From a quora user
“Authors will need to release a minimum of 1,500 words daily for the entire calendar month. There must not be any breaks in between the dates of uploads.”

Erm, no thanks. Let’s say it’s a short month, of 30 days. That’s 45,000 words in a month. For two hundred f*cking dollars?

And you didn’t want a day off, did you? Because it sounds like you’re contractually obliged to write 1500 words literally EVERY SINGLE DAY for four months if you sign up for this thing.

I don’t know what else the contract says, but you just need to search the internet and browse through a few forums to get the gist, and it’s not good. Here’s a Reddit post and an almost unanimous negative response: Someone from Webnovel contacted me to be their contracted author.

Apparently their pay structure is also lacking transparency, and it’s unclear just how much you’re earning and how much of a cut they’re taking. Who knows what you’re signing over to them? If you have any pride in your writing it’s a big risk.

Even sites like Wattpad have articles warning writers about these kinds of contracts. Apparently there are several different sites with similar methods, all trying to prey on young writers who are likely flattered they’re being offered a contract.

So…unsolicited messages; shady practices; draconian conditions to the contract; terrible, terrible pay; lack of quality control (forcing writers to churn out 1,500 words daily isn’t conducive to high quality prose)… need I go on?

I know it sounds cool to be paid for your writing, but for how absolutely ridiculous this contract is, you’d be better off just self-publishing or posting stuff on free sites while you hone your skills.

Webnovel, and other sites of its ilk, view you as a cheap source of labour. If you don’t like their awful contract, they can just pay someone else a pittance to finish your books. (Or just scrap them and move on to something else, judging by that review I screenshotted.)

Run a mile. Or better yet, transmigrate from any world in which Webnovel exists, like our pals Kindling and Meng Chao.

    Thanks for the info, honestly speaking Its not hard to write 1500 words a day but it's annoying af. What I don't like is the fact that webnovel would get half the rights of my novel, that's what originally made me ignore the contract.

      QTV You can only feel that way if you are an author of great fame. But if you still new? You wouldn't care about rights or even having to write 10 chapters a day, cause at the end of the day, u are still learning and improving and everything else is irrelevant, who cares even if they had all rights to the book, all I care about is writing, writing and improving. And the moment I reach the point where I know that I'm good enough and I have thousands of people reading my work or smth like that ( just an example), then at that point I'll care about rights or writing whenever I want. At this moment, the contract of Webnovel even helps me to get that daily chapter going on and help me try to improve even further. My advice is: Only think about such things when u are a top author.

          QTV The 1500 words per day isn't required tho. Only if you want to lock chapters

              @Choka and what about the fact that they can actually get someone else to complete your book if you are unable to meet the quota. Haven't met anyone who told me this happened to them but i have read in many forums and exclusive contract does have a clause like that which is anything but sketchy

                Shubhangi_Kene The only situation where something like this happens is when your novel is famous and have thousands of people waiting for it to be completed and u suddenly drop it. And if that happens, it's fine if they take it for themselves since u dropped it anyway. And even let's say that they will forcefully take away ur novel which is not something they have ever done without u either dropping it or ruining it entirely, you can simply create a new novel with those skills u finally learned and make a way better version of ur ex book, at the end of the day, you are here to learn how to write and improve and not to care about the rights of your novel or money, these two things are but a plus if u are fortunate. For info, I'm as well but a new author who just started writing and hopped on his exciting journey, and I honestly believe that I have no rights whatsoever to speak of money or rights of a book unless I'm good enough. Let's not be delusional and only think of such things when we are good enough, no offense ofc.

                    Choka
                    I am a new author too. And i want to gain experience as well as money. So is it right to get contracted. I mean is it safe. ?

                        Sweet_xiyue it's obviously safe and even encouraging since u gonna have to write everyday 1.5k words in order to get payed. At the same time Webnovel helps advertising ur book from time to time which also helps in growing ur fan base. In my case, I got contracted and I'm fine with it, but I don't know about u or other people.

                            Choka
                            Can you elaborate about your contract experience if you're okay with it. And which contract is the better option?

                                Sweet_xiyue Not yet. My AE submitted my story almost 2 weeks ago xD
                                Personally I'm getting nervous even tho they say it could take a month or so. I hear people get AE contracts after a week

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