Writer Beware

Latest Posts

Requesting Rights Reversion From Your Publisher

MAR 25, 2022February 1, 202412 COMMENTS

This is an update of a post I wrote some years ago. Since I've been getting a lot of questions lately from writers wondering how to request contract termination and rights reversion, I thought it would be useful to take another look.

There's no "right" or "official" procedure for a rights reversion request. If you do a websearch on "rights reversion request" you can find various pieces of advice from authors and others. That said, here are some common-sense suggestions for how to go about this (Obligatory disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, so what follows is not legal advice.)

First of all, if you have a competent agent, discuss the situation with your agent and ask them to approach the publisher on your behalf. Especially if you're with a larger publisher, your agent is more likely to know whom to contact, and in a better position to push for a response.

WRITER BEWARE

A New Home For the Writer Beware Blog

MAR 18, 2022March 23, 202237 COMMENTS

Welcome to the new home of the Writer Beware blog!

After many years on the Blogger platform, we have finally transitioned to WordPress, which offers much greater flexibility in terms of design, control, and ease of use.

We also have a new, easy to remember web address: writerbeware.blog.

CONTRACTS

Bad Contract Alert: Popink

MAR 11, 2022June 30, 202517 COMMENTS

Are you sick of my contract warnings about serialized fiction apps yet?

Honestly I'm not even sure who I'm aiming these posts at. They go right over the heads of many of the writers who could benefit from them (at least, judging by the emails I receive from writers who've read my warnings and still want to know why this stuff is so bad, and clueless Facebook discussions scoffing at me for being such a nitpicker), and for savvier writers, probably aren't needed. Contract geeks, maybe?

On the other hand, the relatively new serialized fiction app space is shaping up to be a major predator, with dozens of companies aggressively recruiting authors--many of whom are young, inexperienced non-native English speakers--with exaggerated promises of money and exposure, and binding them to complicated English-language contracts that are almost comical in their awfulness.

LITERARY AGENT SCAMS

Another Fake Agency Referral Scam: Harper Literary / Bantam Wings

MAR 4, 2022February 16, 20238 COMMENTS

As if the querying game weren't hard enough, writers increasingly need to watch out for fake agents/agencies.

These fakes are set up by scammers as fronts for referral schemes. The aim is to draw the writer in by offering commission-only representation--no fees! Ever!--and then refer them to a "trusted company" for some costly service they supposedly need before their book can be pitched to film producers or traditional publishers: a marketing campaign to raise their profile, a developmental edit, a "professional review", a screenplay...the list goes on.

Many such scams don't bother fleshing their fake agents out with any realistic details: they're just a name and a title on a solicitation email. Others, though, get more elaborate, with whole networks of imaginary agents complete with photos, CVs, even websites. Here's one such scheme I've written about in the past.

CONTRACTS

Bad Contract Alert: GoodNovel

FEB 18, 2022January 7, 202499 COMMENTS

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.

CONTESTS AND AWARDS

Keeping Moral Rights: A Wattpad Contest Controversy

JAN 31, 2022December 28, 20227 COMMENTS

Last week on Twitter, I was contacted by a writer with concerns about the official rules for Wattpad's Open Novella Contest 2022. Specifically, this clause:

This is incredibly writer-unfriendly. Prize winners must grant rights exclusively, perpetually, and without the option to terminate, and the contest sponsor can use those rights as it chooses, without notifying--or paying--the writer.

Additionally, and most egregiously, winners must waive their moral rights, which include the right of attribution--the right to have your work published with your name--and the right of integrity--the right to have your work published exactly as you wrote it. In other words, winners' works could be published or adapted in abridged or altered form, without their name or under someone else's name, and they'd have no right to object--if they knew about it at all.