I've been writing books for a while now, to various successes, and was thinking about trying my hand with a wuxia web novel, having read multiple of those. While I'm not a big fan of their inherent never-ending cycle and usually insane power creep, I feel like I can do better, with a clear structure and predefined ending in mind.

However, when reviewing the terms and conditions for inkstone, I arrived at a puzzling realization.
In short, it seems to be an extremely predatory contract, as point 3.1.2 in clear terms states that SCMP has the right to do anything with the content posted to inkstone, without the need to pay the author anything (royalty-free), while it's non-exclusive, they are quite a large publishing house, so presumably, they will squeeze out any monetary value of the works way before the author would get to it.

So now I'm trying to understand why authors decide to use it? And yes, I do understand the issue of posting a question like this into forums that they control, that is the primary reason to do it, do see how it is handled.

    As I imagine all novels are posted via inkstone, not sure if there is an alternate posting method I'm not aware of, I would presume it's true for everything up on this site.

    This is how content is defined in the ToC : “Content” means the data, information, materials, text, songs, audio, video, photos, graphics, charts, maps, messages, blogs, ideas, comments, suggestions and/or other content.

    And this is what is written in 3.1.2, and yes they have a typo in it:
    3.1.2 By posting Your Content on the Inkstone Service, you automatically grant SCMP a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide and sub-licensable right and licence to: (i) use, copy, edit, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, make available, communicate and distribute Your Content (in whole or in part), its edited, adapted, translated versions and/or such derivative works; and/or (ii) incorporate the same in other works in any forms, media or technologies now known or later developed.

      Vanja This is kind of terrifying, even though I am writing only as a hobby. Any other big platform you know that those not do that? I have been thinking of maybe getting off this site anyways. But I'm not sure what will be the best alternative.

        Vanja
        Hi Vanja, I am gonna be the devil's advocate here. I have criticized wn in the past many times, but for other reasons. But in this case, I feel 'extremely predatory' is highly false characterization of the contract. XD Yours is non-exclusive and I will come to that later.
        I myself have signed exclusive contract which is the most common type of contract signed by the authors on wn. And there is nothing predatory about it. The only predators on wn are some of the MLs that I see in some of the stories. Bottomline is there is a certain fixed amount that you are going to earn in a the first three months or so if you write everyday a certain amount of words. You are not bound to, but if you don't, you are not gonna earn the amount that they call minimum guarantee system. In the meantime, if you manage to draw enough attention, your novel will be self sustaining i.e. break MGS. And you will earn royalties.
        Now You are on Non exclusive. which means, you can post here as well as anywhere you want. You may even not post. Entirely up to you. Web novel doesnt force you to post here and then not pay for it. Predatory is when there is exploitation or oppression involved. There is no force or exploitation involved anywhere. You sign the contract and they are going to promote your novel here. Also, they have outlined it in the contract as per your words, and it is not something they hid from you. If you do not like it, don't sign it. XD
        Hope that helps.

        Also, if you are on EXCLUSIVE contract, they are very transparent about what the authors earn from the premium, gifts and privilege tiers, which is a very fair percentage in my view. The only thing that we were not informed of are the ads that they added late last year. So I think some of the words that you used in your first posts like squeezing out money from the authors etc etc. are very very wrong and unfair.

        Aggi_Ind they did also offered me the non-exclusive ones since I disagree with the first one. Kinda panicking at the moment after not having any response from them since last week. crossed fingers

        Cynical_Stranger my story over those two websites took 13 months to flourish to at least 250 reads or... unless you are writing the typical and usual annoying romance stories.

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