WotC Open Call for Novel Proposals

[Halivar]

They say you must sign over all rights to the book. Does this mean that if I, say, write the book in five months, get rejected at the end, they still own the rights to the manuscript I haven't sent them?

Or are the rights for the book only if it is published?

 

[wedgeski]

They say you must sign over all rights to the book. Does this mean that if I, say, write the book in five months, get rejected at the end, they still own the rights to the manuscript I haven't sent them?

Or are the rights for the book only if it is published?

Key phrase is "we're looking to buy at least the following...", implying that they can only claim ownership over your novel if they've paid you for it. The legal agreement then goes on to talk about a future "properly executed written agreement". Nowhere in the existing legal document are you signing away your ownership of the novel. I'm sure, should you get shortlisted, that a substantially thicker and more confusing agreement will plop through your letterbox.

Disclaimer: I am so not a lawyer.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

They say you must sign over all rights to the book. Does this mean that if I, say, write the book in five months, get rejected at the end, they still own the rights to the manuscript I haven't sent them?

Or are the rights for the book only if it is published?

Writers retain all rights to their material until they sell them. WOTC wants to buy all book rights to the accepted work. Meaning they'll pay the writer a set fee then do what they want with the novel in book form, whether it's publishing it in the States or overseas. No matter how many times they print it, reprint it, etc. as I understand it (and I am NOT a lawyer or a contracts pro), the writer will only see money from the original sale of the rights.

Publishing rights is a gigantic lawyerly business, though, and there are many many ins and outs.

But no, you will retain the rights to the work even if WOTC rejects your proposal. Which means if they reject it, you can go to another agent or publishing house with it and keep trying to sell it. If the proposal was based on a WOTC property, you'd have to shelve the proposal, but since it'll be your own world and work, you can keep farming it out until you sell it.

 

[caudor]

Thanks for the heads-up Morrus

I've considered the deadline and I've decided to go for it. Yeah, I'm still an unpublished writer at this point. The only thing I think I'd regret more than being rejected in 2005 is having never tried in first place.

 

[jeffh]

On the Wotc Web page advertising this, there's an ad floating right in the middle of the text, blocking some of it, with no way to get rid of the ad! AARGH!!! Way to make themselves look like a bunch of unprofessional nincompoops.

 

[two]

advice from a published writer

The following advice is in no way intended to STOP people from writing and entering the competition. It's simply a list of things to consider, from a standpoint of common sense/reasonableness.

1) 5 months to write a complete novel, from scratch, is not a lot of time - for anyone! It's certainly possible to do such a thing, but will require much effort and determination. If you are not willing to work on it three or four hours a day, every day, rain or shine, it won't get done. Remember, the first draft of a novel isn't going to be good enough. No first draft, by ANY author, is ever published. That's just the way writing works. Write the first draft, then revise and write the second draft. Leave at least two weeks time for a thorough revision. Then have a 3rd party read/edit the novel, then revise a 3rd time. This is the minimum.

2) I would not suggest writing the first three chapters, and "if they like it, I'll knock out the rest of the novel in 10 days." That's a recipie for major stress, and an under-edited, unsuccessful novel. Plus, you will be kicking yourself for not doing more work in the time you were given. Plus, the final novel you generate won't be in publishable form after 10 days. Either do it right, write the whole novel, or I would suggest don't bother entering the competition.

3) Because of the probable number of entries, and how appealing this contest is to both published authors as well as unpublished ones, competition will be stiff. If you are an unpublished (or heck, published) author, and want to enter, by all means do it! Write the novel, but don't simply write it with an eye to winning the competition. That's frankly unlikely. Writing a novel can be fun, exasperating, grueling, and very rewarding. Use the competition to get something done you always wanted to do ("write a completed, well-edited novel"), and if you somehow manage to win -- that's the icing. Just don't set yourself up for major disappointment. 99.999% of entries will be rejected. Don't let a rejection spoil the joy of the completed novel.

4) People with completed (or half-completed), but as-yet unpublished novels sitting around are in the best shape overall. If you have such a beast taking up space on your hard drive, by all means use the 5 months to dust it off, polish it, edit it, re-write it, and enter it into the contest. This is a real opportunity, which will also force you to do something not always fun: edit and revise. At the very worst, you lose the competition, but have a highly polished novel ready to sent to agents.

Good luck everyone! It's a major undertaking.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

3) Because of the probable number of entries, and how appealing this contest is to both published authors as well as unpublished ones, competition will be stiff.

I disagree. Published authors are likely to prefer royalties, not an outright sale of their entire work. I think this one will lean very heavily to first-timers.

Just don't set yourself up for major disappointment. 99.999% of entries will be rejected. Don't let a rejection spoil the joy of the completed novel.

I think you can make do with a simple unhyperbolic 99%. I doubt they'll see 100,000 entries from folks with completed manuscripts. A hundred entries, maybe.

4) People with completed (or half-completed), but as-yet unpublished novels sitting around are in the best shape overall.

Agreed! I think there are many talented Story Hour authors in just such a position.

I don't think I will be taking a stab at this one, but I wish the best of luck to any ENworlders who enter!

Wulf

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I think you can make do with a simple unhyperbolic 99%. I doubt they'll see 100,000 entries from folks with completed manuscripts. A hundred entries, maybe.

Also, the WoTC release alludes to not only choosing one "winner." This open call is not just a contest where the best writer wins, the best writers will be kept in mind for further opportunities:

"Though only one proposal will be chosen for the first novel under this new imprint, we will be looking at all of these as writing samples with other opportunities in mind. This is your chance to bring your talents to our attention, and we are known as a publisher that works with talented, unpublished authors. We've had the pleasure of launching a number of writing careers, and would like to launch some more."

So I'd say the chances of "winning" are better than even 99%. If you have true talent you could lauch your career, not just win some contest.

 

[two]

I disagree. Published authors are likely to prefer royalties, not an outright sale of their entire work. I think this one will lean very heavily to first-timers.
Wulf

I've no interest in quibbling over the number of probable entries or whatever.

The above point, however, I think should be addressed.

I know quite a few writers, published and not, that would willingly sacrifice most or ALL of their novel's proceeds in order to get the novel published by a major publishing house, much less one that's just starting up and could lead to more publishing contracts in the future.

The difficult task is getting a novel published in the first place. Once you have done that, doors begin to crack open, a little.

Making little or no money on a novel that will be (I presume) widely distributed and will have good support from the publishing house (being their first effort) is worth a lot more than simple cashola.

A similar question could be asked of many writers, as follows:

"Would you like $50,000 cash, right now, or have your novel published and distributed to every major bookstore in America but make almost no money on it?"

The answer will be "get my novel published" by almost all unpublished novelists, and I'd say most published novelists as well (who didn't have the benefit of good distribution and/or ad support for their published works).

The only exceptions would be authors who already have had a solid commercial sucess and can agitate for better conditions. Everyone else just wants a chance to play the game.

Yeah, it's unfair, and heavily weighted towards the publishers. That's what happens in a saturated market (thousands of novels out there, only room for a small handful to be published).

I seriously can't imagine an author saying "Heck no, if I win this contest and have my novel splashily advertised by a well-funded publishing imprint with an excellent distribution network and a big fan base, I won't make enough money in royalties. Pshaw! I'm outta here."

 

[Halivar]

5 months is definitely not too little if you consider the fact that by the time you start writing the first draft of your manuscript, you already have:
1) A one-page detailed synopsis of the story
2) The first three chapters
and the killer:
3) A three-sentence decription of every chapter in the story.

One of the biggest killers of writing projects (so I hear) is writer's block: what happens next? If you have the skeleton, you know what happens next.

Let's say you spend five hours each Saturday putting flesh on your skeleton. By the time the deadline rolls around, you will have over 100 hours put into your manuscript. You can easily type 3 pages an hour (a pretty good rate, for me, anyways), giving you a 300 page manuscript. In print, that 300 could easily become 400 (novels aren't printed on A4, you know!) pages, and makes for nice, thick novel.

The point? Start now! Spend a week writing your skeleton and get to work. You have nothing to lose but five hours each Saturday!