Ownership and exclusivity of stories in sites like wattpad, tapas, dreame, etc?

[erintesden]

I was just curious, lets say I make an original story and want to try luck to get a contract for it in one of these sites.

What are usually the conditions these sites normally impose on you? I mean, I know some of them ask you for exclusivity, and some pretty much buy your story and you lose any rights for it (heard this about dreame at least). Could you give me more details?

 

[lambchap]

Double post?

 

[erintesden]

Double post?

Yeah, my internet was not working particularly well and it made the post twice

 

[lambchap]

Had to respond to confirm. It's either my phone is messing with me or there's something wrong with the SH site (not the forum).

Double post?

Because I see two of these post on SH.

 

[erintesden]

Had to respond to confirm. It's either my phone is messing with me or there's something wrong with the SH site (not the forum).

Double post?

Because I see two of these post on SH.

Yeah sorry about that. Its my fault.

 

[lambchap]

Yeah, my internet was not working particularly well and it made the post twice

Ah, now that makes sense.

And to answer your question, SH don't do contracts or buy rights of any author's story here. It's a pretty community friendly site.

The way some author earn bucks are usually through donations (Patreon, Ko-fi, Paypal). And annually (I think) SH holds a competition for stories which gives real bucks.

I hope I answered your question.


EDIT to add:

I realized I didn't answer your question lmao. Those sites? Get away from them as far as you can. They're sharks. Sharks. Rawr. You're better off selling a proper book/ebook than become their slave for a penny.

 

[lambchap]

Yeah sorry about that. Its my fault.

No worries, lol. I also replied to the other post.

A mod might take down one later or I dunno, not sure. Let's just hope so as to avoid confusion between these two (double) posts.

 

[erintesden]

Ah, now that makes sense.

And to answer your question, SH don't do contracts or buy rights of any author's story here. It's a pretty community friendly site.

The way some author earn bucks are usually through donations (Patreon, Ko-fi, Paypal). And annually (I think) SH holds a competition for stories which gives real bucks.

I hope I answered your question.

Thanks, that was mainly what I wanted to know!

 

[Reisinling]

EDIT: Man, I'm a random internet dude, don't treat this as gospel/legal advice

It's a complicated question. In many countries this type of "predatory" rights buyout is illegal (or at least was during the paper era, and the laws haven't adapted), not to mention the fact that tons of people posting here are minors, and I'm not sure how it affects legality. All in all, haven't heard anything about RoyalRoad or SH doing anything like that, though I have recollection of hearing something about wattpad and webnovel, but shit who knows.

EDIT: Quick search implies that in general, they do not take ownership UNLESS you sign some kind of contract with Watpad or webnovel. I guess the stories I heard were about people who did sign those and then wanted out.

 

[lambchap]

Oof. To add again.

You also mentioned Wattpad and tapas. I think those two are reputable and "can" somehow be trusted but most of the others will just enslave the writer. I don't know the specifics since there are a lot of these kinds of writing sites where they'll promise you money. But in the long run, they'll benefit the most of it more than the author.

 

[LostLibrarian]

My honest opinion: Read the contract. Like "read it". Not just look at the nice numbers. READ. THE. CONTRACT. 95% of bad stuff is in the contract in plain words. People just don't read them beause they are excited. You could write "I get your wife, your car, and your house" and people would still sign it.

If your contract sounds alright to you after that. Sign it.
If you really love your series, get a lawyer. A binding answer to 2,3 important questions doesn't cost the world. Paying a hundred bucks before signing a long term contract should be the standard anyway. And those are already "first world prices".


According to my knowledge, most sites also have multiple tiers of contracts, differentiating between their main authors (who give them also the good publicity) and the lower tier you might get. So in the end, it's really just about sitting down and reading through the pages.

You could even ask forums online, if you can't afford a lawyer and see what their response is. They might already spot errors that are an out (or advise you to get a lawyer after all).

 

[Deleted member 45782]

I had a short time on Wattpad before going on a haitus. Wattpad is just another writing platform, very easy to start your own writing there.

Unless you sign a contract with Wattpad to become Wattpad Paid stories or something. I have heard of publishers going through Wattpad so sometimes an author may get lucky and get their book published or made into a movie - that publisher/making into movie will have a contract probably with Wattpad and you have to read whatever contracts you have just to be sure. I heard Wattpad Paid Stories are because Wattpad trying to be publishers themselves now so you will sign a contract with them - idk if I remember you can't post anywhere else but on Wattpad as part of Paid Program. You might want check out wattpad paid site.

But otherwise, Wattpad is just writing another place. You can also toggle on your story to have All Rights Reserved too. Though writers copying is

 

[Ai-chan]

Tapas can mostly be trusted. Trusted as in, they have a clause that could screw you over, just in case, but they don't use it. Webnovel has many clauses that could screw you over, and they abuse it as much as they want. For example, the clause 'has the right to repost or use your stories elsewhere within the network for any purpose' exist in both tapas and webnovel user agreement, but tapas don't make use of it, or at least they use it very sparingly that nobody really noticed. Webnovel however, would use it everywhere if they feel like it would drive profit. No this is not exclusivity deal, this is the standard ToS that everyone agree to by using their website.

Sure you own your copyright and webnovel is not allowed to use your stories after you left their platform, but seriously... who's gonna stop them? You? Good luck winning a court case against a Tencent subsidiary in China. DMCA? They don't care, they'd just say 'fuck you' and laugh at your face. The only way you can win is by being so boring they'd be glad that you left and no longer waste their bandwidth.

To get back on topic, Tapas is more or less trustworthy. They have not consciously tried to screw over their users so far, and has been pretty supportive of content creators. However, tapas is a webcomic platform, with webnovel being an added bonus. So to make money with tapas, you need to either be a very good author or you're making webcomics. Or you could be a good author, then get approached by an artist there for a webcomic collaboration and split the profit with the artist. You do not need to sign a contract either, as soon as you decide to monetize your publications, you can make money through that ink thing.

Ai-chan's Hounds of Hell was originally exclusive on Tapas but reposted it here after the contest period ran out.

 

[thedude3445]

Don't use Dreame. Their contracts are predatory and you will earn little to no money for it.

Don't use Webnovel, not for reading nor posting.

Wattpad and Tapas are alright but make sure you know (or you get a lawyer) what is actually being discussed in these contracts. Do they want exclusivity? How long? What about international rights? How much IP ownership do they receive? A whole lot to consider and study up on before you get the contract (which you absolutely must read from top to bottom before signing, obviously!).