Hello!
If you read my last post, you'll notice I was starting a few new projects, one of which is on Wattpad (you can check it out here).
Almost immediately after posting my prologue for Drone Girl on Wattpad, I got hit up by a recruiter for WebNovel, asking if I was interested in publishing via their platform. After talking to them a it, I found that it seems WebNovel offers two types of contracts--a non-exclusive and a royalty contract.
The royalty contract is WORK. Basically you have to upload 12,000 words worth of a story, and then 1500 words every week until the story is approved for the contract. Then...you have to publish 1500 words a day for four months. You get ~200USD a month for those four months if you publish those 1500 words a day (check my math....that's a minimum 180,000 words by the end of just the four months, right?), and then some royalties on top of that from when people pay to unlock chapters of your story.
If that sounds like a lot of work, that's because it is. It really sounds as though you would have to be writing in a very Korean Webtoon style, with tons of drama filler padding out the story and dragging it on.
Does that mean I did not accept the challenge? Not a chance. I did, however, choose to not explore the royalty contract with Drone Girl, and instead pushed forward with Dream Realms.
Though it is not called Dream Realms anymore, it is now Where Nightmares Roam. Check it out here.
Now, Where Nightmares Roam is currently under review, which I've been told can take longer than a month. ...which means my word count will be at least 12,000 + 1500 x4 + 180,000? That is INSANITY. Though not larger than Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix at 257,045 words, so it's all about perspective I guess.
We'll see how it goes! Worst comes to worst, it's great writing practice and hopefully gets my name out there. Somewhere.
What happened to Drone Girl? Well, I signed up Drone Girl for the non-exclusive contract and am now waiting a few weeks to get the upload up to five chapters. After that I'll learn more!
Right now the plan is to continue to post Drone Girl on Wattpad until chapter eight, and then the chapters become monetized on WebNovel and can not be posted elsewhere. I get a cut of the royalties with this contract, and none of the 1500 words a day hassle. But also none of the ~200USD a month money.
All money made is going to figuring out self-publishing at the moment. It's the same with my Patreon funds. Future money will be spent on entering my poetry collection (and chapbook I'm working on for China themed pieces) into publication contests.
It seems pretty likely that WebNovel recruiters are watching all new publications being posted on other sites and swooping in to get anything with potential uploaded onto their site.
They make it sound like it will be super easy to sign on, but in the case of both contract types, I learned as I went that they wanted more and more before anything can/could be signed.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it's been an overall positive experience, but if you find yourself being reached out to by a WebNovel representative, just know there's going to be some extra asks later on.
I'm going to keep on with them, because why not? What do I have to lose? I'll potentially gain some writing fans, build my following and get valuable writing experience.
My poetry is still ongoing, I just don't have any new news to share in the way of publications at the moment. To be honest, I've fallen off the writing new poetry horse for a bit while trying to work on these novel-esque side projects. I have plenty of works for individual submissions for a while, so I'm not feeling pressed to produce more work, except for a China themed chapbook.
Some writing asides I have going on:
-I'm editing my DELTA Module 3 essay (ESL qualification); it's all technical writing and I hate it with a passion. I received some edit suggestions, implemented them, and then was told I didn't implement them... so that's an ongoing struggle.
-PhD program applications. Early this year I got into Tsinghua University's English and Critical Theory PhD program (I'm bragging, but to be honest, foreigners can get into good Chinese universities a million times more easily than Chinese citizens can, so the brag ain't that big in reality and is kinda sad), but was unable to start classes as my Masters was completed online during COVID and the Chinese government refuses to recognize my degree.
This has left me to look at new PhD programs elsewhere, and I've been completely re-vamping my research proposal in preparation.
To check out what I'm writing, I'll provide some links at the end of each blog post from now on, in case anyone misses the hyperlinks:
Drone Girl: https://www.wattpad.com/1268204000-drone-girl-prologue
(updated every two weeks)
Where Nightmares Roam: https://www.webnovel.com/book/where-nightmares-roam_24450607206805105
(currently updating weekly, with the hope of soon switching to daily)
To support the author (me!):
My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mea_andrews
Until next time!
-Mea
Once again, my new creations!
