Spring Contest Contract Question
JKaiya Just on the side note - the 200$ you speak about, is not even a part of the contract. Is just a helping hand that WN extends for starting authors, so that they can make any money at the beginning, while learning the proper way of working around WN standards, that will be beneficial to them anyway. I just finished my MGS (400$ one) but I already reached the point when I will most likely earn more than that, despite my book being trash. With one more novel getting a contract right now and 3rd one I will be writing for spirity, I might earn way more than said 200$, as long as people read my novel. So it's not like WN contract allows you to earn 200$ tops, but that's just a starting point.
MotivatedSloth Road to the Crown is getting contracted as well? Congratulations!!! :confetti_ball: :confetti_ball: :confetti_ball:
RABBITICOL Thanks! And yes, it is. Just as I'm starting to write 3rd novel for spirity...
MotivatedSloth whats your new novel about? also u saying that it could be 300$ contract etc or you meant like + coin income?
May I ask how will you participate in the contest? I read the rules and it said you most be contracted and the main plot falls on the category. If you both meet these requirements, how will you apply? Or they (editors in WN) will randomly choose the authors ?
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Avalondra You join it just like you Join a WPC, by creating a new book. As for being contracted, they should offer it to you if your book is up to their standard. You can chat with the Editors for more information on the Spirity Awards page. It's in the lower-right corner.
JKaiya Contract doesn't guarantee you ANY money. The one thing that is certain, that if you earn less than 200$ in a month, it will be held back for as long as you need to gather more than 200$, because doing transfer for less than that incurs additional charges. In contract, you only earn 50% of the profit that your novel brings to the company, from all the sources being: unlocking the chapter with paid coins, unlocking privilege with paid coins or gifting with paid coins. All other sorts of unlocking (with bonus coins or fast passes) is worthless.
I said 300$ because that's about how much my first story earns a month so far, and how much I expect it to make this month (maybe less, maybe more, maybe babe I don't know) , but with one novel getting contracted as we speak and going premium somewhen in May, I can only expect my income to grow.
MGS - minimum guarantee system is just an additional program that rewards you with a set amount of money if you:
1. Earn less than it offers from all your sources of income (if you have 2 novels, one old and earning 250$ and the new one on MGS earning 10$, you won't get 450$ but 260$)
2. Fulfil the requirements to be edible for mgs (1500 words or more published EVERY SINGLE DAY during the entire month)
But MGS by itself is not a part of the contract. Just a nod from WN to authors aimed at helping them create certain patterns of work, while subsidising their income in the early stage of the growth.
As for my novels, they are:
"While others cultivate......." - Culitvationsque novel about a guy reincarnated in a cultivation world. Started as amalgation of all the cliches I could think off in order to make fun of them, but as my innate preference took over, it transformed into not-so-typical cultivation/adventure story, with world actually way deeper than simple cultivation, taking turn towards universal magic
"Road to the Crown" - my second novel, currently in the process of contracting, about a modern white-collar worker loving strategy PC games, transported to a body of a noble in 1574, during the coronation ceremony of the first Polish King that got elected by the nobility, its typical kingdom building slash historical story, mixing those two aspects to take you to a fun ride while showcasing some of the aspects of the complicated past of the commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania.
"Last Fate Legionary" - I can't really say anything about it yet, as its still unpublished an in process of writing early chapters, but its my first attempt at writing story in 3rd person narration after "Blood Coin" failure, aimed at dark fantasy genre in the medievalistic world full of magic with deep worldbuilding. Those who had the chance to read the first chapter pointed out that its more like a normal (amazon like) novel rather than typical WN story, but since I treat it as sort of my masterpiece made off all the shelved ideas I had so far, written with the ability I polished during the half of year I spent writing my current novels.
Avalondra All novels taking part in Spirity awards needs to be completely new novels. You can join only during the process of creating the novel, and it needs to be invited for a contract in order to even compete. (and yes, you need to sign it too)
MotivatedSloth oh. I see. So it has to be a NEW book. It means the moment you published it will be under a contest. Thank you for answering
Avalondra you need to pick the spirity awards in contest option while creating the book, and the option will appear ONLY if you picked the roght genre. It won't happen by itself
JKaiya So are you going to enter? I thought your original post was asking about signing a contract with the intention to enter, and your concern was whether you had to surrender your rights as a participant.
Here's my further understanding now that the rules are clear on a page.
To win the prize money, you're required to sign. That is obvious in Rule #1 that states "Only works that sign a contract with Webnovel will be eligible for the prizes and the cash award."
I don't see it stipulated in the competition rules that all participating entries are forced to sign a contract with WN. So you can enter similar to how you would in a WPC contest entry, which also doesn't demand for contract signing. WN might approach a story with sellable potential for a contract. There seems no obligation to sign.
The rules for the awards are clear. You can read them here> https://activity.webnovel.com/noah/857913071
JKaiya Also Amazon ebook is 35% for non exclusive and 70% for exclusive
No? it's not. I publish at amazon and I have 70%, it's not exclusive. I can publish my e-book wherever I wish. For 35% you get more promotional options. On top of that, you can enrol to kindle unlimited (with both options I believe), and get paid when people simply read your book (like barrowing and so on, they have a budget set to pay authors). Kindle Unlimited is exclusive worldwide right. You are not allowed to publish the book elsewhere.
JKaiya 70% is only available if your ebook is 20% cheaper than print book and ebook price is between 2.99-9.99 idk if tax is included, I think 35% is for the rest though.
Again, no? I didn't offer my paperback edition to amazon, and still get 70% You can chose which percentage you want. The price will be dependant, the range you stated is actually correct. With 70% you can't go lower than that range. With 35% you can actually promote your novel more, but of course you get less profits.
Since you want to compare apples with apples. Webnovel contract is the same as kindle unlimited (or select). Worldwide exclusive licence. But let's be honest, amazon is much bigger than some webnovel. It's based on paid content, not mix of paid and free (kindle unlimited costs money and they pay you when people read your novel or book through it). My choice would be kindle, but you have to have a full book, volume or whatever ready. With webnovel you don't. Still, that is my personal choice. Anyone can have theirs.
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DarkRay Lilliny I was only confident in that part cause I just looked it up yesterday when I was wondering what I should do, idk if links are allowed but https://blog.reedsy.com/amazon-self-publishing-royalties/
like thats 1 of the sites I read
Also 20% is actually 20% lower than lowest listing possible (or maybe just 1 u click) of print version, I just wrote everything based on memory earlier
MotivatedSloth yeah as if people will be writing new ones. They will just use old one that they had time to write and repost it. People already have 40+ chapters
TravelingPoet I asked my content editor if I could repost the story that is currently undergoing the process of contracting (not yet contracted) and after talking for a moment, I dropped the idea. Seems weird, doesn't it? Instant boost in the new ranking, instant collections and votes, easily obtainable 10 great reviews, especially if I just asked people to repost them as well... Why would I drop the idea though?
I know people will simply repost their stories, but its not only about their length. A good story with good 5 chapters will achieve more than people with 40 chapters of sht content.
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JKaiya You keep using the word 'forced' when this entire competition is voluntary. It says in the rules that any new story can, and is, welcome to participate, but in order to receive a prize, you have to be willing to sign the contract.
This implies: if you are willing to participate, you are agreeing to the rules. If you're not going to agree to the rules (and don't want to win,) there's no reason for you to participate.
I'm not saying some selected winners might decide to say 'no,' but that is them taking the rules they chose to follow (voluntarily), and deciding not to follow them. Which makes their entry null.
No author is forced to sign anything. If they are participating and want the prize at the end, they are agreeing to the rules. If they are selected for the winner, that means they are willing to say yes, in order to obtain the prize.
WN is not holding anything an author holds dear hostage, literally or figuratively.
In the end, Jkaiya, if you want the prize, you have to play their game. If you don't, then you don't. Trying to say things like "the contract isn't fair," and "WN is scamming you guys if you win!" is just strange to me. If you don't like the contracts authors are offered (something you have never seen, and have admitted that you've never seen), the easiest thing for you to do is not participate instead of making a thread about this.
All you've shown here is that you felt, personally, like WN's contract is unfair, and if you won, you don't think you'd want to sign it. That's a completely fair and valid moral question to have, but that's not how you've phrased anything here. If you wanted a discussion about that personal moral question, and what it's answer should be, you should have asked it.
You didn't phrase your initial post, pre-edit I mean, like a personal question. Instead you posed a rhetorical question (notice how WN...), and then went on to denounce the Spring Contest, as if it was rigged and unfair. When asked 'Why do you feel this way?' and 'Where did you get this information?' you go on to admit that it was all hearsay. Something you pulled from your shoulders.
You heard from other authors this amount, and then you quickly Googled some Amazon numbers to compare to the WN numbers you clearly don't have. Then you strung them all together into another accusatory world-salad.
Whats crazy here is how confident you were that you were right. With absolutely no information in front of you, you just jump to accusing WN of being dishonest.
What it looked like you were doing, was trying to prop up the few strands of information you had, and mixed them with your negative feelings. Finally trying to pass these feelings off as fact. Maybe next time... just wait for your anger to fall to a simmer before posting.
I'm not saying WN is an honest entity. That they're a hero and should be worshiped blindly. I just don't like baseless claims being thrown because you don't like them. That's dangerous and harmful.
But now that you've had your question answered, I'm glad you've decided to participate. Doesn't hurt to try, and six months from now, you could have an almost complete book!
Shadowfang The deadline is when the competition ends, October 15th. Right now there's no dedicated page to see the entries. Hopefully that goes up soon.