Discussion Chinese Qidian author contract

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Dragonil20, May 1, 2020.

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  1. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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    Ok guys so I’ve been hearing a rumor that authors with contract to qidian wants to leave their contract, due to a policy forcing authors to complete their books within a certain timeframe or if there is not enough CCP propaganda, your book be given to another author that have the right to write your book.
    Can someone confirm/debunk this

    Sorry for my English it’s my 3rd language, still learning

    EDIT
    https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama...ese_webnovels_how_tencent_the_chinese_reddit/
    Yup it’s been confirmed
    A few days ago, Tencent, which owns one of the two major webnovel platforms (and holds 50% of shares in the other one), updated their contract for authors. Some of the changes are as follows:

    • All copyright of any given work now belongs to Tencent, until 50 years after the author's death. Tencent can do whatever the fuck they want with it without having to negotiate anything with the author.
    • Legal fees caused by copyright disputes will still be entirely paid by the author, not Tencent.
    • Tencent can release any work on the platform for free.
    • Tencent has the right to any social media accounts of the author.
    • Tencent is not obligated to provide authors with any employee benefits.
    • Upon signing the contract the author is obligated to provide an exact schedule for how and when a work will be completed. Failure to following the schedule will be seen as breaking the contract, to which Tencent can respond by not distributing benefits to the author, or requiring the author to take responsibility for losses incurred.
    Why this means fucking Tencent is about to ruin everything

    As you can see, this is basically a slave contract. It will completely re-shape the existing Internet literature landscape - authors lose all rights to everything and Tencent gets a free IP farm. Tencent can adapt your work in any way they like. If Tencent doesn't like you, they can kick you off and give your penname and social media handles to someone else. Tencent can change your work any way you want, without your permission. Tencent doesn't even need to pay you, in fact you might wind up paying Tencent. While the most famous authors will be temporarily unscathed, everyone else will probably lose any income they receive from writing.

    This all happened a few days ago, and the community is in chaos. The most commonly reposted comment is that authors have been collectively reduced to a bunch of ghostwriters. Some of the most successful authors have made long posts on social media denouncing the whole thing, while many others stayed conspicuously quiet. A very popular book "Gui Mi Zhi Zhu" (Lord of the Unknown? something like that) that updated periodically for years suddenly concluded yesterday with an ending many readers found disappointing, likely in low-key protest against the change.

    Even worse, numerous less-famous authors who are well-aware that they aren't popular enough for Tencent to feel the need to financially compensate them properly have announced they will just stop writing entirely.

    In the long term since Tencent, a profit-incentivised megacorp has complete creative control over so many works, a sharp decline in the quality of popular media available in simplified Chinese is inevitable - everything from adding lowbrow fanservice to completely altering the themes of a book will likely happen, based on Tencent's track record. It's a truly horrifying prospect for Chinese-only readers who had little high-tier pulp to consume in the first place. Someone posted: "Censorship by the socialist regime killed Internet literature, and now capitalists are here to eat its corpse," very edgy but pretty accurate in my opinion.

    While saying that this will "destroy" Internet literature in mainland China might be an overstatement right now, it's another clear step towards the medium's demise because the other webnovel platforms are likely to follow Tencent's footsteps if this implementation turns out to be profitable. I've never felt more sympathy for my friends who aren't bilingual, they'll be stuck with shittier and shittier IPs until the whole thing collapses.

    Why isn't anything being done about all this?

    Because there's little anyone can do. Tencent famously possesses "the most power legal department in China", a lawsuit will go nowhere if not bite you in the ass. Organised protests and labour unions of any form are illegal in China. Ironically enough, most of this happened on Labour Day.

    Not using the platform this happened to is an option that many are taking, but no one knows if it will be effective since only users who actually care will participate.

    Conspiracy theory time

    Archive Of Our Own, the free fanfiction platform, was banned in China around a month ago due to idol fandom squabbles (there are good posts covering it on this sub). Could Tencent have been behind that, since AO3 is non-profit and actually endorses creative freedom?

    EDIT: the relevant post on this sub about the AO3 ban is gone, RIP
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2020
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  2. ExcitableFoci

    ExcitableFoci Well-Known Member

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    Thats smart as f*ck if true.
     
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  3. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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    Is it? I feel like it’s infringing on the authors creativity
    I forgot to mention there needs also to be CCP propaganda or else your book will be given to another author
     
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  4. Scholar Occult Cauldron

    Scholar Occult Cauldron Bonk Maestro | Ascended

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    So that's the reason for the shitty continuous plot and garbage tier ending. . .
     
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  5. otaku31

    otaku31 Well-Known Member

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    The rumor seems like a propaganda against Qidian... :hmm:
     
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  6. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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    I hope it’s a rumor
     
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  7. Liyus

    Liyus Laksha's Desu~ Cat

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    sadly it's not an issue with qidian alone, but most novels websites in china.....as long it's can bring profit, anything is fine....

    but yeah, those thing are true but not strictly enforced.....it's happen only to some populars novels....
     
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  8. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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    ughh I can’t lie I’m way to invested in Qidian at this point I follow a few novels there
     
  9. Rumby

    Rumby Rumbly Tumbly

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  10. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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    But I have been hearing it’s been more frequent hence the reason why lord of the mysteries by cuttlefish that loves diving rushed his book because he wanted out of the contract
     
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  11. Darkcrow.

    Darkcrow. Foul Tarnished

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    Atleast they are not forcing them to write "China numba one"
     
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  12. Liyus

    Liyus Laksha's Desu~ Cat

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    they do...:blob_coffee:
     
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  13. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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    They do....
     
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  14. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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  15. Dragonil20

    Dragonil20 Well-Known Member

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    Apparently here are the terms
    1. First 200k words are free

    2. When you sign, they have the licensing rights to your novel so they can sell it anywhere.

    3. If you earn under $200, they do not have to pay you.

    4. If you earn over $200, they can delay any payment for up to 3 months.

    5. While under contract, if they ask you to do a book signing in China/Ph etc, then you must attend at your own expense.

    6. While contracted, they can tell you "suggestions" on how to make your story better for the readers (They tell you what to write).

    7. While contracted, they can hire someone else to write instead of you.

    8. If you can not comply with their "suggestions" they have the right to terminate your contract.

    9. If terminated, you must pay back ALL the money you've earned while under contract + any damage they foresee to charge you with.

    10. If terminated, they will try to get the copyright of your novel so they can sell it anywhere with 100% profit.

    11. All sales/ss/ad revenue will be split 50/50 with you and Webnovel.

    12. They have other charges too, so you'll really end up with about 30% of the profit, then if you've got editor/artist that you've got to pay, will become much less.

    13. All ss revenue will be for paying ss only, any free will not generate any money for you.

    14. This works in China!
     
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  16. lnv

    lnv ✪ Well-Known Hypocrite

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    I don't like many of what Qidian does, but if they force people to finish their books in a certain amount of time, that would be great. Maybe then we'd stop getting all that wordfill spam and can actually get stories finished in 500 chapters instead of 10,000 chapters.
     
  17. UnknownSaint171

    UnknownSaint171 To Something Sounds Cooler

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    I have heard that Authors in China are treated unfairly and true word slaves, even change the story to their own wishes - that explains a lot when you notice the changes to a story. I know Authors tend to write CCP propaganda to play it safe, but I never heard it was pushed or forced in webnovels, only in others media, well I guess only way to find out is asking a Chinese person how badly it is.

    I wish we knew more things about the publishers and inner workings on that side. Perhaps the English Webnovel is a child compare to those troubles? Idk. There’s too much we are ignorant about.
     
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  18. Omnicast

    Omnicast Well-Known Member

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    What’s so shocking about it? :blob_tilt:

    Shit company with shitty novels. :blob_coughblood:

    I’d rather starve than slave away for Qishit.
     
  19. UnknownSaint171

    UnknownSaint171 To Something Sounds Cooler

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    Perhaps there are other Authors with the same motives? I’ve noticed the Author Of WMW tends to cut short his novels, probably thinking along the lines of writing what he gots then leaves, to still earn revenue from it but leaving before things get bad? It’s all speculation anyways. We won’t really know what’s true till a person speaks up
     
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  20. Astaroth

    Astaroth empty

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    I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's true, though obviously I don't actually know.
    What the actual f? And people are signing this contract, why?
     
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