Beware of bad author contracts

Discussion in 'Author Discussions' started by Eishun, Jan 22, 2023.

  1. Eishun

    Eishun Well-Known Member

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    I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but since authors hang out here to discuss stuff...

    Anyway, I came across this blogger who exposed some bad author contracts drawn up by big publishers such as Webnovel, so I thought I would share the links here.

    WebNovel: https://writerbeware.blog/2023/01/20/bad-contract-alert-webnovel/

    GoodNovel: https://writerbeware.blog/2022/02/18/bad-contract-alert-goodnovel/

    NovelCat: https://writerbeware.blog/2021/11/05/bad-contract-alert-novelcat/
     
  2. Digix

    Digix Owl-sama Follower

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    Yes it is good to protect yourself so many sites taking advantage of the naivety of rookie authors. It is disgusting behavior. I hope the best for those who have already been trapped in contracts with them. I think this is a very good warning about the dark side of online publishing.
     
  3. puukkiss

    puukkiss I'm Keeping My Eye On You!

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    If someone can take advantage of you, they will take advantage of you.
     
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  4. Gandire Alea

    Gandire Alea [Wicked Awesome Translator]

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    Who runs good novel?? I am wondering if it is Chinese based like the other two.
     
  5. Digix

    Digix Owl-sama Follower

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    singapore, so close enough business wise tbh.
     
  6. Xian Piete

    Xian Piete Author of many mediocre stories

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    I was offered a contract by webnovel, they basically wanted the rights to my IP in exchange for a salary. In the contract wording, they have the right to use a different a writer if you can't keep up writing at the pace their editor decides you need to write at. When I turned the contract down the views my story was getting slowed to a crawl, then when I went to post new chapters the add chapter form on the website kept having issues losing my input. Probably a coincidence, but it was enough of a problem that it made writing even more of a hassle than it needed to be.
     
  7. Eishun

    Eishun Well-Known Member

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    What I would like to know is: Is Wattpad the same as the other 3 mentioned here?

    I did some Googling but haven't really found anything bad about Wattpad, but I would like to hear from authors who have worked with that company.
     
  8. Digix

    Digix Owl-sama Follower

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    wattpad has had similar issues for contests
    https://writerbeware.blog/2022/01/31/wattpad-contest-controversy/
    I have never seen their actual contract though but I know for contests its been pretty shit
     
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  9. Tiene

    Tiene Member

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    hmm... would you suggest writing on royalroad and setting up patreon instead? or maybe the author can create a personal site where they just wait for ad revenue? (for relatively unknown/rookie writers, the downside would be the viewership/ site visits, I guess.)
     
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  10. Xian Piete

    Xian Piete Author of many mediocre stories

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    RR is pretty toxic, you need to bring enough readers with you that you can rank on one of their lists or your novel gets buried.
     
  11. UnknownSaint171

    UnknownSaint171 To Something Sounds Cooler

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    Honestly, I've forgotten about these sites even existed. Even TapRead is dead.

    How is RR toxic? All I hear is good things from that site...? I know the reviews can get pretty mean
     
  12. KylinNovels

    KylinNovels Member

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    +1
    Especially when they are powerful enough...
     
  13. Lizzieonka

    Lizzieonka Active Member

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    I actually received two emails from Webnovel. Both were from a person named Carol, but they somehow used different email addresses. I had automatically marked the first email as spam, but the second one looked really legitimate so I tried replying.

    In the second email, they said they got interested in a work I posted on AO3---which I automatically found strange. I only have 3 works there. 2 are dropped and 1 is ongoing with sporadic updates. All 3, however, are fanfics. So I wondered, Does WebNovel pay for fanfic writers now??? You're not supposed to monetize fanfic, right???

    Anyways, I replied to the second email in the spirit of trolling (because spam emailers wouldn't bother to reply, right??) and asked them which of my works caught their attention. This was their reply:

    And with that, I knew this "contract offer" was bullshit. It was very unprofessional. You're offering me a contract despite obviously not having read my work??? Even if my work was, in fact, deleted, you should still be able to name the title.

    The rest of their reply was about Webnovel's different types of contracts. I'm not actively writing anything right now, so I was never planning to sign with them, but it was still shocking how they only offered writers 50% of the profit... You're better off setting up your own Patreon or something.
     
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  14. Gandire Alea

    Gandire Alea [Wicked Awesome Translator]

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    I wonder if anyone has signed and then just plagiarized an already existing novel to them to publish with a few changes like the characters' names along with the title. Like say, Frankenstein becomes Worker Bear and his monster becomes Shelly Boop
     
  15. radical6

    radical6 Well-Known Member

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    I just wanted to say this thread was nice because some sites I knew were scummy but...

    Wow. When I was a kid I always thought Wattpad was cool, this was like 2013 or so and I saw a novel I like became an actual physical book. Hell I swear one of them I saw in stores at one point. I thought they were one of the good ones...

    My friend was interested in writing for Radish, but I couldn't find much about them online. They only accept romance novels so they have a more niche audience as well. Kakao bought them for like 400 million, but I don't know anyone who actually uses Radish... Granted, the only people I know reading romantic webnovels are reading the Korean ones and not western ones.

    I've been looking around on reddit for opinions on them but it seems pretty mixed, couldn't find anything about contracts though.