[Publisher] Scribum / StoryPlus

[zmythoughts]

I'm not completely sure how to spot a scam or not. I saw this website http://www.scribum.com/en/1_0/index.asp and was wondering if anyone else had experiences with them? Should I put this and other questions about places for writers under the beware and background check? If so, sorries

 

[Eric Summers]

They look pretty legit to me, in fact they look like a great place to write for since they target their stories at children. They are buying stuff that is used to promote literacy, and 5% of their profit goes to charity, etc. If it's a scam site, it's the best scam site I have ever seen.

A scam site would have big red letters on the front page offering you money or incentives to join. Plus once you join, they apparently have a members forum so you can talk with other writers. Not many scam sites want you talking to other people caught in their web (PA is a notable exception).

Also, here is an old thread from AW about Scribum.
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1322.html

- Eric

 

[jdkiggins]

zmythoughts,

We have a forum in the Conference Room entitled Bewares and Background checks. Anyone wanting to get feedback on publishers, magazines and ezines will probably get more comments in that thread.

Here's the link .

Good luck.

 

[cattywampus]

Dear ZMY:

Here's how to recognize a scam: THEY WANT YOUR MONEY, and they want it FAST. They'll usually promise wildly improbable profits for very little work, but when you get to the site it seems difficult to navigate and you'll find it's even more difficult to pin down any details. There's a lot of hoopla about how much money you'll make and what you can do with it, and it may have testimonials that read as though they were written by the same person (which they probably were). On the other hand, the page where you enter your credit card information is almost continually in front of you. Some scammers want your CC info before they let you enter the site!

If you sign up and pay, you may get a message that basically says, "Do what I did, SUCKAH!"

Catty

 

[nickyswriting]

Catty, thanks for the laugh. Anyway, I don't see anywhere where it states how much they pay. Am I missing something? It does say that they pay, just not how much. Also, it states that they send payment after your account reaches $500. Hence, I'm asking about how much they pay.

 

[zmythoughts]

So that means if you don't reach $500.00, you don't get paid what you've earned?

 

[Alphabeter]

If you move this down to Bewares & Backgrounds, there are a lot of people (Victoria especially) who can tell you about their track record.

Not everyone looks in every forum, but more people just check that forum for questions on businesses.

 

[GailKavanagh]

I have just read through their FAQ and came across this:

<<Does Scribum Buy All Rights?

Yes, Scribum does buy all rights to stories that have been submitted by members and that have been accepted by the Reading Committee. However, for any story published on StoryPlus, a writer receives royalties on sales of all formats created and on all future exploitations of that particular story (eg. TV and merchandising).
A writer receives for each story published a non-refundable but recoupable miniumum guaranty between US$50 and US $100, an amount which is based on the reading time of the story,and up to 20% royalties on the Scribum price: 4% for concept and 16% for writing. Story editors also get 4%. Illustrators receive 5 dollars per illustration as a minimum guaranty and from 5% to 20% royalties on sales, depending on the number of illustrations they've created for the story.>>

Reading through their agreement as well, I think you would have to carefully consider before joiningl (if you can make sense of the legal jargon)

Gail

 

[zmythoughts]

How can I move it to the other forum?

 

[aka eraser]

How can I move it to the other forum?

I'll do it.

 

[zmythoughts]

Thanks for the move

 

[Lucky Penny]

Thanks for posting this....I had been looking into Scribum.com too. A friend found the link and sent it to me, but it made me hesitate. They do seem legit, but legit doesn't mean their terribly 'fair.' Don't know that I want to take that route.

 

[cattywampus]

Well, if that's the pertinent part of their terms, I would think it's not a bad deal. I've 35 years in the legal field, doesn't seem like there's much jargon there. You get paid royalties, that's better than a lot of sites will offer. CMIIW.

I would like to know what they mean by "all formats created" and especially "non-refundable but recoupable miniumum guaranty." Such confabulation bothers me, makes me think they're trying to hide something.

Catty

 

[cattywampus]

Hah! I never thought of that, but that's right. Another version of the old "Let 'em work until they're almost ready to retire, then fire 'em" trick.

Thanks for the heads up, Cathi.

Catty

 

[Kasey Mackenzie]

I would personally avoid any place with that type of payment plan...While they could be perfectly legit and on the up and up, I wouldn't want to take the chance that they WEREN'T! And $499.99 worth of work is a lot of work to go through and then end up never recouping!

 

[cattywampus]

Well, you could always sue them, if you'd kept careful records. Small claims court has worked well for me. You can serve them by mail, and they'll usually pay rather than employ a lawer in your region to defend them, especially at the rate lawyers are charging now.

Catty

 

[zmythoughts]

Yeah you could sue em if that happen but now that I think about the $499.99 thing, I agree with Cathi. That system does seem kind of crazy for a lot of work and then you can't show anything if they stop using your material I'll probably skip this venue. Thanks for pointing that out to me

 

[Lacer]

Is Scribum still going?

Hi all

Not totally sure if this is the right place to put this thread, as I realise Scribum and Storyplus are online but it's connected to freelance fiction writing so here goes . . .

I've been trying to apply to Scribum using their online application form a couple of weeks ago but after making sure my application was as perfect as I could get it, I kept frustratingly getting an error message every time I clicked submit. I tried on two different types of browsers (I use Chrome most of the time and you still sometimes come across a site that doesn't like it, so I tried with IE to but no luck). So I hunted round their site for contact details so I could e-mail them and say 'hey your application form is broken' but no contact details. So I went to Storyplus (the website that actually sells the stories from the Scribum writers) found a contact form there, used that to say 'I know this is probably not the best way to contact Scribum but is there a way I can apply considering the application form is broken?' clicked the send button on that and guess what, that's broken to. So I figured Scribum and Storyplus were obviously having computer problems, so I left it a couple of weeks and tried again today, the application form is still broken. Now being married to a computer programmer, there's just something about it that strikes me as odd, Scribum is completely based online, therefore one of their number one priorities should be that their web site is working properly or at least if it's not working putting a message up about it and that if there was a fault is should have been fixed by now. So a long shot I know but does anyone know anymore? Storyplus still looks as if it's open for business by the way.

I know there are more places than just Scribum to sell your work but I have a 5000 word short story aimed at 7 - 9 year olds which I'm quite proud of and it's too long for the picture book market and too short for the story book market. I thought Scribum might be worth a shot.

Thanks in advance

Lacer

 

[ATP]

Sorry, this is the wrong place for your type of post--this is for nonfiction magazine type material.

There are other places more suited such as the Writing Short Fiction forum or the Bewares and Background Check forum ("literary police" site).

Also, you ought to conduct a bit more searching around the sites you've mentioned, along with further searching by google to get an idea of whether this organisation is still running etc.

 

[CaoPaux]

Merged threads.

The news page for Scribum hasn't been updated since 2003, StoryPlus since 2005, and the parent Foundation site since 2008. Anyone have recent dealings with them?