Members can now remove work at will without penalty–subject to WEbook’s archival license. This provision, happily, has been eliminated. Before, if an author chose to remove his or her work from the site after it had been opened up for public comment and/or ratings, WEbook demanded a 2.5% share of any income the author subsequently earned from the work. Now they just reserve the right to consider publication of books voted into the top 10%. Before, WEbook demanded an exclusive and restrictive publication option on any work put up for public feedback and/or ratings, ending 180 days after the ratings phase concluded. Collaborative or anthology authors’ royalties under this new system will not be princely, but they will be significantly better than the pennies they got under the old system.īy the way, I hope the new royalty rate has been extended to the authors of WEbook’s one published project to date, the collaborative novel Pandora. Here’s how WEbook defines Net Profit: “…all monies actually received by WEbook from WEbook’s sale of Copies of a Work published by WEbook less any applicable taxes bad debt returns a 10% administrative and operational cost and commission expenditures incurred by WEbook in making or deriving from such sales, licensing transactions, or other business dealings.” Like all net profit clauses, this has the potential to considerably reduce the author’s share–but unlike many net profit clauses, it’s reasonably straightforward and the terms seem to be clearly defined. Rather than that measly 5% of net, WEbook now promises to pay “50% of the total Net Profit for a particular calendar quarter.” 50% sounds great–but those two little words, “Net Profit,” should strike fear into any writer’s heart. Feedbackers have been cut out of the royalty picture entirely, unless the project leader decides to cut them in. The allocations process has been considerably streamlined, with project leaders receiving a set percentage and the rest divided among the actual authors on a pro-rata basis. Before, WEbook paid royalties of 5% of net, allocated in truly byzantine fashion among collaborators, contributors, and non-authors who provided feedback. For comparison, the old version is still available. That stuff about killing all the lawyers? Maybe we can let some of ‘em live. With WEbook’s platform, engaged community, and industry-leading royalties, we hope the choice will be simple. If your work is picked by the community for publishing, you’ll have the choice. Write and receive reactions on anything you wish at WEbook without giving up any rights to your creative genius. In between the requisite lawyer stuff, you’ll find that authors and contributors now share 50/50 in the profits of published WEbooks. To make that a no-brainer, today we posted our revised Terms of Use. WEbook aims to be the best place for new and experienced authors to publish. ![]() Yesterday, WEbook members received a chirpy email announcement: ![]() A comment on that post from a WEbook staffer indicated that the TOU were about to be revamped. My recent post about collaborative writing website WEbook identified some significant concerns about its Terms of Use.
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