How To Write

Companies

Alright.

So, sometimes when your books start getting a lot of traction and you start getting more attention as a writer, scouts start to look for you.

And this is not, by any means, me telling you "Hey! Ignore them all! Don't do it ever!" 

of course not

This is me telling you to be extremely careful when someone messages you about opportunities.

Above is an example of a message I received and some of the things I noted were off about it.

I will not be naming any companies (because i don't understand legal stuff and i could get sued idk)

Something I should say before anything else:

If you write fanfiction that uses names, places, plotlines, or other things specific to the fandom, you cannot accept payment for your works

I will say it again

If you write fanfiction that uses names, places, plotlines, or other things specific to the fandom, you cannot accept payment for your works

Legally

You will get sued

(maybe not idk)

But seriously. Fanfiction is, technically, your work, but your work is based off of the work of someone else, and you cannot take money for it.

Seeing as I am someone who exclusively writes fanfiction (and still gets companies wanting to pay me for my works, which i wouldn't do anyways bc that would mean people would have to pay to read my books and i wouldn't do that to anyone), I cannot accept payment.

This is the copy-and-pasted message I send to every company that asks me to sign off my story to them: "Apologies, but as I write fanfiction, I cannot accept pay or sign exclusivity for my books legally. Thank you for the offer, but I must decline. Have a lovely day!"

Short, sweet, and to the point. You don't need to worry about hurting their feelings. They usually won't respond. They'll shrug and move on.

Now, if you don't write fanfiction, this next part's for you.

Be careful with you you plan to accept. Look over the website of the company. 

A (incomplete) list of things you should look for on a company website:

- Contact information
- Payment options
- How much readers have to pay to read books
- Whether you must sign exclusively with the website or not
- Other books on the website. Read a few (but if you have to pay to read them, don't)
- See interaction options with other users
- See how many users it has (you may have to google this one)
- Spelling, grammar, punctuation. If even a hair is out of place on the website, leave
- If they forgot to capitalize one thing, leave
- The 'about us' section (and make sure it actually tells you something about the company and doesn't leave you going in circles)
- Check to make sure every single link works
- If they tell you something ("We have over 1 million users!") fact check it. See if it's bullshit.
- See if they mention who their team members are
- Read EVERYTHING in the legal section. I'm serious. It's boring, but they might slip in something that could take your hard work away from you in the blink of an eye

You should also check the reviews for it on SEVERAL websites, not just one. Read the one-star reviews, read the five-star ones, factor in how long ago they were and any updates the company may have made

If everything seems legit and you're feeling good, email the main email they have on the website about your interest. See how long it takes them to response to you, and how responsive they are.

If you get a generated response and nothing else, leave. If they never respond, leave. If it takes longer than a week for them to respond, leave. 

However, if you get a generated response, and then within a week a real person responds to you, it's a good sign. It shows care for their customers. See how upbeat the person responding to you is.

And be careful with those that want your exclusivity. Be extra careful when you look over their websites, extra-scrutinous, extra suspicious.

Because if you're not careful, all of the hard work you've put into a story can be gone. They can take your book and promote it as their own, they can steal your money, they can rip your book away from you. They can refuse to let you publish other, unrelated books on other platforms. They can remove you from their website and keep your book. It's scary.

Now, if you do take all of these steps and decide to sign up with the website and publish your stories and they do screw you over, here are some steps you can take. (in this order, preferably)

- Email their main email and several members of their team about it (professionally and calmly)
- If they do nothing, if they blow you off, if they remove you from the site or refuse you or anything, message me.
- I will do my absolute best to get the book taken off the website or get you the contract you thought you were going to have. I may not have extensive legal knowledge, but I am filled with rage and am very good at shutting down executives and firing back emails and turning people's words against them. I can do my absolute best to do whatever it is you want from me, whether it's getting you the money they took from you, taking down your exclusivity deal and getting your book off their website, getting you the wage you thought you were supposed to get, etc
- And if that doesn't work, I have the force of 3,851 followers (as of right now) and god knows how many more readers that I can ask to go after them (as an absolute last resort, of course)

That being said, please don't go into it blind with the thought that "georgia will get me out of this if something goes wrong!" I'm not perfect, and I can't guarantee results. Please take the necessary precautions.

Be safe, sunflowers.