Why Wattpad doesn't do something like Patreon for its popular authors?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Xianxia

Web novel has the ability to put Kindle ebookstore out of business one day.

I'm sorry to sound ignorant, but what exactly is a "Web novel"? Is that another name for a novel published in parts? Or is it just a novel published to the Internet first?

From looking at Wattpad, it appears to be the former, but I'd like to be sure.

Shari

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by shalym

I'm sorry to sound ignorant, but what exactly is a "Web novel"? Is that another name for a novel published in parts? Or is it just a novel published to the Internet first?

From looking at Wattpad, it appears to be the former, but I'd like to be sure.

Shari

A Web novel is a "novel" that is put on a site on the Web to be read on the web. It can be full length or it can be put up piecemeal.
Now there are varying words around the internet for books published in parts. If the main plot concluded but there is an overlying arc, that is called a serial.
Now if the book just stops at a certain point, it could be part of usually a trilogy. Think Lord of the rings or the centennial books by John Jakes. Those are usually split up due to printing costs.
There are also series set in the same world or with the same characters but those books can usually though not always be read in any order.

Lastly you have the let's publish just a bit of the story: for some reason 3 chapters is usually the max. Then a week or two later publish the next 3 chapters. Then a bit later the next three. Price usually is 99 or free for the first, then 99 for the second, then 2.99 for the rest.
Note: The common name for this practice is money-grabbers.

Now Amazon did have a program that you could buy unfinished books but you paid one price and then got the installments delivered on the date promised.

There is one last group I feel should be brought up. That is the authors that think they are copying what one person is doing and because big name made money doing this so can I. Now usually this group has not actually read anything by the author they want to mimic and are usually in a different genre. Sorry but Science Fiction and Fantasy are two different genres and different expectations. This group has probably also listened to authors that say cliffhangers work wonders, errors don't matter and so on.
The sad part is this group almost always has no clue as to why they are not selling.