This is the second and last regular chapter of the week, read chapter 53 here.
So responding to comments a few days ago, I believe my novel has enough exposure because I have about 3500 readers that read it each time a chapter comes out. And I’m estimating there’s a few thousand readers who save up X amount of chapters before reading it all at once.
The main reason I don’t have any donations is because this novel is just not interesting enough compared to the slew of others out there right now. Now we come to the underlying issue, my theory being there’s not enough readers out there.
I estimate that there’s only about 10,000 worldwide readers of xianxia novels. How did I come up with this number? If you look at gravitytales.com, they’re the only ones that show how many e-mail subscribers they have (4500). Now there’s probably a bunch of people like me that didn’t subscribe but just visit daily to look, let’s double the number and round up to 10,000. Out of all the readers, probably only 2% or more donate? So only a few hundred people donate from $5 – $20 per week? If I had money to donate, I would of course donate to the novel I would like to read, BUT, if that novel already has a crap load of sponsored chapters in queue, then I will donate to the next favorite and so on and so on.
So unless the author of my novel starts improving his imagination, I’m pretty much stuck without donations. Unless all you readers start recruiting rich readers, then someday, the money may trickle down to translators of less popular novels like me! End of rant LOL. Agree or disagree, post a comment below.
omgitsaray translations 
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Novelupdates.com has 9 Heavenly Thunder Manual in its top 75 and sometimes it appears higher. I think when people read this novel they will genuinely like it. I think the novel is a strong arc away from being more popular. The train and retrain phase has been a bit long. As for donations, I believe donations should always be left to the opinion of the donators. If you open up donations and receive none, then that would be no different than it is right now. If you open up donations and receive some, then a couple thousand people get to read more of a novel that they follow. Those are just my opinions. Thank you for translating. I appreciate it.
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I’m of the opinion that the novel will be interesting very soon. For now it lack something. But i appreciate your work 😛
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I don’t really subscribe or comment on any novels I read but I honestly like this novel. It doesn’t attach me to it like CD, ATG or MGA but it is still fun to read. And I think there will be more people who come to like it and there will be donations as well. So don’t lose your spirit and keep translating. Thanks for the chapters you translated until now and the chapters you will translate in the future.
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That number of subs to a blog is horrible inqdeute to see how many people read your stuff.
Hits per a day/week is the most accurate in terms of general views. Take WuXiaWorld for example. It has over 4 million views JUST THIS MONTH, which is a average of 1 Million views a week. Their sub base? Under 10k. Yet their novels get tons of donations. Why? Cause the site basically help start Chinese Novel TL for people, add the fact Coiling Dragon was top ranked on Novel Updates for close to a year plus high ranked on manga-updates for a tie = more people to donate.
The story your translating is actually quite popular overseas, it’s honestly the lack of chapters plus knowledge this story exist as a TL.
I’m not saying you’re not TLing enough 2-3 chapters a week for free is as a TL is quite good but average. But even Coiling Dragon and WuXia world didn’t really pick up till it was half way through. I mean think about it, it had over 400 chapters for people to read. By the time they caught up people would obviously be hooked and want more.
There are a bunch of TLers now in order to compete (if that’s what they want) TL 5-6 chapters a week for free then ask for donations for the rest.
Basically… unless you get on a major site you will lack traffic. I mean I like this story 10x better then TGR, or Desolate Era, or SKYFIRE…. what can you do.
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I believe the amount of chapters released is directly related to the popularity of the novel
The more often a chapter is release, the more frequent of an exposure it gets. And if this exposure is constant, the more it stays ‘relevant’ to the minds of xianxiia readers or any readers for that matter.
Any novel can be made popular so long as its relevancy stays constant.
So what is the force behind the release of a chapter(s)?
One is personal desire. This is translator’s love for the novel he/she is translating and desire to share it with the world (or at least it’s fans). This also implies that the translator is not receiving any monetary compensation.
The other is through donations. The speed of chapter releases correlates to the amount of donations received. The more donations a translator receives the more he/she is compelled (or sometimes forced) to release a chapter per each donation goal that is reached. This is called a ‘sponsored’ chapter.
If a translator uses donations as its main reason to release a chapter, we can deduce that donations is important to the translator either because translating is his/her full or part-time job, it pays for the hours spent on translations (electricity, food, etc…), or simply for self gain. Regardless, donations acts as a fuel that directly influences the speed of translation.
Either way you look at it, both the translator and his/her readers have a synergistic relationship. Both work together the produce a chapter. Without a translator, there would be no chapter or novel to read for that matter. without donational support from its readers, the translator won’t feel inclined to release a chapter.
And just based off of personal desire to produce a chapter, I dare say this won’t last because the speed of chapter releases will be significantly slower (perhaps 1 chapter a week or so) compared to chapters released from donations received. After all, it’s all from the ‘desire’ of the translator. If he/she wishes to release a chapter then it will be done; if not, then all the readers can do is to wait.
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Boobs
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i dunno man, ive seen Peerless hit 20-30 queue like 3 times already, thats like what, minimum 800? and its only been being translated for like 4 months….i estimate he/she has gotten minimum 4,000 in donations since he/she started, which is pretty good for translating web novels imo
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Yea gets a lot of donation but i think it cause she translate “insanely” fast that’s why. I mean she even translated over 10 chapter in one weekend which is insane. I agree with one of the comment above which is the faster you translate the more exposure you’re get because the only reason i found out about PMG was because people were talking about it constantly.
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You might want to see if you can join NovelNao and have your TL posted there as well – more exposure more chances of getting those precious donations
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