Hi,
I've been on an oversea trip for the last five days (mainly to relax and escape some frustrations), but also took this time to think about my future and consider my options.
Writing is without a shred of doubt my number one passion. Nothing can come even close to challenging it. And in the most difficult periods of my existence, it has helped me stay away from a ton of fucked up shit. However, I've reached a point where how much money I have in my bank account takes precedence over the daily rush I get from writing. I must be responsible for myself, and no matter how I look at it, an ongoing investment in this work is pure lunacy.
I'm not going to discuss power stones. The majority have been coming from the same people since day 1, and I thank them deeply for it. But while power stones basically measure readers' support—or the lack thereof—I wouldn't feel hopeless if not for another much more striking data: the conversion rate.
When we first went premium, the reader-to-paying-reader conversion rate was 0.16%. I did what I could to change that, and thanks to a combination of cover changes and features, it rose to 3%. In the novel's most stable days, I could barely get over 3%. When the instability hit, I stagnated between 2.5 and 3%. This shows that the update rate isn't a significant factor for why readers don't convert into paying readers.
On the other hand, I don't have a problem getting new readers. Features and cover changes have not let me down. I simply must accept that for the vast majority of readers, the story doesn't generate enough appeal to warrant parting from their hard-earned cash. At the same time, I hope you can understand that with numbers like these, I can't justify the time and energy I spend writing this story.
I know this might look superficial to some, "If you really enjoy writing that much, why not do it for free," but as a self-reliant adult, you can't joke with your income. And across the first three months, I made $166.21 writing NVSF. Not accounting for taxes, this is barely half the cover's price. I'm not just not making money. With every hour of writing, I'm losing some.
I can't see a viable path moving forward. All solutions fail to solve the core issue, which is the conversion rate. Therefore, unless in the coming few days a life-changing event occurs, I've decided to retire as a web novel author and focus on the avenues that secure me a stable income. Apologies, but this is farewell.