive. They get to choose the one they want to read and when, but once they activate the timer you cannot pause it or reset it. So they basically get the ability to choose when they do so, but only a 1 time thing for each series.
Personally I rather not feel pressured to read everything like we do right now lol. We will still be paying for the subscription regardless, so please treat us consumers with patience xD
I rather have the option of when I start a series than feel rushed by time to finish a series just because it is currently being translated.
