It doesn't work like that. WN has copyrights and right to publish and adaptations, meaning they can publish your work on their platform and other related apps, make it into comic or audiobook. However, moral rights remain yours. (if you have the contract, read section 2.5) Moral rights mean you have the right to claim ownership and the right to the integrity of the work.
Take this story for example: Blood Warlock: Succubus Partner in the Apocalypse. It was super popular and making banks but the latest update was 9 months ago.
There is no 'schedule' either. No one is forcing you to write daily. But if you want to success there, you have to write since the competition is very fierce. They have bonus and programs for authors who write daily but it's just bonus encouragement. I see many authors returning to a slower uploading schedule after the first 4 contracted months (when you get the most bonus and exposures).
I'd say: Fair enough. Still a no-go site. The thing is, if it's hated accross the board and I'm not supposed to believe people saying these things all over the place, I wouldn't simply believe one person stating the opposite either, right?
I also didn't say I had my stories stolen, but that whatever happened back then was massively weird and creeped me out (because I get anxious easily, which is exactly why I said that first), making me believe those same things that people were saying all over the place. Especially since law is not the same everywhere and clauses may vary in what they hold, depending on where they were conceived. I'm not a lawyer, so I would let someone check that first. Anyways, the question of "is it being scammy or not" and "in what way, if or if not", is one thing I already said I didn't know, it just seemed too possible for comfort and that is still the case, even with you saying that, though I feel slightly relieved about that.
And if it weren't for you, I would have never checked back on my Inkstone account, so I thank you for that, therefore you have my thanks. And yes, it is indeed back, so I can finally delete my books. But that's about it on the positive side.
Now: Is Webnovel trash because they banned me without notification (which could still very well be the case, because it has been over a year now), or is it trash because it randomly denies you access to your books on every device you possess, for days on end, no matter the time, so you can't actually upload your chapters? And why did it suddenly happen one day after I send that message?
Now I also know what that small promo was that I remembered, it was the Recommendation on "Fresh Stories". Again, Crows and Butterflies was D.O.A and didn't get that, the FF did and Crazy Daughter as well. Since I now could take another look, I know Crows and Butterflies existed already in 2022 and was originally exclusive to Webnovel, just like Crazy Daughter was. In Juli 2023, Crazy Daughter was launched - and all chapters were taken from Crows and Butterflies, except for the prologue, in order for it to be restructured and rewritten.
Riddle me this: A story recommended, that immediately gained at least a small handful of subscribers, getting a contract offer, is suddenly barely viewed at all, except for the few readers it was subscribed by on the very first day. After that, being online for a month, with a schedule of three chapters a week, being published like clockwork.
Against that, a Fanfiction with just a few chapters, already on hiatus for months at this point and a Webnovel with originally 6 chapters, more than a year old at that point, with all chapters deleted down to the prologue and put on open-end hiatus.
Still, the active story lost in views to the one without chapters in it by a hundred views. Also lost to the hiatus FF by 1.300 views.
I'm not saying I expect people to read it, but just like some will have clicked on Crows and Butterflies, perhaps simply because they wanted to see what it was, it would have been unreasonable to think people wouldn't have at least clicked on the other book. Both are part of (still) highly trending tropes as well. That remains a fact. Just as the weird 404 Error remains a fact (yes, I actually do still have the screenshots on my phone; I'm a bit of a Data Hoarder as well). Also, it somehow says in the contracts section that the DOA WN was apparently "rejected" for contract application, but it's been too long for me to remember if that was by default, because I never applied. Crazy Daughter still says "Ready to Sign". And one can still see the offered contract within the colum of the inbox, but nothing shows when you click on it to open the message. It might be too old, but who knows.
The fact that Webnovel has existed for quite a while, yet implemented the delete function for a book just about a year ago is also a telltale sign for it to be dubious. There is rarely smoke without any fire. By coming in with a "I don't know if I believe you" and vehemently speaking for a site that arguably works the worst and services its userbase the worst of the sites I have seen until now (and I have hopped sites quite a bit in a decade and seen a lot of systems), my gut says "I don't know if I believe you" as well. Because, again, if all of that is a coincidence, I still would have gone away, because it would just mean it's accidentally trash. Like, if you post three times a week and suddenly lose any and all exposure - trash. If you call their support to ask how to delete a story and they tell you that's not possible on their site, which isn't only two months old - trash. Getting new contract offers after having denied three times, like some dude trying to sell you a vacuum cleaner at the door - trash.
Even the way you uploaded stories was complete and utter trash. But at least that was something you could get used to. So not as creepy as I thought, but not really sure - definitely sure it is trash though? That's way better, man, you really changed my mind.
That and the fact that they lure you into that contract, by, for example, hiring people to comment on stories on other sites (i.e. Wattpad) and offer you a totally helpful contract, or "to be a part of a cool new site for stories that's still looking for authors", but when you actually answer them, they come from Webnovel. And yes, that indeed has happened to me, those are paraphrased though, not exact quotes, because they are deleted. There's a lot of people on their site already, if they didn't gain a lot more than they offered up, it wouldn't make sense for them to be the most annoying bastards on the internet.-
If we're going to go ahead and point out subsections of their contract, if anyone bothers reading section 3.3, Bluebery is under contract not to disparage webnovel in any way on any online location, or they violate their contract. If webnovel was a US company, this wouldn't be able to be held up. Since it's Chinese, however, they can absolutely compel speech.
Moral rights are a nebulous term that have no legal meaning. If you object, all they have to do is tell you that it keeps the integrity. If you challenge it, you're going to have to go to arbitration in China against a company with ties to the CCP, so no, no you do not have true moral rights.
Okay, after I did all that to make my standpoint clear, reading this feels a bit hilarious. But thanks for the info.
