[Publisher] Webooks.co.uk

I've had the same offer too. They seem reasonably reputable.

I'm not crazy about the 2-article "trial period" to me. Sounds a bit fishy, but it might be worth it since the pay is ok. Maybe more people here will know. Much good luck, space.

I have no idea what this particular ebook publisher is like--or any other ebook publisher for that matter. But when I hear you say, "I've been offered some experience..." I get the impression they approached you. Unless there's legitimate reason why a successful publisher would contact you specifically to offer you "experience", I'd ask myself: Why?

It occurs to me that one could accumulate a boatload of free articles during that trial period if one were so inclined. Easy, cheap way to populate a website, fill it with content, and make it look busy as all the writers return 10 times a day to click on their articles to see if there are any comments. 2 free articles x 500 writers.... just sayin'.

That said, it might be totally legit and a great opportunity. But before writing anything, I'd check the fine print to see what happens to submissions before/during/after the trial period.

What happens to the 2-articles (of trial period) if they do not accept you? Will they display them in their website or remove the articles? How many articles £20 (~$40) per 500 word article can you write in a week or in a month? Do you have to surrender all the rights of the trial period and other articles?

This is a common scam for publishers to obtain free content. Have you done your due diligence by researching the company's reputation?

We are genuine

My name is Olly Payne and I am the editor at webooks. I want to reassure everybody that we are in fact 100% legitimate. Webooks is not a scam in any way shape or form. It is in fact a joint venture between How To Books, the Oxford based publisher who publish the titles you'll find on the webooks sites in hard copy (you can buy them in Foyles, Amazon, Waterstones etc.) and ourselves On The Move Ltd, a London based internet company, established 9 years ago, which is quite a long time in the internet world.

We genuinely believe that webooks is a good thing. If you look at the site in its current form, you can read a large number of books (more than 150 and with more to come) published by How To, for free. These are books that you can buy in the shops and at webooks, you can read them for free online with no registration and no hidden cost. How that amounts to a scam I'm not clear. Have you all actually looked at the site(s)?

The articles are designed to make the site more 'alive'. The books that we publish are static - the content does not change. What we wanted to do was to get people writing their own thoughts / advice / information / ideas around the subject of the books that we publish to make it more dynamic and interesting to the wider community. This gives you as writers the opportunity to write for a legitimate and reputable site and to get paid for doing so and the wider internet community the opportunity to read what you've written.

To answer a question below, everything that is sent in to us and is used will be credited to the writer and even if that writer dropped out before the trial was over, they will be allowed their own bio page where they can link to other things they've done online, write something about themselves, put up a photo etc.

There are a number of reasons we have insisted upon a trial period.

Firstly we need control over what we are sent. Often the first articles people send don't fit with what we are trying to do and need some heavy editing if we are to use them.

Secondly and probably most importantly we have budget constraints. Yes I would like to be able to pay out more money to everybody, but we can't afford to at this stage. It’s that simple.

Thirdly, we want to weed people out who are not committed to writing for us. A lot of people respond to adverts and then drop out. Those aren’t people we’re looking to work with.

Lastly - yes - there is some truth in what you've said that it is a good way to build content for the initial launch at a lower cost. But remember - there are a lot of sites out there that do not pay at all. A couple of trial articles are not, I feel, an unreasonable request given the circumstances. There are a lot of writers who have responded to the adverts we ran that have completed the trial stage and now have formal contracts with us.

I hope I’ve helped some way to explain a bit about us and reassure you we’re not a scam. If you have any further questions, please email me and although I’m a bit inundated at the moment with emails, I will respond to you personally when I can. I can be reached at [email protected]

Olly Payne

Olly_editor said:

To answer a question below, everything that is sent in to us and is used will be credited to the writer and even if that writer dropped out before the trial was over, they will be allowed their own bio page where they can link to other things they've done online, write something about themselves, put up a photo etc.

Click to expand...

So you keep the two trial articles the writer submits and you don't pay the writer for them if s/he drops out/is terminated before the trial is over? Does the writer have the choice to not have those two articles appear on your website or do you keep electronic rights regardless?

If you were to look at our contract you'd see we don't take copyright away from anybody. All we take is a 90 day exclusivity period and the ongoing right to publish what you've written. The author retains the copyright over everything they write for us. I think that's pretty fair.

In terms of why people might drop out...

Either (a) they want more money (I've had 2 people give this reason so it's not common) in which case they won't have written anything or (b) their writing doesn't fit with what we're trying to do. In this case it's unlikely we'll publish what they've written.

But, for the sake of argument, let's suppose that somebody writes something that we feel is publishable and then drops out. We may or may not publish the article. If they tell us that they don't want us to then we won't. We don't 'terminate' people here. If you can write good content in a style that we like then we'll let you write for us. We aren't trying to get two trial articles and then 'terminate' people as you put it. I understand your concern but that's not what we're about.

If you're still not happy with this, then why not wait until we've launched and have a look at the bio pages (which will list what each writer has written for us)? If you can see that there are only ever two articles from any one contributor, then by all means be suspicious. If you can see that there are contributors who are adding content on a regular basis then I'd invite you to consider that I might just be telling the truth.

The hope is that webooks is an ongoing project, so you can get involved at any point. As I said, if you're still suspicious then wait until we're up and running and email me then. We're always happy to consider new writers.

Does that answer your question?

Since these are background check-type questions (and also because I'm concerned about the free content "trial period"), I've ported this thread to Bewares & Background Check.

I'm also concerned by the fact that none of the terms and conditions Olly discusses are mentioned on the Webooks website.

- Victoria

I feel like I've said all I can here. I have a large number of people who are writing for us many of whom now have contracts and I have not had any complaints from them about our way of doing things. In fact the response to what we're trying to do has been overwhelmingly positive.

If you still feel that we're somehow attempting to 'scam' you don't just take my word for it.

As I said before, if you want to get involved then by all means email me. If you don't then don't.

I don't think there is anything else I can say to convince you, so I'll leave it for you to make up your own minds.

Olly

Webooks is up and running

As you may have noticed, the articles side to the webooks site is now up and running. We have posted up some of the content that we've had submitted so far and are going to be adding to this every day from now on.

I'd like you all to have a look and see what you think. We are putting up articles that are relevant to the books that we have online, but given the 150+ books we currently have up, this allows for very diverse and interesting content.

You can contact me about the site via the 'write for us' email on the main page.

Olly
http://www.webooks.co.uk