As authors new to e-fiction, many have questions about the payout scheme and contracts. Here, I will be comparing the exclusive contract for two of the biggest e-fiction platforms: Webnovel vs Goodnovel. Buckle up because this is going to be a ride.
Check out the full details for Webnovel MGS 2023 here.
Check out the full details for Goodnovel MAB 2023 here.
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I have provided the links for both sites above for you comparison. The people who watch my live streams on Youtube will know that I'm not the best in Math so I'm afraid I can't help you in that department.
However, what I can help you with is comparing the pros and cons of each website after signing an exclusive contract with them. Also, as a bonus, I will do a short comparison for non-exclusive contracts at the end. Stay tuned!
#1: Book Visibility
Webnovel
Newly contracted works will often receive a scheduled slot for features from Webnovel, subject to the decision of the marketing team. Nobody truly knows when it will be their turn, where it will be or how long the feature will last for. However, it is often said that features will bring in many new collections overnight, from twenty to two hundred, if not more.
In terms of visibility, Webnovel is friendlier to more marketable books. You're in luck if your exclusively contracted work matches their targeted reader pool. However, Webnovel isn't very choosey to who they hand their exclusive contracts. As a writer, you should decide if you're writing for money or experience before jumping into an exclusive contract. Webnovel doesn't require a book to be contracted for readers to find it in the app, unlike Goodnovel.
Goodnovel
It is slightly harder to get an exclusive contract from Goodnovel compared to Webnovel. However, if you manage to snag yourself a contract, here is what you should know about your book's visibility. Firstly, it will be found on the app, where most readers will be. Secondly, if you have an existing reader base there, upon reaching 10,000 published words, the platform will push your newest contracted work to those readers. At 30,000 published words after signing, the platform automatically promotes your book under the signing bonus scheme. Next, you can ask for a feature at 50,000 words on top of the regular features that the platform arranges for you. It's guaranteed that every book will have a feature chance.
Goodnovel is open to negotiating in-app promoting activities for authors who show consistency in uploads and have sufficient word counts.
I took that from the Goodnovel backend platform, so it is only accurate from the date this blog was published. There may be changes in the future, but this is what I can offer you for now in terms of weighing your options for visibility and marketing transparency.
#2: Earning Stability
When authoring, the synonymous word for that in our bank statements is "broke".
The truth is, not all of us earn more than a regular wage at a boring office job. It doesn't matter if the royalty is 5% or 50%, it still adds up to 0% if nobody bothers paying for our work. I mean, why pay the author when you can read for free from the thousands of pirate sites, right? Besides, it isn't as if there was only one book in the world.
Hence, this is the appeal of e-fiction platforms and the exclusive contracts they offer. Not only does it provide the broke-ass author with some form of financial compensation and stability, it encourages us to continue writing without worrying about having money to buy coffee (although it won't be enough to pay rent).
Webnovel
MGS (Minimum Guarantee System) is unique to Webnovel where writers can choose to participate in their program for the first four months. However, there are criteria.
The catch is that for Webnovel to take care of you, you have to first take care of yourself by earning a minimum of USD60. It lasts for 4 months after you begin. More information can be found here.
Goodnovel
MAB (Monthly Attendance Bonus) is Goodnovel's version of the MGS from Webnovel. However, it is very different from Webnovel in terms of how it works. Yes, the payouts will be less attractive than Webnovel but the way it works differs.
As you can see, unlike Webnovel, there is no stipulated end date for MAB. The writer will be qualified for as long as it is applicable every month until the book ends. At the same time, there is no earning benchmark for the first three months. You will be given the MAB after completing the word count requirement, and the earning requirement for future MAB only begins after those three honeymoon months.
This gives new authors time to build up the word count and reader base. With a better audience pool, writers should be able to easily hit the humble amount of USD20 within a month to qualify for MAB. In my opinion, Goodnovel might have a lower upfront payout monthly but it more stable earnings for authors who are just starting out.
#3: Financial Bonus
Surely that can't be all the money we're getting for a book, right? Of course not! Although the bonus scheme is not for everyone, the e-fiction world is very competitive. Both Goodnovel and Webnovel like to reward their talents in hopes of retaining them on their platforms as exclusive authors. I mean, you wouldn't want your best-seller author defecting from your platform to publish elsewhere, right?
Here are the methods Goodnovel and Webnovel use to retain their top authors. Don't worry, there are new author rewards as well. Not all the bonus schemes are included here but this is a general idea of what you can do to qualify.
Webnovel
Win-win is available to any exclusively contracted author on webnovel. They have something called privileged tiers up to 50 chapters. You might want to read up New 2022/2023 Webnovel MGS Scheme Explained & Advice and 5 Things You Should Know Before Creating Webnovel Privilege Tiers before haunting the busy content editors.
There is no limit to Win-Win, and all exclusive authors can participate every month during the MGS and after the MGS as long as they have privileged chapters. It is only available for ongoing books that meet the word count criteria.
Goodnovel
Unlike Webnovel with their privilege win-win bonus scheme, Goodnovel offers their bonus to all writers across the board with different category payout tiers. It gets a little confusing so I'll break it down into 3 main categories for exclusive novels.
a) Signing Bonus (For all exclusive writers)
Any exclusive writer with Goodnovel is eligible for this reward after reaching the minimum word count. This is a one-time payout.
b) Completion Bonus (For all exclusive writers with different tiers)
While the Completion Bonus is available for all exclusive writers, there are different reward payouts. It will only be given to the author when the author emails their editor to mark their book as completed. It should be given within the same month as the completion, but if the date is too close to Goodnovel's cutoff for payout, the payment will only be reflected in the author's e-wallet in the following month for payout after the month ends. Again, this is a one-time payout.
c) Standing Out Bonus (Top performing writers)
This is probably the hardest bonus scheme but also the most attractive in Goodnovel for any exclusive author to receive. You have to be the best to be eligible for this bonus reward. I'm not sure about the details, but likely, it is also a one-time payout.
300k words might seem a lot in 6 months, but if you do 50k words monthly, which is coincidentally the MAB requirement, you would be able to achieve this easily. I don't really know the 300k view count, but if your book has many features and is raking up counts daily at an alarming speed, I suggest you look at uploading the 300k words with consistency. You might just be eligible for this!
Both Goodnovel and Webnovel offer additional earnings for their exclusively contracted authors, but the schemes are very different. Webnovel likes to reward authors who know how to make their work sell, while Goodnovel tends to reward authors for their efforts more. Both are great at making exclusive authors feel special, but they have different treatments. Choose wisely! Picking your first e-fiction platform is like picking your first starter Pokemon. You can always get more Pokemon later and try new platforms, but the experience as an e-fiction virgin will shape the way you see this industry for a very long time.
#4: Length of Work
They say that size doesn't matter, but I think it is a big deal for e-fiction. Knowing the length of your new work will help you better decide the platform you want to publish with exclusively. It can also help you estimate your future profitability using the schemes provided by both platforms. Of course, this is not a reason to discount studying your target market. Please read all the blogs from Level 1 and Level 2 of my free e-course if you want to jump into it.
Webnovel
You will notice that it is very common for webnovels to have over a thousand chapters. Each chapter has a minimum of 1,000 words which would make these works over 1,000,000 words long. The reason for this is that the more chapters there are, the higher the chances there are for the writer to earn better, especially if they have a loyal pool of paying readers.
However, for a new author, I would recommend you to plot and draft something along the lines of 180k to 350k for webnovel. It should span about 150 to 300 chapters for the whole book. Pace yourself. This is a good number because it would cover your 4 months of MGS and set up 50 chapters of privilege to try for win-win. At the same time, if you find your book not as marketable, you can easily wrap the series up and end it within that word count easily. That's what I did for Monarch of Solitude anyway.
Goodnovel
Generally, there is not much incentive to continue past 300k words because the maximum bonus scheme only requires for 300k words (although Godfather World is a pet project, so that's a real exception on that platform).
I'd say a good word count on Goodnovel is anywhere from 120k to 300k, as you want to maximise the completion bonus that is only available to exclusively contracted authors. The minimum is 120k, which can be easily hit because 3 months of MAB is already 150k words. If you cross 150k words, you're easily eligible for USD75 more! Even if you don't make it to the 4th month of MAB because you're not confident in earning more than USD20 in a month, you're still getting quite a bit of money.
Bonus: Non-exclusive benefits
This is my favourite part of the blog. For the people who aren't so comfortable with exclusive contracts like me, there is the non-exclusive where you get to keep your creative rights and self-publish it as a paperback so that you can print one and put it on your shelf (because nobody else would buy it realistically speaking and it feels good for the author ego).
Webnovel
50% royalty of whatever readers pay. Additional cuts in profits from non-exclusive third-party companies that tie up with Webnovel. Realistically speaking, you'd get only about 20% to 30% of the profit margin from paying readers. Marketing is not promised. You're likely not getting a payout because they need you to accumulate to USD100 or USD200 for any transfer amount to be possible.
Goodnovel
You'd get exactly 50% of the profits from paying readers because there are no third-party companies involved. The contract is easier to get. Goodnovel will place your book in their app, and you get regular promotions or feature slots like the other writers. On top of that, if you publish it first on Goodnovel and mark the book as completed, they give you USD50 for the completed book (provided it has over 120k words). Yes, you still get to publish this elsewhere and print it to place it on your bookshelf!
Need I say more? (Apart from the fact you still need to accumulate USD100 for any payou,t but you can just write and complete 2 non-exclusive works and problem solved).
In conclusion...
Call me a biased bitch, but I like Goodnovel better because they have less strict requirements with their payouts, provided you are eligible for their exclusive contract. USD60 earning in a month is tough on Webnovel, and you can't earn that money again after four months without win-win. USD20 a month sounds a lot more reasonable in Goodnovel after the third month, and if you fail to make USD20 in one month, you can always try the next month.
I'm a non-exclusive writer, so I'm obviously siding with Goodnovel on the non-exclusive contracts. It has more benefits than Webnovel offers, and there is guaranteed book visibility.
Now that you know better, what's your decision?