This is another in my series of posts about author-unfriendly contracts from serialized fiction apps and platforms. (Previous installments: EMP Entertainment and A&D Entertainment, Fizzo (formerly Fictum), and NovelCat.)
This time, GoodNovel (aka Singapore New Reading Technology PTE. Ltd.) is in my sights. Like the many similar platforms of this type, it hosts a wide range of genre content, and is aggressively recruiting writers to create long (sometimes extremely long) serialized online novels.
(UPDATE: Other serialized fiction apps in the New Reading Technology portfolio include Meganovel, Bluenovela, Filinovel, GoodShort [videos], and GoodFM [audiobooks]).
Writers can use the platform to create without signing a GoodNovel contract, or they can apply for a contract by posting at least 5,000 words and clicking a button, after which GoodNovel will evaluate whether they want to offer a contract, and if so, what kind.
A non-exclusive contract offer comes with writer benefits of a $50 “reward” (though only if the writer completes their novel and it has at least 80,000 words) plus a “profit share” aka royalties (more on that below).
For an exclusive contract, writers receive a $100 signing bonus once they’ve uploaded 30,000 words, and a completion bonus of between $150 and $400, depending on total final word count. If they manage to pump out at least 50,000 words per month (an even more grueling word count target than NovelCat’s and Fictum’s 30,000), they’re also eligible for a $150 “monthly attendance bonus”.
Other than some of the payment terms, the exclusive and non-exclusive contracts are essentially identical. They are also quite problematic.
– The grant term extends for the duration of Singapore copyright (the same as US, UK, and European copyright: the author’s lifetime plus 70 years) (see the Basic License Terms clause). That’s an absurdly excessive grant term, especially for the exclusive contract. Of course, it’s pretty unlikely that GoodNovel will still exist 70 years after their youngest writer is dead–but what this grant of rights ensures is that GoodNovel can hold onto writers’ rights for as long as it remains in business.
There is provision in the Termination clause for the writer to cancel the contract after 36 months. But the terms are onerous: the writer must buy their freedom by paying back all the money they’ve received to date, plus either triple royalties (if total income is less than $200) or royalties times 20 (if total income is more than $200). (“Licensor” in the excerpt below refers to the author.)
– The use of the term “copyright” throughout the contracts is troubling and unclear. In both the Licensed Rights Terms and Power of Attorney sections of the contracts, the writer is said to be granting exclusive or non-exclusive “copyright” or “digital copyright”. My sense is that this is not intended to be an actual transfer of copyright ownership (plus, obviously, you can’t transfer copyright non-exclusively), but it isn’t clear. This lack of clarity, which I’ve seen in other contracts from similar companies, is a concern.
– The grant of rights is really sweeping (see the Licensed Rights Terms clause). Not only does it include pretty much all subsidiary rights in the work, including film, TV and games, but any “prequel, sequel, special edition, continuation, series, or the like” that the writer may produce.
In other words, writers aren’t just signing up for one work, but for any other works related to it.
– The rights grab extends not just to related works, but, potentially, to all future work.
Taken literally, which contracts generally are, this requires the writer to submit anything they ever write to GoodNovel, forever.
– Royalties (aka the “profit share” mentioned above) are 50% of “net revenue”, which is defined as gross receipts minus a menu of expenses (operating costs, ads and promotion fees, and taxes–see the Financial Terms clause and the Schedule of Definitions section). In other words, royalties are paid on net profit, and since there’s no breakdown of what those expenses may add up to, the writer can’t actually know what they might be paid. (Net profit royalties are a problem not just because they add up to less, but because the deductions can be manipulated to ensure that the amount on which royalties are calculated is as small as possible.) Additionally, there’s a payout only if the amount due in any month is $100 or more.
– Royalties are paid only on “premium content” (content offered to users on a pay-to-read basis), designated at GoodNovel’s discretion (see the Financial Terms clause). Between the discretion, the payout threshold, and the enormous numbers of novels competing for readers’ attention, I’d guess that for many writers, the rewards and bonuses are the only money they will see.
– Like other contracts from serialized fiction platforms that I’ve seen, there are severe financial penalties for breach or default by the writer (see the Breach and Indemnify clause):
And here’s the sort of thing that GoodNovel might consider to be default (see the Licensor’s Representations and Warranties clause):
Pretty sweeping, you’ll agree.
– The contracts require the writer to grant power of attorney to GoodNovel. This is serious overkill; power of attorney is not needed to enable GoodNovel to exploit the granted rights.
– As in many contracts from serialized fiction platforms, there’s what amounts to a morals clause (ii under Licensor’s Representations and Warranties). The writer must “uphold the reputation of Licensee and shall not engage in activities that would harm Licensee and/or its interests.” That’s pretty vague, and could cover a lot of ground at GoodNovel’s discretion (see “disseminating information that is unfavorable for Licensee”, above).
If you’ve read this far, you may be wondering if it’s really so terrible that bad contract terms are being offered for mostly horribly-written online novels by amateur writers with titles like CEO Husband’s Crazy Love For His Little Wife, I’m a Model That’s Undercover As the School’s Nerd, and Entangled With the Billionaire.
Partly it’s the principle of the thing. A company can make money without being maximally greedy. For instance, does claiming rights for the whole duration of copyright really offer that much more benefit to GoodNovel than contracting them for a limited period of years? Do word count requirements really need to be so grueling in order to ensure content growth? Is it really necessary make a claim on all of writers’ future work–or, given the huge amount of content on the site, to make it so punitive for writers to terminate their contracts?
But it’s also the predatory nature of GoodNovels’–and other serialized fiction platforms’–recruitment tactics. They’re signing enormous numbers of very young people with no experience or knowledge of publishing, many of whom don’t have English as a first language, to complicated contracts whose terms are laborious to parse even for someone like me with a fair bit of contract expertise. And they’re doing it with shiny promises of rewards, income, and exposure that in many–if not most–cases won’t be realized–whether because the writer’s content won’t receive the “premium” designation necessary for royalty payments, or the writer can’t manage enough word count to receive the attendance bonus, or simply because of the huge number of other novels competing for readers’ attention–not to mention the huge number of other platforms competing for market share. Or, maybe, just because the platform decides the writer isn’t “cooperative” enough.
Of course, none of those downsides are mentioned on GoodNovel’s website or by its recruiters.
Writer Beware!
UPDATE 2/10/23: I’ve gotten hold of another non-exclusive contract from Goodnovel’s parent company, which according to its title applies not just to Goodnovel, but to Meganovel, Bluenovela, and GoodFM. You can see it here.
It’s quite a bit different from the one discussed above–but not because it’s much better. The bad:
- It extends for the life of copyright.
- It claims every possible primary and subsidiary right, as well as prequels, series, and works based on characters and other elements of the work.
- It is “irrevocable”: there is no provision for termination at all other than for breach by the platform, not even the onerous 36-month provision in the other contracts.
- As in the other contracts, there’s a 50% “revenue split”, but it’s paid on net profit and only if the work is in the premium Pay to Read program.
- Payment is made only if amounts due are $100 or more.
- The author must “formally waive and consent not to assert all moral rights”. Moral rights include the right to have your work published under your name. Outside of a work-for-hire situation, you should never agree to waive your moral rights.
The not so bad:
- If you breach the contract, the platform can stop paying you, but otherwise there are no financial penalties.
- There are no claims on future works that aren’t related to the contracted work.
Finally, as in the two contracts discussed above, the language pertaining to copyright is concerning.
“All rights, title and interest” is a phrase that usually accompanies a copyright transfer, rather than a simple grant of rights. My guess is that the intent is not a copyright transfer (among other things, a copyright transfer can’t be non-exclusive)–still, this language is troubling and unclear.
Thank you so much for this.
I was on the brink of signing my contract with them -actually, my excerpt work is in review- and I suppose they caught me at a desperate time as I’m currently displaced and unemployed.
Had I not seen this, I would’ve disregarded detrimental contract context and would’ve regretted it for the rest of my life; ‘the term’
So if this is the case, then what platforms are safe to publish on? I’m new in this publishing thing, I don’t want to make any mistakes please.
Hi, thank you for all the information. I’ve signed an exclusive contract with them some 4 years back. I remember writing few chapters in first 2 months but I stopped writing after that. My book is incomplete. Is there any way to get rid of them without severe repercussions?
If your contract is the same as the one I analyzed, there’s a limited ability for termination by the author, though it will cost you. However, I don’t know if they’d honor it for a work that wasn’t completed.
One option might be to change the title, substantially revise and rewrite the chapters you posted, and then complete it. Does that violate the contract? Honestly I’m not sure. If you made it different enough, you might be able to plausibly argue that it was a new work. Please note: this isn’t legal advice, just my own suggestion, and it’s not risk-free, since I don’t know how vigilant platforms like Goodnovel are about policing their contracts.
Thanks ma’am for this warning. I was ready to sign up for an exclusive contract and upload the first 5000 words but decided to read the rules once more. I thought I would be paid the signing bonus immediately after uploading 5000 words, only to realize that it must be 50,000! I had this gut feeling not to sign any contract until I have read what other writers have to say about the app. Unfortunately, there is no provision for writers to comment on the app, only readers.
I’m glad to have come across your blog. I wish you could recommend some ‘writer-friendly’ book apps you know for our works to be published.
Thank you.
Hi…. what app do you then recommend for writers
Writer Beware doesn’t provide recommendations. However, I will say that I’ve seen about a dozen contracts from different apps at this point, and they all have been significantly author-unfriendly. I suspect that this is the rule, rather than an exception.
This is my go-to site for weeding out the scams. Thank you, Victoria! I’m interested to hear if anyone has experience with Kiss (Crazy Maple Studio). One of their reps contacted me about writing for them (a novel of at least 300,000 words!!) I declined, and when I asked if my published novels can be uploaded to their website, the rep couldn’t tell me what the royalty payments were, and had no idea how I could find out. There’s no info on their website about payments or royalties which is always suspicious. The agent emailed me back, pushing to know what kind of ‘job’ I would like with them, and I had to politely reply that I’m not interested in anything. They then asked me if I could tell them where they could find writers who would be interested in their exclusive contract, and could I send them a list. (No, I won’t do your job for you!) I found the whole experience very unprofessional, so I expect their contracts are as bad as the others. I’ve heard a number of romance authors talking about Kiss, but can’t find any info online about their contracts or payments.
Hi, Julie,
I heard from a writer who entered a contest on the Kiss app and was offered an exclusive contract. It was bad in the way that other serialized fiction app contracts are bad: a transfer of copyright; net profit payments; substandard royalties; very restrictive non-competition clause; and an option clause that doesn’t give the author the right to refuse an offer if one is made.
The one thing I can say for it is it doesn’t have the obnoxious financial penalties for breach that many of the app contracts do. Another difference: they seem to be much more serious about print publication than other apps I’ve seen.
I haven’t written about it because it wasn’t clear whether this was a special contract just for the contest, or the general contract offered to everyone.
Please could you do a contract review of MyFavReads?
Gladly, if I can see one. If you have one please forward it to me: beware@sfwa.org
This is false. I exclusive wrote one novel for goodnovel and ended with over $2k in earnings.
Please did you take the exclusive or the non-exclusive contract.
They paid me 15 cents.
I feel bad for the writers. This company seems like is scamming everyone. Do you know how much they are charging their readers? I love the story however paying 22 coins per chapter and the chapter is 3-4 pages long is ridiculous. 500 coins is 4.99. So far I have read over 2000 chapters and have paid out between 2-300$. That is a lot of money from one reader. Writers are getting way less money from what they are taking in. Most of the writing is repetitive. The same character information is given every few chapters. It’s crazy
I wonder about Readict… It says it will pay a licensing bonus of 5k for exclusive contract but I haven’t looked into the details all that much and they’re offering $500 writer referral bonus’s if you can get a friend to submit their works too… Not sure how good of a deal it is but it sounds sweet. They say they’ll pay you $30 for the first chapter of every book you write and then 0.025 cents for each word after that… Seems low on that part but I mean it’d still add up a bit and I don’t mind writing longgg stories… Guaranteed pay sounds prettyyy good… Plus just getting to have people start reading my stories and building a fan base would be awesome
Sounds cool.
There’s another website by the same company, it’s called Mega Novel and they contacted me through discord and they gave some details about the earnings and it’s the same as this. The person who contacted me on discord had a book in the same pen name as their discord account on their website.
I wish I had found this before I signed my non-exclusive with GoodNovel, I honestly thought the site was good because I saw how bad WebNovel’s contract’s where, and I did read part of the contract before signing, but clearly I didn’t understand them well enough, and it’s now clear that was by design.
I plan to write more books after my current one, and I had no intention of offering them to GoodNovel first.
My main concern is that I was planning on self publishing the book I signed with Lulu, but now seeing this, I’m not sure I’ll be able to, so it looks like my best option is to save up some money and look into cancelling the contract if they have issues with me selling the book, because the only reason I signed the non-exclusive was because I assumed I’d have no issues with self publishing it as well.
Hi, Kye,
I’m not a lawyer, so this isn’t legal commentary or advice. But in the non-exclusive GoodNovel contracts that I’ve seen (which may not be exactly the same as the one you signed), there are two clauses pertaining to whether you can publish elsewhere.
1. From the Definitions section at the end of the contract: “Non-Exclusive Grant: If any Licensed Right is granted non-exclusively to Licensee, then Licensor may exploit and authorize exploitation of such Licensed Right in any languages including the Authorized Language(s) in the Territory at any time.”
2. Item (iv) of the Representations and Warranties section: “Licensor shall not license the Work to any other third parties’ online platform for free or earns less remuneration than New Reading [GoodNovel]”.
You are the Licensor. So the language of #1 would clearly appear to give you the right to “exploit”–publish–your GoodNovel-contracted work on other platforms. But #2 qualifies that by forbidding you to make the work available for free or if it earns less money than GoodNovel pays–which I would guess means less than the 50% of “Net Income” that GoodNovel promises in the Financial Terms section of the contract.
So–and again, this is my interpretation–you can publish the work on Lulu or even another serialized fiction platform–but only if that platform pays you more than GoodNovel does. I’d think that KDP would qualify–since authors get 60-70% of revenue depending on the book’s format–but other platforms might not. You’d have to look into their payment terms.
I got paid 1 cent by goodnovel. Literally one cent. So, I came to see if it happened to others. I book got over 1K viewers and 207 subs, so I was happy. I hadn’t updated in a while, and a couple of things I did for myself to help the book, which did, worked for me.
Webnovel is a platform that easily gains readers, but goodnovel seems like a competitive platform. It took webnovel days to get readers, most likely due to the prayers of my family, but goodnovel took so long. Webnovel gets readers based on updates, meaning mine come back.
Goodnovel does, too, but it is such a slow accumulation. I was worried they weren’t advertising me.
Girl thank you. Am off to KDP
I currently write for goodnovel and I would like to play devil’s advocate for a moment. I have found them to be very supportive and although all of the points about the contract are very valid, I think they are also subjective. I write for pleasure and if I can earn some extra money in the process then that’s a bonus. I have a great editor who always replies to my emails within a couple of days, she works with me to get my story promoted and advises me on what the readers of my genre are looking for. I can choose whether or not to adapt my work to appeal to a larger audience. I signed an exclusive contract and in the first 3 weeks made $105 ($100 of which was signing bonus) 2nd month $135, 3rd month $350 and this month so far $520.
The targets to get additional bonuses are high, but if you already have a lot of your story written you can schedule uploads to hit those targets.
As an author you can leave notes for your readers and they can leave comments on individual chapters, which allows you to build a rapport with your audience.
It’s not for everyone and I can only speak for myself, but I honestly believe they can be a good fit for some people.
What’s your name on Facebook, I will like to know your editor if you don’t mind.
Thank you for representing the writers on Goodnovel that write for pleasure
I was about signing a contract… I just said let me do a background check on this so called contract… am very glad I read this…. thank you so much sir….. but please can you make a post for us highlighting the good paying writing apps….. and does wattpad pay their author ?
Big help. I just received my non-exclusive contract, and i don’t have any idea about about the contract and i don’t get it too. Thank god i read this.
I’ve signed a book on goodnovel actually, ( non – exclusive contract) and I completed all the requirements.I was just waiting for my payment..It has crossed $100 and that was another requirement for me to withdraw my pay but there’s literally no option how to withdraw and I sent countless e-mail to my editor yet she didn’t say anything in detail..All she said was wait for next pay date.. It’s been more than a month yet nothing and I’ve started to lose hope.It feels like I’ve been scammed but I’ve seen many writers on goodnovel getting their payment but I just don’t understand why is it me who is having trouble? My book seems to do well on the app as well but I’m disheartened at the damn fact..I am not able to withdraw my pay.. If you know anything about it then let me know
When you applied for the contract, you were supposed to input your mode of payment. If you didn’t do that, then it’s likely you’ll be unable to withdraw. But if you did, then your editor has some serious problems
Hello,
I’m currently writing for GoodNovel on a non exclusive contract. I’m wondering, what is the total number of words I need to release before I get paid?
Have you tried to send an email to contact@goodnovel.com with your user id?
I read your write up and all the comments. My question is, where then can one publish his books to make something out of it? It is very sad that you would spend time and energy with the gift God gave you and not make anything out of it. Please advise me on what to do because I have some manuscripts I for publication.
Matthew Onojaife,
There are many excellent small presses where you can submit your manuscripts for publication–or you can consider self-publishing, which is a lot of work but can be a good fit depending on your needs and goals. On the Writer Beware website, there are detailed discussions of both small publishers and self-publishing that should help you research appropriate options–as well as alert you to some of the warning signs of bad actors.
Can Writer Beware just start a not crappy writers platform? Thanks. Lol.
I wish we had the person-power to do more, but we’re a small volunteer group and it’s a stretch just doing what we do.
Beyond that…the Writer Beware website (as distinct from this blog) is an educational resource to help writers protect themselves by learning about the signs of a scam as well as what good business practice is, and how that contrasts with predatory behavior. The more you know about how things should work, the more easily you’ll be able to recognize bad actors when you encounter them. The WB website has extensive resources on literary agents, small presses, self-publishing, and more.
Also, literary agents and publishers have widely different interests and focuses. The best agent or publisher for one writer might be the worst agent or publisher for another. For example, if you’ve written an epic fantasy novel, you don’t want to query an agent or submit to a publisher who is mostly interested in non-fiction. That’s why “best” lists are suspect: all of the people on them may be excellent, but none of them are necessarily excellent for you.
Please check site http://www.myfavreads.com.
They are creating an online reading platform while collecting feedback from authors. I am part of the group of authors that’s getting early access to features in exchange for feedback.
In the draft versions of exclusive contracts, the copyright is set to the duration of 5 years after novel is completed (with the possibility of extending it if both parties agree). Also, there is no grab of any works other than the one the contract is signed for.
It definitely looks like a great thing in the making.
You can contact them, subscribe for updates, and follow their social media.
RedSonia, would you share the contract with me? Thank you. My email is beware@sfwa.org.
Thank you for this! I was contacted and the person was impossible to work with just in email correspondence. Of course publication details were not available until I sent the book link.
Here is an insert of email contact:
“Hello- firstly, let me teach you a few things.”
1- Link to your book is asked so I can RECOGNIZE who you are. There are a thousand books on webnovel with the title Alpha and Omega. I can’t recognize you among the crowd unless you give me a direct link to YOUR book.
2- Your book link is a Publicly Available thing. It’s not a secret that you have to hide because even your readers can click on ‘share’ button and get the link to your book. So if I were to steal your book from your book link- I wouldn’t be asking you to email me. ”
I found this questionable, even though your book link is publicly known. I had been concerned that emailing this link, provided an informal right for them to possibly poach my story. Probably just being paranoid.
I had to email declined twice. This person was extremely unprofessional.
The Copyright information has been most helpful! Thank you for all this knowledge. I have only currently been writing fanfiction but should I write a totally original story, I should imagine they could lay claim that story too.
Thank you very much for these breakdowns. It gives me a place to send my writer friends when they tell me that “an editor” said their book was great and offered a contract.
And I’m seeing a LOT of new Chinese writing apps that have the same lifetime, irrevocable copyright clauses. (Magfic is another one) They really pop up like bad weeds after a rain, don’t they? Lol…
Thanks for the warning again! I have the Goodnovel contract sitting in my mailbox for about a week now. I started reading it and had the red flags waving, especially that part you mentioned about having to give them all my future books first. I figured that part might not be too bad, it’s a bit odd but they just said “first” not that Goodnovel had to be the only one, but that in conjunction with some of the other problems…yeah, I will avoid them.
But are there any GOOD novel app sites? What about Moonquill? Have you reviewed that site yet. They seem kind of par the course of these other sites but I found a video of them ripping apart webnovel’s contract and they insist their contract is better. I have a few chapters of my story on the site and it’s doing okay, so far, but I’m confused as to how you monetize your books on that site.
Anyway, thanks so much for the warning. No Goodnovel for me!
I’ve reviewed a handful of serial reading/writing app contracts on this blog, including Goodnovel, Novelcat, Fizzo, Popink, A&D Entertainment, and EMP Entertainment. I’ve also seen contracts from OWO Novel, Stary, and NovelStar aka Nova. They are all terrible. While they aren’t identical, they do resemble one another in terms of excessive rights grabs, excessive contract lengths, grueling word counts, stingy payments, and potentially serious financial penalties if the writer commits a breach or otherwise displeases the company. So though I haven’t seen a Moonquill contract, I suspect it’s also problematic.
Thanks for the reply. It’s disheartening but there’s other means of online writing, I guess.
This is really good information on the company and the app. I’ve recently started writing a book on wattpad called Fated Moon and was contacted by a recruiter from goodnovels wanting to publish my book on their app but I was skeptical about allowing them anywhere near my book.
Unfortunately, I already signed a non-exclusive contract with them. And even published some chapters but didn’t earn a penny. Recently, I requested them to terminate and contract and they agreed. They sent me a termination agreement where I have to sign. I’m somehow scared now. The date mentioned in the contract is wrong. There’s also written something like, “Licensor agrees {{0}} to licensee….”. What does this mean? They also have my adress and maybe my legal ID. Will they cause some problems with them? What if I just continue writing with them?
If you’d like to email me the termination agreement, I’ll take a look and let you know what I think. beware@sfwa.org
Have your book passed 36 months? There’s a statement that written one have to pay back if after 36 months and less than $200. Mine is neither so I asked for termination already. If your situation is like mine, did you paid anything back? Tq
Could you end the contract? I recently signed it but i feel like ending it already after reading all these comments,i don’t even have a month signed and i hope there’s no issue.
If you’ve read my post, you’ll know that the options for termination by the author are extremely limited. My suggestion would be to contact your editor, or whoever you’re dealing with at the company, say you’ve changed your mind, and ask to be released. They may say yes. If they say no, you’ll have to wait out the 36 months (assuming your contract includes the 36-month provision).
Did you manage to end the contract? I signed a non exclusive contract too, but after reading all these comments i feel like ending it as well.
Could you end the contract? I have a recent contract with them as well and after all these comments i feel like cancelling it as well.
In this same book, which I am considering publishing with GoodNovel, I used song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter, each song resonated (in my opinion) with the story being told in the particular chapter.
GoodNovel has asked me to remove all the song lyrics, understandably, what with all the copyright infringements and lawsuits etc….
Would it be legal/ethical for me to remove all the written lyrics and replace them with YouTube links directing to a playlist created on YouTube with all the relevant songs from the various chapters and have a few lines above said links explaining the purpose of the link and the songs?
YouTube playlists are likely copyright violations as well.
I’m just reading. I have no intention of writing, but I’m getting scammed too. The writing isn’t very good at all but I love the story. Should I just get off the app and read a real book? I’m frustrated!
Thank you Victoria, greatly appreciated!
Thank you for this post, it is very interesting what companies get away with… My question is this… Does all future works include blog posts etc… I am in communications with GoodNovel about signing a contract for a once off book I wrote some years back. There will be no sequel. But, I have a whole bunch of stories I have written for the purpose of blogging, if I sign a contract for the book, will I have to give them the rights to my blog as well? Or can I legally have the blog under a pseudonym?
As noted in my post, the literal wording of clause (vi) (under Licensor’s Representations and Warranties) requires that any future work has to be submitted to GoodNovel first.
I think that what they want here is just first grab at any future novels (which is bad enough)–I frankly doubt that the intent is to lay claim to all of your future writings. But since “any future work” is not defined, the literal meaning of this clause can be read as requiring exactly that. So while you probably could blog or create articles and stories without GoodNovel laying any claim to them, the ambiguity of the language in this clause is a concern: because you could never be 100% sure. I think it would be a minor uncertainty. But not a non-existent one.
IMO, this is one of the lesser reasons to run like hell away from these contracts.
I’m not a creative writer. I’m a software developer. The only thing I write is programming code and the only stories I create are user stories. A user story is an industry term that is the unit of work for creating a new feature or fixing a bug. It’s basically guidelines on what the program is supposed to do.
Anyway, kudos to you for alerting aspiring writers to these bastards. I just wish this post were higher up on the Google search results. At least they’re on the first page.
I notice that they just say you have to write a certain number of “words”. I wonder if that means they have to be structured in any sort of order. Or if I could just write a program that spits 50,000 random words out onto a text file that I upload.
Assuming that’s a real question…you could do that, but they reserve the right to terminate or penalize authors who produce what they deem to be work of low quality (a low bar, judging by much of the content on Popink’s site). From what I’m hearing from writers, the “editors” do keep an eye on things. So while you might get away with it for a while, eventually they would probably figure it out
I have also recently been contacted by them and I was just doing a background check on them .This information is enlightening , thank you so much .
So which app is ideal to publish ?
Michael,
So far, nearly all of the contracts I’ve seen from serial reading/writing apps have been terrible–and they are all terrible in similar ways, so though I’ve seen only a fraction of the contracts out there, I suspect that bad contracts are a feature of this publishing niche.
Victoria Straus and Writer Beware are wonderful by helping writers navigate this publisher and others who would take advantage of creative people.
I was actually contacted by these guys a while back. Something about it just lit up my warning lights and I decided against it. Their pitch just didn’t seem worth all the work they expected from me. I’ll stick with my indie publisher and my own website.
When something seems too good to be true or if the company pitching seems like they want your soul – run the other way. No matter how desperate you are for attention or to be published it’s not worth what it will cost you in the end.
Keep up the good work warning people,
So do you post your novel on your website?
I'm having a hard time actually :(( my book received a very little attention. I've been writing for months, but still didn't have any income, not even a dollar. Yall I wish I uploaded it on ao3 and ask for kofi ��
Those affiliates, geez.. I also kind of confused with the contract. But at that time, I was desperate, trying to find a 'job'and so I signed it.
As those affiliates promote on twitter, they say non exclusive story can be published on other platforms too (they made it sound like you'll definitely get rich by doing it lol), but I noticed later how GN wants the writers to prioritize their future stories to them. I thought it only applies to sequel and prequel. Damn it.
OH, but there's a lot of authors who write on many apps at the same time?? I'm confused as hell. I hope it won't bring me any trouble later bcs I'm trying to find another novel platform.
You can post on other platform as long as you haven’t signed an exclusive contract. The copyright of that book belongs to you so there won’t be any problems regarding that.
That’s not always true. Some non-exclusive contracts seriously limit where else you can post. He sure to carefully check your contract before you cross-post.
Wow! This is extreme.
So, this means that if I sign an exclusive contract with them, technically I’ll be signing any other works of mine to them and it doesn’t have to be the prequel or sequel of the one I initially signed?
Based on the contract I saw, not any other works at all–rather, any other works related to the signed work. But your contract may differ from the one I saw, so don’t take this as gospel. I’ll be glad to take a look and give you a non-legal (I’m not a lawyer) opinion: beware@sfwa.org
Incredible what they take, and how little they give. Scary. Thank you for the heads up. 🙂
Brilliant work, Victoria.
What a minefield of jargon to navigate.
I hope every budding and experienced writer reads this!
I do not know what would happen if you stopped this valiant and gruelling detective work!
Wishing you every success forever. You are my heroine/hero.
Marie
Does the non exclusive contract also include the first rights clause or is it only part of the exclusive contract?
Thank you for the warning! They've contacted me several times about uploading my books to their platform. Because I'm so busy right now, I hadn't bothered to consider the company. Now I'm not going to bother.