[Display site/query service] WEbook / AgentInbox

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] Hey,

Wanted to pass this along. I've been alpha testing for a new website called WeBook for the past few months, and they're currently looking for a ton of new writers/beta-testers. [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]It's been a cool opportunity to write, edit, see my work published, and make some extra money, so I wanted to share the love.[/FONT][/FONT]
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WeBook is a collaborative writing community, where they enlist a bunch of writers to formulate a synopsis and then have everyone write pages for novels (pretty wide variety of genres; I worked on a sort of action/adventure thriller and am now working on Literary Fiction; there's also sci-fi, childrens, story anthologies, and a bunch of other ones I can't remember). The writing process is fairly structured, so you don't get random "exquisite-corpse" stories with wildly divergent plotlines.

They publish the finished book and offer percentages to those with pages chosen. They're also working out a new incentive plan where they give up-front prizes for having your work selected. Don't know what these prizes will be, but a friend of mine had his synopsis chosen and won $500. I get a little bonus every time they select one of my pages.

Mainly, I've been using it as a sort of low-stress "throat-clearing" exercise every few days, writing 500-1000 words before buckling down to work on my own projects. And it's been awesome in that capacity. But it's also a good way to get feedback and write in a collaborative environment. Worth checking out. If you're interested, you can register here.

-A
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Good call. I'll admit I never actually read their "Terms of Use" statement, which I probably should've done.

As far as payment, I just know I've been getting my checks and cashing them, so maybe they just haven't gotten around to formalizing their payment language in the terms of use. I know they're still figuring out how to deal with the new incentive program. But you're right, it should be in writing. I'll send them an email and see what they say.

As far as the rights, I was worried about that too in the beginning, but I haven't seen it as a problem. I emailed them with my concerns about that a while ago, and it seemed much more laid-back than the terms of use makes it sound. Plus, the pages I've been writing are for specific projects -- ie., I was writing based on certain plot and character summaries given to me -- so I never felt like I was "giving away" pages that I'd otherwise want to use for my own WIPs.

Anyway, that's my $.02, but I'll email someone over there and mention the Terms of Use payment issue and see what they say...

Like I said, I think they're revamping things right now (my understanding is that they're trying to pick up more writers and offer MORE payment incentives, but I guess you never know), so I wouldn't take the current Terms of Use as gospel. I'll find out more from them, but in any case, here's how payment incentives have worked for me thus far:

WeBook starts with a very loose idea for a new book (f'rinstance, "a novel about the wife of Socrates"). They ask writers to submit general synopses for the novel. If they select your synopsis, they pay you something (a friend of mine had his selected and was paid $500).

There's another payment round (not sure how much; several hundred dollars, I think) for whoever writes the detailed synopsis for the same project.

Then, all writers start submitting pages based on the detailed synopsis (the process is well structured so that only about 5 writers are submitting for a given page). Those pages are rated and reviewed (by other writers; there's a chance to revise work based on feedback). The "winning" page gets paid (I was paid $25/page, and I think they're talking about increasing that to $50/page). I had a bunch of pages selected and was sent a check each month based on how many.

They're starting to do other projects, like children's books and story anthologies, and I believe payment will be slightly different for each type of project, but in the same ballpark.

Also, I think they're going to start offering percentages of royalties, based on how many pages you have in the published book. For me, it's all about the advance payments, but those royalty payments might end up adding up to a nice amount too.

Does this answer your question or was there something more specific you were wondering about?

Okay, so I just got an email back from the people at WeBook, and this should answer a bunch of questions. Their new Terms of Use agreement was also apparently posted a few days ago (they were waiting on the lawyer) so those who mentioned the old TOU might want to take another look...

Monkey said:

If it is as you say, then I'd love to contribute, but right now, I'm marking it as "too good to be true." Keep us updated!

Click to expand...

So, it kinda IS too good to be true, in the sense that they're not going to be offering these payment incentives forever. Their goal is to eventually become a self-sustaining collaborative site, where writers contribute without promise of financial compensation, mainly for the opportunity to work and publish collaboratively. It's a new community-based approach to publishing. Who knows if it'll work, but as long as I keep getting paid the advances, I don't much care.

The payment they're offering is basically for alpha and beta testers, which is why I wanted to share the lead sooner rather than later. They're making this move to try and entice as many people as possible to start using the site. So, it may be too good to be true forever, but for the next few months, might as well get some money while the getting's good.

More to come...

-A

wqa

Roger J Carlson said:

Where and how are these books sold? I don't see anything about that on the website. Presumably, selling the books finances the whole operation, doesn't it?

Click to expand...

They're going to be selling the books at first on their website and Amazon, with the goal of being able to eventually get books into the bookstores. They're hoping this new publishing model takes off, and if people like having their name on a book and/or reading good work by a variety of authors, the interest may grow.

Again, who knows what'll happen. But for the time being, these advances I've been paid are more immediate and guaranteed than the promise of back-end royalties, and that's why I'm gonna keep doing it.

James D. Macdonald said:

Where's the money coming from?

Click to expand...

For now, I think the money is coming from venture capital. Aside from the publishing model, I have a feeling they're also hoping to create a networking-type site for writers, something more literary and goal-oriented than MySpace or Facebook. Considering the success of those sites, there's lots of investment money floating around for stuff like that these days.

So, as far as I've seen, it's a good time to get involved while the money is still there. As far as being "bait," I haven't paid them a dime, and haven't given up any rights to my written work that wasn't written specifically for their projects -- certainly nothing I'd want to try and publish on its own -- so right now I don't feel any risk on my part. As long as they keep sending me checks, I'm a happy camper.

That's my two cents. Wanted to share the info, but by all means, check out the new Terms of Use (which explains the payment details) and make your own informed decision rather than taking my word for it.

Cheers,
-A

p.s. they got back to me fairly quickly so let me know if you have any other questions and i'll pass them along.

I agree that being a writer, from a financial perspective, is a lamentable situation these days. Don't know that it's so different from ever before, though. Sure, the age of blogs makes for more employers that want writers to work for free. But I think the number of new paying markets the internet has created vastly outweighs that. Fiction-writing never promised to pay a ton, but I'd hardly say it's the "least respected" of any field. When it comes to pay being disproportionate to talent/energy/time needed to do a good job, I think writers gotta stand in line with a few dozen other worthy occupations, and certainly every other artistic endeavor.

As far as WeBook, I suppose you could do a lot of writing and never get paid. But on the average, when I was asked to write a given page I was only "competing" against 3 or 4 other writers, sometimes less. So I felt my chances to have my writing selected were pretty high (and that panned out rather well and I made several hundred dollars for comparatively little work; maybe that'll change when they hire more writers, I don't know), much better than submitting to a given lit mag. And if not, I only "wasted" about 30min.-1hr writing my given 500-1000 words. And I always considered the hour a "warm-up" for my own WIPs.

The first project I worked on wasn't totally up my alley, but the new project,(about the wife of Socrates), is actually pretty interesting. So, regardless of the money, it's been a satisfying experience so far to work collaboratively with other solid writers on a single project (I'm much more used to being the only one who cares about what I'm working on). And I'm only working about a half-hour per day on average, so I haven't felt taken advantage of.

Plus (junkie alert!), I can quit anytime I want...

So you never got paid the $1700? If not, that's inexcusable.

Well, as long as the WeBook money lasts, I'm happy. But I'm digging the site in general so far, so I may stay on even after the money dries up...