• Questions

  • Is signing up a contract with webnovel really that bad?

heyitsbluejay When it comes to contracts, it comes down to whether it is right for you. It is entirely possible that a few years from now you won't really care about your IP. Or maybe like @ReincarnatedSaint you need the money. All perfectly logical and good reasons to sign the contract and see some income.

Just make sure you read the whole contract and are fine with the terms and conditions. You should also research the people you do business with, but it should be relatively easy to find the good and the bad about Webnovel.

MotivatedSloth Several good points, but I would like to mention that contract fears are actually adult fears, a child would probably sign it sight unseen. Children tend to be more naive than adults. Also can you clarify about 2nd point about passive income? Pretty sure you have to actively write to earn money as an author. Unlike say purchasing a bond and earning interest or buying shares for dividends. For additional minor nitpicks, asking other people about their experience is a good thing to do. However, it is not fool-proof. Most people downloaded music illegally with no negative consequences. Then you have a handful who got hit with lawsuits, even though they were nobodies compared to the giant music industry. If you were to talk to any of those people about their experiences, most would say it is fine. If you did a bit more research you would find out the odds are pretty good that it is ok, but that you should be aware there is a small chance of it not being ok.

        ATCkit Interesting. And highlights the importance of reading contracts. Its not a bash against a particular company. Reading and understanding contracts before signing them is good practice for all contracts from all sources.

        PS: I am a pretty infrequent visitor to the forums, so no worries about being "late" for me. I am much worse than you in that regard and should probably be apologising to you instead. Hopefully what you were busy with has been satisfactorily been resolved.

            mng You do not need to actively write to earn anything at all. If you can somehow convince thousands of people monthly to binge your novel after finishing writing it, then as long as the novel earns, you earn.

              I honestly have no idea. I just read some of the responses and am giving my opinion here so don't take this as advice or anything: For me earning $200 monthly for writing 45000 to 50000 words per month is sort of an amazing offer. Especially since even if I had a full time job right after graduating from university I might not be able to make this much money. But the contract is offering the chance to make this much money even if you might be a relatively new author, as long as you earn a chance to get the contract you can earn the money. So from my perspective this isn't a bad idea.
              As for being forced to change certain aspects of the novel, I think that if there is a clause that says that I might be forced to change something I will cross check with them about what possible reasons there might be which require for me to change it, before signing the contract. One of the responses said that they only force you to change troublesome topics but if they do force me to change something that is harmless I'd probably try to tell my readers about it so they don't get confused.
              If you live in a country which offers better pay for a fresh graduate or even better pay for any job that you can do instead of this which requires similar amount of effort, then I can see why you're hesitant but if you're like me and most jobs won't offer such a high pay in exchange for such limited work then I think you should consider it. Either way try to go over the contract yourself to determine whether or not it's a good idea to sign. That's life advice I'd give not only for this platform but for anything in life, don't sign anything without reading it properly and having some understanding of it.

                yiyuehua I'm not saying $200/month is the best deal for life, I'm saying that as a starting point earning $200/month is a good deal, especially for someone who writes on here as a hobby or is just starting out as an author.
                As for living expenses and other things, since most beginner level jobs don't pay too much this sum is pretty good, although it isn't something I'd recommend as a full-time job or a permanent thing. In comparison to doing multiple jobs daily which offer equally low pay, having one consistent full time job along with this is probably not a bad idea.
                As for where I live, I live in Pakistan. And for beginner level jobs $200/month can be considered good pay. Yes for higher level jobs $200/month isn't sufficient.

                I don't think you should move out before finding a cheaper place! Even here the rent is very high, people usually just stay in hostels or shared apartments until they can afford to rent a place by themselves.

                    itsmeTuba Ahh I see. That's interesting! Pakistan's economy is very different! Rental prices are approximately ten times higher where I live in the U.S. so $200 a month is not sustainable whatsoever. Of course, it's separate cases for many people. The contract is very subjective for sure.

                        2 months later

                        Uh... Hi. I got a non-exclusive contract from an editor. I sent an email to her as asked and also the Facebook address she dropped. I got a message from the Facebook address first, though it was another Editor. Is that a problem? Plus, when I got a message from her later, I noticed there was a difference in the steps. One required inkstone and another said nothing about inkstone. Who else had steps that had nothing to fo with inkstone?
                        And does anyone know how the non-exclusive contract earnings are made?

                          Deleteduser87 you have to inform them not to change my story has been signed and contracted but I reused my editor to change my. Story...

                              MotivatedSloth
                              I just wanted to say ... I absolutely love your answer. It's realistic and to the point but not many would realise the truth of your post.

                                  11 days later

                                  Deleteduser87 before I signed the very first thing I asked was “will I still keep my copyrights?” In which they responded yes. That means I’m still able to distribute my story on other platform and I got that response in writing, contract or not. Ask questions if you’re not sure. My issue now is that I’ve emailed my editor for updates and I’ve been ghosted. It actually goes against their clause in the contract itself. If I’m going to work with you, I would expect the very least to be sent updates. It’s just common curtesy since I’m giving you permission to publish and distribute my story on your platform.

                                  How I deal with people who ghost. This is what I wrote. “I haven’t heard back from you for a while so I assume that you are no longer interested in my story. In that case I would like to withdraw the contract and my consent to let you edit and publish my story on my platform. I appreciate that my content may not be suitable for every platform and apologise that it didn’t work out”. And that’s the end of that. Contract withdrawn, I wrote it in writing. There are many other publishers out there who will work with you and not “ghost” you. Luckily I sat down and read the contract beforehand. Mine is a non exclusive so I’m basically only giving them permission to edit and distribute while I still retain my rights. As for royalties. Well, I’m not expected to make any more than $5 a month but I write for fun so it really doesn’t bother me.

                                  Hope this helps x

                                      does anyone know if chapter comments available on computers

                                      • Drip replied to this.
                                        Web Novel Novel Ask