I actuslly tested the early acces too - I just published final chapter of my story and the reads have despite of it came up and the story jumpend up in ranks… so lot of readers did pay for it. I was afraid it will not benefit my story but obviously I was wrong.
1 Like
and someone explain how will small authors and beginners stories get noticed by readers???
1 Like
This will only turn community stories into episode originals in terms of being flooded with lazy and unnecessary gem choices 
2 Likes
The payment section has absolutely no relevance to what you are asking - unlocked or locked the principle how to gain reads/readers is still the same.
3 Likes
because you need the gems to be actualy payed by readers you have to make them so reader will be willing to do it - if you do it lazy and unnecessaty you will hadrly gain enoug gems espacialy if the ratio is 50% from may.
2 Likes
I don’t think this would be so difficult if episode stopped taking up the front page full of their own stories and hiding community stories under genres. If they also made it a point to rotate new stories and changed the way the top 100 worked, more people would be noticed, it’s always the same stories, with millions of reads, I’ve written several stories, and was happy one of them almost got to 50K reads but that was legitimately over a year or 2 of writing, either that or if episode would allow a new story thread on their front page more new authors or author’s who aren’t as well known might get a chance to get a following.
8 Likes
Reaching 300 gems isn’t hard though! Myself and many others can easily reach around 25K gems, maybe 30K at a push, in 60 days. But not 50K! That is a ridiculous amount! And I’m clearly not alone in my opinion!
We all have to hit 100K reads in 60 days, that hasn’t changed. I’m fine with that, even though it’s still hard.
But for yourself and many others, you guys only had to hit 300 gems. You didn’t have the challenge of hitting 50K gems! 50K! That’s 99% more than what you guys had to hit… and therefore you didn’t have the same issue that the rest of us are going to have.
And the way that many of us feel about this, is very valid! We have every right to be disappointed in the Episode team, for doing this.
Perhaps we’d be more understanding if the rise was fair, but for the gem requirements to go from less than 1000 gems to 50,000 gems… that is insane.
As for exhaustion, you’re preaching to the choir! 
I know all about exhaustion… it’s the unfortunate reality of being an over worked insomniac!
9 Likes
How would we find this information out?! Because I have no idea!
If you have half the gems to reads then you have a 50% gem ratio.
Example: 1000 reads and 500 gems spent.
1 Like
I am now on 30%
Maybe this would sound strange, but Episode should reward medium and small authors who upload regularly (twice a week) and have 2 complete stories. How can they do this without paying them? giving the readers the option to gain gems reading the first chapter.
This would cause many readers to start reading hidden gems and maybe they would like the first chapter and decide to read more. I was thinking of maybe just one gem, so you would have to read a lot of stories to gain a decent amount of gems, this would reward the readers too because they would have to spend a lot of time reading.
Obviously, Episode needs to check these stories, maybe they should have a form and let authors submit their stories titles. This would beneficiate the consistent and hard-working authors, it’s like a little help to improve their rankings and get them more reads. I don’t think that the writer’s program it’s a charity, but people forget that small authors do contribute to the app too, what would Episode be without them?
Some of you may say “but what’s the difference between this and a featured story”, well, you will only have the chance to gain 1 gem, you won’t have the hairstyles and clothing that these stories have, etc.
3 Likes
Some of you are really mean with small authors. Not everyone wants free money, writing a story does takes time and effort. I don’t think that Episode should pay 5000K to every author on the app, but you should stop discouring people, their hard work should be rewarded and this can happen without spending money on them (until they unlock the writer’s program)
I would love to see the app only with big authors and featured stories, how many people would be on the app? sure, trending stories get millions of reads, but many people don’t read them and you underestimate the importance of small authors.
6 Likes
To meet this criteria without proving the quality of your episodes, you can release a chapter that lasts 1 minute and doesn’t even have directing inside, just to meet the criteria of the updating twice a week. And completing the story without a plot after 3 episodes to meet criteria too. Do we really need stories as “gem farms”? Checking thousands of stories if they qualify as you propose (by the form) = hiring another team of people dedicated for that = money that need to be spent and gathered. You propose the solution that makes costs but doesn’t make a revenue.
However I’d be delighted to see gaining one gem after each chapter or at least every five.
The simplest and the most efficient way to reward people is doing it by reads criteria or gems spent inside criteria because it’s the only way to show people’s engagement right now. Other ways are complicated and wouldn’t work well, as harsh as it might feel for beginning authors.
8 Likes
The main issue with this suggestion, is that quantity doesn’t equal quality.
There are still many stories on the app, which have a distinct lack of quality to them, but may be being updated faster than others. Mostly because the time that it takes to code things such as branching, and complex scenes/minigames etc, or wait for approvals on fifteen overlays, multiple backgrounds and so on, would be drastically longer than someone with simplistic coding, or someone just shoving out episodes to keep pulling in reads. So in that case, your suggestion would be counter productive to those really striving to put in the effort, as slower updates, or not having more than one completed story, would shove them to the bottom of the pile for no reason whatsoever.
As for this, (I do hate using small/big author, but for this purpose, it’s simpler)…
I agree that small authors are important, everyone who writes for the app, is important. However, you’re failing to see the big picture that episode is a business which pulls in more of its audience and money, because of the bigger hits on its app. big authors gain more of am audience, and still have readers who are willing to spend gems on their stories. So if a handful of smaller authors feel so hard done by that they walk away from the app, it’s not going to really hit that hard.
For example, say 10 small authors who each have 100-1000 reads all decided to leave because of this… with respect in some cases, one single other author has more reads than those ten people combined. So the app would still keep moving forward regardless of these people. Clearly these stories have an audience, and with millions of app users, I don’t think that would decline, just because of a possible, small dwindle in small authors.
All in all, whilst I do think there might be a way of paying back smaller authors, without having to use money, perhaps give each author a gem when they publish a new episode for example… I can’t help but think that many people are seeing this as an opportunity to demand something in return for things you were happily doing for free recently.
When starting to write on episode, you know that there is a barrier before you can earn any money from community stories. It is an accepted method. So why does that change?
As a business, payment to every author would be an unreasonable expectation. You wouldn’t have a business with ten workers, and have a top 3 who achieve excellent sales numbers, and take in New clients, then give them a bonus along with the other seven, who’s numbers were far lower. Nor would you instantly lower the expectations to the other seven, in order to give them some kind of reward.
It’s a basic principle, to reward those who provide a stronger income to the business.
Unfortunate to many, of course, and I understand that. But the payment system can’t be made to include everyone, hence how it has increased, because the expectation before was too low to fit the new gem ranking system. Before gems were barely used in community stories. Now they are widely used, so there had to be an increase, in order for it to be a limit to keep every one from suddenly qualifying. It is still attainable with hard work just like before.
9 Likes
Reading the comments below this chat is awfully draining. 
If you are a new author and are hoping to be in the payment program within your first year, I’ll be incredibly surprised if you make it. Amazing news if you do, but if you don’t, it’s no reason to be discouraged.
Don’t write on episode in the hopes of being paid, you’ll soon lose hope and motivation fast. As @J.Miley stated previously somewhere in the chat, you don’t make loads, and if you believe you do, I can promise you’re wrong. You need to be able to get like a million reads within a month to make it big here (moneywise).
Write on episode for the enjoyment and the hobby, the payments are just a nice bonus, but it can take a good 18 months+ to unlock them. And even then, you have to be consistent and upload regularly with good and gripping content.
The sad truth is that as a new author, your first story probably won’t be perfect, and you’ll still be trying to gain a good loyal following. The payment program comes with patience.
I agree, it’s hard to get into it, but then think of how many people use the app? If it was easy Episode would be paying out so much, and you have to remember they’re a business. They’ll change rules regularly and keep up with competition. We’re fortunate that they even have a payment program at all tbh. They don’t actually have to pay anything.
The percentages and figures they use will be based on those stories/authors that bring custom and money to the app. - And no matter how much we complain, it must work otherwise they wouldn’t do what they’re doing. I mean, they have the charts, they’ll see what works and what doesn’t. This obviously works for them more than we think.
I understand author frustration, knowing we put so much hard work into our stories, not always getting the responses and reputation we desire, and then seeing other authors smashing it - It’s hugely demotivating. But you have to remember these ‘Big authors’ everyone talks about, have been around on the app for years. It’s really no wonder they’re in the payment program and have the audiences they do.
At the end of the day, episode don’t ask us to write on their app, we do that by choice.
We may not like the gem program, but if we really want to hit the payment scheme, we’ll find a way to use it and work with it.
They’re not going to change the system because we don’t like it. If it works for their business, it’s staying.
If you don’t want to add gem choices, add a support the author gem choice. You’d be surprised at how many people select them. People will still read your story as it’s free, but the gem choice is there. It’s a really easy way to build your gem reads, and then if people do support you, you’ve also gained a gem choice too. -the first one will most likely be free to the reader too!
Be realistic, write your stories with the payment program out of your mind. Just write your stories because you enjoy and you want to tell them. Be patient and in time, you’ll get there.
It’s not what everyone wants to hear, and of course we all wish it was easier, but we just need to crack on and do what we enjoy doing. Episode isn’t a job, we shouldn’t treat it like one 
14 Likes
Okay I just don’t get the whole thing that’s going on
I will DM you since this is here oftoppic.
1 Like
THIS ONE!! I’ve unfortunately seen it a lot in the comment section. They sound so snobby and arrogant. I HATE when people insult others’ work ethic, for them simply wanting things to be more sensible. You can totally disagree with whether or not the criteria are sensible or not, but don’t ever insult someone’s skills or work ethic. It’s not like they’re asking for the episode to unlock the writer’s payment for everyone.
8 Likes
My personal opinion (please reply if I got anything incorrect)
Summary
I believe the writer’s payment should stay the way it was before. Looking at comments from people who have unlocked it, apparently, you don’t make a lot of money, unless your stories do really well. So unless they’re raising how much you get paid, there is really no point in raising the reads and gems needed to qualify.
6 Likes
that’s why Episode would check the first chapter
unfortunately, since Episode decided to add gems to community stories
I understand that, so maybe they should just stick to the contest winner stories and the additional shelves that they already have (they already check them, so there’s no need for an additional team)
My idea may not be the best, but they seriously need to find a way to reward consistent and hardworking authors. Like seriously, we can’t just say “sorry for you small authors, we can’t do anything about it”
no shade, but this also applies to the writer’s payment and featured stories…
most of my favorite stories are written by big authors so I respect them, but some trending stories are cliche, boring and predictable but they have recognition anyways (sorry if this sounds rude, it’s just my opinion)
I read some stories that are updated regularly and they don’t have bad directing or anything like that. I personally used to plan all the backgrounds, overlays before coding the story, so that way I give Episode some time to approve them, it’s just a matter of adapting and organizing
This it’s just an alternative to some authors who put a lot of effort into their stories. I know many authors that update once a month and they deliver a good quality story but think about it, one of the tips to improving your ranking is to update regularly…
I understand that their main purpose it’s to gain money, that’s why I don’t agree with lowering the requirements to unlock the writer’s payment. But give the opportunity to gain 1 gem reading a chapter it’s not going to make them broke, they already give gems just for reading 4 chapters every day for 7 days.
Sadly but true. But this is like Russian roulette, a company also needs to please their customers because they can lose them if they find something better. You rely so much on big authors and that maybe can be the downfall of the app, idk, I tried to give an option because I really love this community and reading stories
I was reading stories for free until Episode forced gem options in community stories, that’s why I didn’t complain. I gave the “gem farm” option because it beneficiates the readers (they can gain gems without spending money) and the authors who work hard.
1 Like