MvonSchantz

I just turned down a commercial publishing deal for my novel Echoes of Fallen Gods (https://www.wattpad.com/story/396567622-echoes-of-fallen-gods).
          	
          	Well, sort of. 
          	
          	A while ago, I was approached by Inkitt. They told me they liked my novel and wanted to adapt it. We had a video conference where they explained they were looking to license a limited set of rights to Echoes of Fallen Gods for a project. They then sent me a contract.
          	
          	Here things turned… odd. The contract wasn’t at all about limited rights. No, signing it would grant Inkitt every possible right to my novel, including for printed books, ebooks, audiobooks, movie/TV rights, and more. Literally everything would belong to them, and nothing to me.
          	
          	It didn’t end there. The contract wasn’t just for Echoes. No, I’d have to turn over the entire Deepwell Chronicles series. They’d get everything. This was a full IP transfer of my entire universe. I’d lose all rights to my own work.
          	
          	Today, Echoes and the companion story Defender are available for free on Wattpad and elsewhere, and as audiobooks on YouTube. No paywall. No Patreon. No limitations.
          	
          	I’m not a commercial author. I write because I love it. I’ve done so for 35 years, and I’ve never made a single krona from it. That’s fine. I can afford to give away my books for free. I write because my head is filled with a hundred tales waiting to be told, and I’d love nothing more than to have them read.
          	
          	But this deal would have made that impossible. After signing, I would no longer have the right to publish my stories. I’d have to take them down from Wattpad and elsewhere. But Inkitt wasn’t going to publish the book either. Thus, my novel would never get read. It’d end up forever hidden from the world in some dark bunker, never to be enjoyed again.
          	
          	As you might have guessed, I turned down the deal. I’d much rather continue giving away my book for free than earn royalties on it by having it hidden.
          	
          	The moral? If Inkitt is offering you a deal, read the fine print.

MvonSchantz

@boboehmer Indeed! That discrepancy is my biggest issue with all this. I don't really mind them buying up IP rights. That's their business model and they're free to do so, as long as both parties are in agreement and know what they're signing. But conducting negotiations and then sending a contract that's so glaringly different from what we talked about just isn't right. I actually went back to them and asked if I had misunderstood the contract, but no, they confirmed my understanding was correct.
• Reply

MvonSchantz

@pattuck418 Yeah, that kind of deal might be right for some people, but it wasn't right for me. For someone who's sitting on a dusty old standalone novel they have no emotional attachment to, this might be the perfect way to earn some passive income. But it's not all bad. Despite everything, they still felt my work was good enough to spend money on, even if the terms and the way they conducted business weren't to my liking, and I take some validation from that.
          	  
          	  And thanks for adding Echoes to your reading list. I hope you'll enjoy it!
• Reply

boboehmer

@MvonSchantz  How disappointing. Any contract that is so substantially different from what has been discussed is an enormous red flag.
• Reply

night-writer2073

Sorry this happened to you but good you caught it! Thanks for warning the rest of us. Glad to know you’re still at it. I agree with you that writing is its own reward.

MvonSchantz

@night-writer2073 Thank you! Yes, I thought it was important to raise awareness that the contract you get might not match what you discussed with them. I'm not saying everyone should turn them down like I did, but I do want to stress how important it is to read the fine print before signing. And that can be especially hard for someone like me, whose native language is neither English nor Legalese.
• Reply

MvonSchantz

I just turned down a commercial publishing deal for my novel Echoes of Fallen Gods (https://www.wattpad.com/story/396567622-echoes-of-fallen-gods).
          
          Well, sort of. 
          
          A while ago, I was approached by Inkitt. They told me they liked my novel and wanted to adapt it. We had a video conference where they explained they were looking to license a limited set of rights to Echoes of Fallen Gods for a project. They then sent me a contract.
          
          Here things turned… odd. The contract wasn’t at all about limited rights. No, signing it would grant Inkitt every possible right to my novel, including for printed books, ebooks, audiobooks, movie/TV rights, and more. Literally everything would belong to them, and nothing to me.
          
          It didn’t end there. The contract wasn’t just for Echoes. No, I’d have to turn over the entire Deepwell Chronicles series. They’d get everything. This was a full IP transfer of my entire universe. I’d lose all rights to my own work.
          
          Today, Echoes and the companion story Defender are available for free on Wattpad and elsewhere, and as audiobooks on YouTube. No paywall. No Patreon. No limitations.
          
          I’m not a commercial author. I write because I love it. I’ve done so for 35 years, and I’ve never made a single krona from it. That’s fine. I can afford to give away my books for free. I write because my head is filled with a hundred tales waiting to be told, and I’d love nothing more than to have them read.
          
          But this deal would have made that impossible. After signing, I would no longer have the right to publish my stories. I’d have to take them down from Wattpad and elsewhere. But Inkitt wasn’t going to publish the book either. Thus, my novel would never get read. It’d end up forever hidden from the world in some dark bunker, never to be enjoyed again.
          
          As you might have guessed, I turned down the deal. I’d much rather continue giving away my book for free than earn royalties on it by having it hidden.
          
          The moral? If Inkitt is offering you a deal, read the fine print.

MvonSchantz

@boboehmer Indeed! That discrepancy is my biggest issue with all this. I don't really mind them buying up IP rights. That's their business model and they're free to do so, as long as both parties are in agreement and know what they're signing. But conducting negotiations and then sending a contract that's so glaringly different from what we talked about just isn't right. I actually went back to them and asked if I had misunderstood the contract, but no, they confirmed my understanding was correct.
• Reply

MvonSchantz

@pattuck418 Yeah, that kind of deal might be right for some people, but it wasn't right for me. For someone who's sitting on a dusty old standalone novel they have no emotional attachment to, this might be the perfect way to earn some passive income. But it's not all bad. Despite everything, they still felt my work was good enough to spend money on, even if the terms and the way they conducted business weren't to my liking, and I take some validation from that.
            
            And thanks for adding Echoes to your reading list. I hope you'll enjoy it!
• Reply

boboehmer

@MvonSchantz  How disappointing. Any contract that is so substantially different from what has been discussed is an enormous red flag.
• Reply

MvonSchantz

When I began writing my Lords of the Stars stories more than 30 years ago, I sketched out the future history I hoped to write, stretching from the early 21st century to the 31st and beyond.
          
          One of the most important events that shaped everything that came after was the Fall of Old Earth, the environmental disaster in the 2030s that forced humanity to evacuate its homeworld and flee to Mars.
          
          Throughout my stories, this cataclysm has been mentioned time and again, but never explored. It has always remained something of a secret, buried in the past and only hinted at in passing. Yet it has shaped events and decisions through a millennium of stories.
          
          The Fall of Old Earth has never been explored - until now.
          
          Today, I'm publishing the first chapter of my new, full length Lords of the Stars novel "Scorched Earth," set during the tumultuous decades in the first half of the 21st century, when the consequences of the preceding years of climate madness finally came back to haunt mankind.
          
          Being a prequel to all my later stories, it can be read without any prior knowledge of Lords of the Stars. New chapters will be published every Thursday and Sunday.
          
          I hope you enjoy "Scorched Earth." (https://www.wattpad.com/story/406675283-scorched-earth) Happy reading!

MvonSchantz

After having spent most of the past year in the dark fantasy world of Taeron, it is now time to revisit the hard science fiction universe of Lords of the Stars.
          
          Beginning tomorrow, the first chapter of my new novella, "Guardian of the Wolf", will be available for you to read (or listen to as a free audiobook on YouTube). Subsequent chapters will be published twice every week, on Thursdays and Sundays.
          
          If you have not read any of my Lords of the Stars stories before, do not worry. Although they all take place in the same universe, they can be read in any order, so you can safely begin with "Guardian of the Wolf" even if you know nothing about my other tales. And if you have read Lords of the Stars before, I can promise that one or two familiar characters will make an appearance in "Guardian of the Wolf".
          
          Happy reading!

MvonSchantz

And... we're done! With today's post of Chapter 43, the entire novel "Echoes of Fallen Gods" (https://www.wattpad.com/story/396567622-echoes-of-fallen-gods) is now available to read. If you haven't read the book yet, now is the perfect time to start! Or, if you prefer, you can also listen to it as an audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/@LordsOfTheStars
          
          But the story of Taeron isn't quite over yet. If you've read the novel, I have a bonus for you. In a couple of days, I'll post the companion short story "Defender". It's just a small thing, but I hope you'll find it interesting nevertheless.
          
          A friendly word of warning, though. If you haven't yet read "Echoes of Fallen Gods" and think the short story might be a good place to start to see if the Deepwell Chronicles is something you'd enjoy, I would advise against reading "Defender" first. The short story takes place during the final chapters of the novel, and is also told from a perspective that offers something of a behind-the-scenes look at events in "Echoes of Fallen Gods". As such, "Defender" contains very heavy spoilers for the book, and I strongly encourage you to read "Echoes of Fallen Gods" first if you haven't done so already.

ericdabbs

I was going through some of my followers in an effort to help another writer out. If you’re interested in space sci-fi, another account recommendation to follow is @repiercewriter :) This writer’s story  STARFIGHTER updates weekly! And since I haven’t followed you back yet, I gave you a follow too. Happy reading and writing!

MvonSchantz

Over the past weeks, I've posted the first chapters of my new dark fantasy novel, "Echoes of Fallen Gods" (https://www.wattpad.com/story/396567622-echoes-of-fallen-gods).
          
          With today's release of Chapter 6, titled "Healing," all the major players have been introduced, and we're ready to get on with the story.
          
          If you haven't started reading the novel yet, now is the perfect time to do so, giving yourself the chance to become familiar with the main characters before we turn our attention back to see what they've been up to when the next chapter is released on Saturday.