Yeah, no. I would still say what I’ve said earlier 
I always treated Episode as a hobby for myself. I personally don’t earn a lot, but it’s enough to cover some expenses, and I’m happy with it. That’s it.
As Jen said:
I know that some authors actually have enough payments to cover their living, but, well, they work a lot too. Writing on Episode is basically their full-time work and they treat it accordingly.
Also reads were always hard to get.
I’m not sure how aware you are of this, but readers are already pissed off that more authors are adding gem choices in general and not everyone has the benefit of loyal readers who will support them no matter what, especially when they’re newer. You and I are lucky enough that we have readers and friends who will check out what we write, but not everyone is that lucky. It takes absolutely nothing away from you to admit this new system is just ridiculous. I understand that Episode needed to bump up the gem amount spent because of more people now seeing gems in stories, but I think a better option would have been 10k gems or 20k gems, not 50k gems. I have a story that has almost 800k reads and has been on trending for the most part for the last year and trust me I don’t even have the 50k total gems needed. It’s not a guarantee.
I think it’s very obvious this is just a ploy for episode to get us to use more gem choices so more readers buy gems therefore putting more money into Episode’s pocket. Obviously they’re a business, but surely there’s a better way to go about it than this.
I can give you a nice example. Let’s imagine I have locked payments and I have only one story which I’m writing - It’s trapped 2 with 8 chapters.
Now real data:
In December Trapped had 40k, in January 55k. That means I’m near to unlock payments, I had 95k in 60 days. Now my gems from this period were 80k. It’s far more than 50% necessary to unlock payments. But yes, updates work well for gem retention.
If you don’t upload the story, your gem % will be lower, so frequent updating should make it work well. And support button won’t be enough.
However, just out of curiosity who here on any story has a reader retention of 50% with gems? I don’t think I’ve ever been up that high and at one point I was updating quite a bit.
0 voters
Bold of you to assume I wasn’t updating frequently when I got onto payments in May of last year.
You can admit the new system sucks, Alusza, even if it’s not the system you and I used to get into payments.
What type of gem choices do you have inside your story?
The one that got me into payments was mostly just added points if I remember right. This was before the system changed and adding gems became so important so I wasn’t worried about bonus scenes and the like for gems. By the time the system came into place my story was either done or almost done so I wasn’t too worried about adding in more gem choices to an already finished story that was and still continues to (by some miracle) do well.
Well, you can monitor your gem choices and how they affect the gem retention. If you have hard time to reach 50% doesn’t mean it’s impossible, as I told before - I can reach it and other people can reach it too. The choices just need to be better implemented and if everything else fails - early access is really good way to earn gems in a short term.
So it’s bold to assume it’s something impossible
I don’t think you’re understanding my point here. I’m saying for new authors in a community that already hates gems and gem choices this isn’t the smartest decision for episode to make.
I really don’t get why it’s so hard for you to admit the new system kind of sucks and is by default way harder than the previous system (for example I got into payments with the 300 gem choices and 100k reads, not idea how you got in) because admitting it sucks would take nothing away from you just like it won’t take anything away from me. At the end of the day this is a huge jump and while I completely get Episode is a business I at least can understand why some people are upset by what’s honestly a pretty intense change all things considered. I’m usually the first to point out and admit when smaller authors are being over dramatic about things, but in this case it sucks. Point blank. The end.
I get that you guys need to change ways now and then, I really do. But… 100k gem reads AND 50k gems used across all published stories in the last 60 DAYS?? That’s really difficult to reach. Specially for smaller and newer authors… I hope you will think about changing these terms or at least make the time period longer.
You see, you focus on making others admitting your point of view and I’m trying to reply for misunderstandings. I don’t argue with the statement “it sucks or not” I’m pointing the mistakes in stating facts.
Like saying “reaching 50k gems is impossible” is not true and I point it. I don’t need to express my opinion if I love something or don’t agree with it, because it’s not about me.
It’s better to tell people something isn’t that scary and it’s possible to achieve, give them advice how to do it than make people disencouraged and panic about things that aren’t even based on data.
No, making 500k reads also isn’t easier than reaching 100k (with 50% gems). People can try and check by themselves. I know from the point where I had 350k reads and still didn’t unlock it years ago.
Never said it was. There’s a reason I went for the 100k reads with 300 gem choices option. It’s because I knew that was the simpler way.
Goodness. Fine, I’m so sorry I used the term impossible. For some people it might not be but for smaller authors and newer authors I think 50k gems is a bit much to ask of them.
I think being realistic about the fact the new system kind of sucks might be just a bit more important than ignoring the multiple people on here who’ve (rightfully) expressed that the system is unfair.
I’m done for now, though. It’s currently 3am where I’m at and this is getting past the point of exhausting. Goodnight.
It’s the same for big and small authors, because first they have to reach 100k to even worry about gems that aren’t enough. I think with early release it will be quite okay to achieve, when the author updates frequently (then gems are higher). Maybe it would work better with 30k, sounds like more reasonable gem amount, that’s true.
And with 500k I just saw it two times in this thread and wanted to point it by the way, it wasn’t about you, I know you didn’t say it or supported this opinion, sorry for making it in one thread.
This is a really hard milestone to reach and maintain. I feel like Episode keeps pushing small authors to reach milestones that may seem impossible for them. Of course this update may seem discouraging for some, and some big authors will not feel bothered by it. Personally I do not agree that we should raise the criteria up so high, but if Episode thinks this is for the best, then so be it. I personally cannot see myself reaching that even though I was really close to reaching the previous one.
Guys, please do not feel discouraged by it. Sometimes it may feel like the community doesn’t have space for you in it, yes. But please do not think that this game is over. Its not! You have plenty of time to reach your writing goals on Episode.
I think that all authors should have a bigger say in this, because it really is about us, now. It affects us directly. I don’t think it’s that easy to reach all these reads, and gems selected, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
I may be biased - I have never been a big author so I have no idea what it is like for them, and how it may affect them as well. It’s hard for both, that’s for sure. The bottom line is that big authors will always have a small or bigger boost than small authors since they already have an audience ready. (The audience may not be enough, of course, and it will still be hard for big authors to maintain/reach the milestone.) But small authors are trying to gain an audience, and it can be really hard for some, which definetely does not mean it is not hard for big authors as well.
readers don’t even read stories with gem choices implemented, nevermind actually purchasing gem choices, this is close to impossible.
I guess no-one is ever getting paid anymore.
Based off of everything I have read and some of the clueless , entitled , insensitive and completely oblivious comments that have been made… It seems pretty obvious that the change in the payment program etc. is not currently and will not in the future be a realistically attainable goal for more than a handful of brand new and less known authors. I for one have not seen anything that encourages me to publish my story as an unknown author on Episode’s platform. But I wish everyone else the very best of luck at achieving their goals here.
hm… these were some pretty big changes you guys made in less than a year. starting with adding gems, four months later restricting the criteria for payments, then two months after doing so again. …everything alright? bad audit? just concerned for you guys, hope things aren’t starting to go under. I mean yeah, obviously all the aforementioned changes/restrictions are a PITA, but clearly something’s going on… - and I rather like reading/writing on this platform and would like to continue doing so in the future; so as annoying as all of these changes have been, you guys have my support
Or is it cause the CEO is being hard on ya? 50k is a plenty lot, my friend hit writer’s payments just a few weeks ago and she isn’t too happy with the new system too.
Tbh this isn’t helping small creators. We don’t wanna add gem choices bc that’s just helping episode make tons of money off their readers n reaching 100k reads in 60 days is extremely difficult, episode, ur not rlly leaving us much choice here… I don’t think this is gonna b easy on small authors at all, 50k gems? Goodness… r we gonna have to charge for readers to b able to say smth nice or…? Tbh I’d rather not trend than manipulate readers to buy gems. Bc I’d rather have 1 reader enjoy my work n provide them w an escape than lots of readers all feeling like they need to pay smth to enjoy the writing.
I honestly, hate how ur manipulating all ur authors into adding gems. Nobody likes this new system, not readers, not writers. Only episode who get to make way more money by taking it all from the young readers who’s situation u don’t know. I wish we could go back to how it was before bc all this is making me rlly uninspired 
That being said, we should write on episode bc we love it, payments aren’t rlly important to me so, I guess this shows where someone’s loyalties r. But I understand, many authors r motivated by payments so it’s gonna b difficult for them, I admit. But, I guess I’m just glad I don’t write bc of that.