• Diss

  • ORIGINAL AUTHORS: Something all of you need to know.

Anyway, this is a quote from @Alemillach (Author of Last Wish System) from a comment on this: https://www.webnovel.com/book/10678377306098705/31268052968461157/Alternate-World-Online/'Contract'

I am tired of seeing this type of information, so I obtained permission to clarify things about the contract because the information here is incorrect. Moreover, I asked, and Webnovel didn't send a contract to this author, so I don't know from where did he obtain such a fake contract.
The contracts needed to be read well because they are easy to misunderstand clarifying points.
1. Meaning of 200k free words. No premium until having published around 200k, the number didn't need to be exactly as it is possible to be a bit less or a bit more. After the 200k words, you can expect every contracted work to go premium at any moment. (the number can be different for each contract, but this is the standard one)
2.License. They can adapt it to any format (comic, movie, audiobook, e-book, etc.), but you are still the author and have a share of everything without any cost for you.
3. If you earn less than 200$, they accumulate it for next month and then pay it to you when you have more than 200$, you don't lose it, just get it later.
4. Payments from Premium are always the next month. For example, Premium from August is paid in September. Those three months are for other types of income besides the Premium.
5. In case you need to go to China they pay everything to you, I just come back today from Beijing, and they paid it all so I can ensure it, you can also ask Moloxiv who was also there. Moreover, they ask you if you can go; if you can't just say it. Of course, once you say that you will go, then you need to go, that is just being professional, but in any case, the travel is all paid by Webnovel.
6. They can make suggestions like every editorial in the world with the books they have. However, they are suggestions; you didn't need to follow them if you don't want.
7. If you break the contract and stop writing the novel, they can put someone else to continue, only in that case and it is to avoid novels being dropped before being finished.
8. Actually, no one is checking the drafts (published chapters), nor forcing anyone to make changes, the suggestions can be followed or not, they suggest to help the authors, but if the author didn't like, there is no need to follow the suggestion.
9. That is in case if you break the contract, breaking contracts always had consequences. If you sign, you mustn't break it. Although I doubt that they will really act in that way, they have the possibility, but sue someone is expensive and I doubt it will be good for them, maybe they will end wasting more than winning.
10. They remain the copyright if you broke the contract, the solution is not breaking it.
11. All the net income is split 50% Webnovel and 50% the author and that includes adaptations to comics, movies, e-books, audiobooks, etc. Although the author didn't need to do anything in those adaptations.
12. The net income is split in 50/50; there is no 30% in any case. Webnovel have their own artists for covers, so you don't need to hire one. As for editors, some works will get although not all (at least this is that I know)
13. Free SS are free, so they aren't money. They split 50% of the net income, but free SS are 0, so the 50% is still 0.
14. The contract should be almost the same, but the contract isn't bad as people is always saying, it is a pretty good contract, the few restrictions are perfectly normal when signing a contract and as long you didn't break the contract there wouldn't be any problems.

But, take everything with a grain of salt. You won't know the contract until webnovel gives you one. shrugs Or simply just don't sign anything and self-publish on Amazon or something... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Nobody forces you to sign.

    As a contracted author, all I can say is that it is all about good faith. Webnovel wants you to grow, so that both you and them can go laughing to the bank. For that purpose, they will support you as much as possible, but they have to have some fallback in case authors get writer's block or just lazy(apparently, it has happened). In that case, they lose all the investment they put in the author's book.
    Like @Dr_Zombie posted, Alemillach has made everything clear. Just keep writing guys, and don't be discouraged.

      I take it that this is for Original Authors who have received and signed contracts with Webnovel right? This little one is just a small speck posting my work on Webnovel to increase my fan base and hopefully reach a nice quota. Does this relate to those peasants like me? :)

      I only ask out of concern since my work has been growing slowly but surely...

        FleetingClouds It very likely wouldn't hold up in US court. Most states have laws that specifically prevent this. It's a difficult uphill battle for an employer to try to recoup costs spent on wages and/or training in such a situation. There are very few successful cases, and all of them involved the employer stating in the contract that the wages/training cost would only be recouped if the employee quit before some set date (like 1 year or 2 years) and set a limit for the amount owed (Usually a portion of wages+training+ legal fees).

        Edit: Also, the agreement must comply with state, local, and federal laws. When they Look at how many hours you worked and how much you were getting paid, it could conflict with minimum wage violations, making the employer (QI) liable for back wages.

          Poche WN is a tyrant. If somebody could do a caricature of this company, it would be a TRex running amok

              Demi was only posting what I wrote on discord, I basically broke down the contract webnovel have sent me in june/july. I took it to a lawyer and he laughed his ass off and quoted, "You'll be a fool to sign this."

              While the contract might have changed since I got it, there is literally nothing stopping webnovel from terminating you for some bullshit and they try to get everything. The contract is so heavily in their favor that if THEY fuck up, you pay the price.

              The contract said "You must listen to party A's suggestions, or at least compromise to a satisfactory resolution" or something like that. There is nothing stopping webnovel from suggesting 200 things, you can't do them all so they terminate you and try to get the past payments, copyright and anything else.

              They expect you to sign it and then have "faith" they won't backstab you.

              "It works in China." "We do this for Chinese authors." is pretty much the response you get from any staff from webnovel.

              I suspect they changed the contract for a few people just so they would get people defending the contract. I'm sure there was a part of the contract about not badmouthing/slandering the contract or webnovel too (again, this is by memory) so unless you get somebody not contracted or part of the webnovel staff defending the contract, I wouldn't trust what they say.

                Pegazz Also another reason that QI contracts wouldn't hold up in US courts. Good faith Law. The contract can't be overly unfair to the employee and the employer can't act in a way that harms the employee in a way that would be considered unfair, unhonest, or in bad faith.

                Edit: An example would be if you're told to release 1 chapter a day and if QI doesn't like it, you must redo it and submit it within 1 week. And then they suddenly tell you they don't like your last 50 chapters, and you have 1 week to redo them. Or they don't like the direction your novels going so you have 1 week to write out 50 chapters of new plot. This would be considered unfair to the employee and would either break the contract or would lead to a change of contract if brought to court.

                    Pegazz Contracts normally state which country the legal battle will occur in and the process of the legal battle, but for authors who don't live in the country of the employer (China) or plan to visit in the future, they can basically ignore any attempts from the employer at compensation. The only way to enforce the contract would be for the employer to come to the country of the employee and settle it through the laws of the employees country. This doesn't exactly apply on larger scale things like government vs government, or large trade negotiations. Those are usually handle using international law which is handled by the United Nations.

                        Tonufan123 Well even if they can't get their hands on it without suing in authors country, it's still in the contract which means they COULD go for it all.

                            Pegazz They can attempt it, but then it would depend on the laws of the authors country. It would be very unlikely for QI to attempt this as it would cost tens of thousands at minimum, especially in the US where the contract wouldn't hold up in court. Like wise, QI could steal all your work, and repost it with a new author in China and you wouldn't be able to do anything unless you pay a massive amount in Chinese courts to fight them.

                              Dr_Zombie 3. If you earn less than 200$, they accumulate it for next month and then pay it to you when you have more than 200$, you don't lose it, just get it later.

                              This is the same for translators and editors. It's not like it's worded in a confusing way, so I don't know how the person who spread this misunderstood it...

                                Tonufan123

                                Let me clarify something in here... This is not an employer-employee relationship.

                                This is a contractual relationship, where one takes advantage of the other. PS the country where the legal battle would take place should be HK, as it states in the contract that it is written under HK laws.

                                    I would like to point out that Alemillach was flown out for "free" because webnovel paid for it. But I remember the contract that said the cost would come out of his next monthly pay check.

                                    If it's all misinformation, then make the contract public. 1 post and all misinformation gets sorted out.

                                      I posted the same thing myself.

                                      This is really not about how "bad" the contract is or how it's "fine" as long as you're doing it in "good faith"... man.
                                      It's about how backward thinking the people that are running this site are. Business is business, I get it. It is fine not to conform to the western ways especially when your roots are from China, I get it. But what pisses the living crap out of me is how bad you people are at treating your customers, the readers, and now even the young writers with the passion to do writing. One of the reasons why art is not being taken seriously...

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