Will it be a good idea to publish my novel also in webnovel?

[EliseValkyria]

Hello everyone

As the title says, I would like to know what you think about the subject. I want to add my novel to my different sites and one of them would be webnovel.

But I've heard some pretty nasty things from that place so I'm very hesitant.

Things like they offer contracts but in the fine print they get to keep all the rights to the novel. or how they are forced to write a certain number of words every week in order to have a chance of appearing in the rankings.

I once heard that they even impersonated an author to get him to agree to one of those weird contracts they have and keep the novel for themselves.

so it doesn't really seem like the best place to try to get more readers, which is the only thing I'm looking for, not to make money or lose the rights to my story.

Apart from that there is also the genre of my novel, which is gender bender but with a strong emphasis on military and big battles, strategies and a strange combination of realistic, sci.fi and fantasy elements. so it is difficult to read or endure the first 20 chapters where the tone is set for the rest of the series.

As always, thank you very much for your comments and opinions

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I personally don't like Webnovel due to experiencing a lot of the nasty things you may be referring to, and I've heard it has gradually become worse. That said, putting your works on more sites (including Webnovel) is a great idea if you are wanting your story to gain exposure. Webnovel does have a bad habit of making it easy for newer stories to be buried but that's a fair risk with all sites. I don't know if things have changed recently with them but see what others have to say about the site. There are other threads in the forum discussing this topic in detail and even lists off other sites that are possible options for you to choose from.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

As someone who posts there, I'd say that it's pretty much dead, compared to my earlier years where there's a lot of traffic (and user-author interactions). It seems the problem lies when they changed terms for reading in their site, leaning towards more money-vacuums.

You also have to be prepared to see your work getting pirated and uploaded in aggregator sites, and the option to remove it at will is non-existent (though there are ways to circumvent that restriction).

Contract-wise, WN offers suck. You'll be forced to cough up 1k-1.5k words a day with only two days allowable 'absences' (which meant you won't submit a 1k chapter) and a limit on how much you can earn per month.

Author support is also non-existent. I mean, there's a 'contact us' option for problems you might encounter, but the person on the other side isn't helpful.

The only reason I continue posting there is, well, I already started it. Might as well finish it anyway.

Addendum: The part where they get the rights to your work and pay you a meager sum is true. Technically, they'd 'buy' it from you, you only get to keep your name and some responsibility in promoting it.

It is not expressly written in their contract, but if you ask, they'd explain it.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Place is scam.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Even without a contract, i think its hard to get a story removed from that site sometimes.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Even without a contract, i think its hard to get a story removed from that site sometimes.

The option for it simply doesn't exist.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Get ready to lose the right to your work then.

Know the magic words to get them take down.

 

[georgelee5786]

It is not

 

[Representing_Tromba]

The option for it simply doesn't exist.

I had to rename all of my stories and wipe all chapters, images, and text relating to them from the site. It took me a whole day and a half to take care of it all. Physical removal is impossible but scrubbing it clean is possible.

 

[Syringe]

I don't think it's worth it tbh. Scribble Hub, Royal Road and Honeyfeed are pretty much all you need. Tapas if you really wanted to as well. But besides that, alot of other places will try to get you to sign something shady. Besides, you aren't going to find a better community for GB stuff besides here lol.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

I had to rename all of my stories and wipe all chapters, images, and text relating to them from the site. It took me a whole day and a half to take care of it all.

Yeah, that's also what I did the first time I took down my work there to rewrite. Pretty tedious, really. ?

I only reuploaded when a reader suddenly commented that he's reading it.

 

[Aiyoki]

If there's something about the site that prevents you from having proper copyright control over your own content then I say don't do it.

I expressly chose SH to host my writing because I looked at how this site treats copyrighted material and saw that it doesn't try to steal what isn't theirs, and I like that.

 

[Vnator]

Get ready to lose the right to your work then.

Know the magic words to get them take down.

Magic words? Like abracadabra, Alakazam, or Tiannamen Square Massacre?

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Magic words? Like abracadabra, Alakazam, or Tiannamen Square Massacre?

Don't forget Winnie the Pooh and Taiwan.

 

[EliseValkyria]

Okay, from what I can see it is clear everyone's consensus on this.

Wow the reputation of the site is bad, I just didn't think it was that bad.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Okay, from what I can see it is clear everyone's consensus on this.

Wow the reputation of the site is bad, I just didn't think it was that bad.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Most of us came to SH from WN or RR because of the bad community or site.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

If you're looking for other sites to publish your work, I can recommend a few:

1) HoneyFeed
2) Pixiv
3) Syosetu

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Stick to fanfiction, and they'll leave you alone.

 

[melchi]

I never read there but there were some big works I wanted to read but were not anywhere else. However, because of the a fore mentioned money vacuum problems it is becomes super expensive to read without running into a pay wall.

At what point are they so greedy that they are screaming for the reader base to start pirating the stuff on the site?

 

[Deleted member 58005]

I've posted on both sites, here and there. My co-author wanted to focus on Webnovel more but I stayed with SH.

I've gotten more meaningful interactions on this site, but Webnovel has gotten more views.

But really, if you're not planning on entering in a contract like I am, why not just post it there? I don't see anything wrong with it. I just do it for the viewership, myself.