Beware - Read The Contract (Duh!)

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. This post is a bit different in the sense that it is about a sore point I've experienced time and time again as an author. I've received many offers in the past (most of them obvious scams) to license my work. I won't lie, it is absolutely flattering and always gives me a glimmer of hope that I'm on the right track. That one day I might be a successful author, and when I say successful author, I mostly mean being able to have that as my full time job.

Being an indie author is tough work. I wish for a lot of things regarding my writing, mostly that I was better at marketing and pushing my work out there. That's why these offers are so alluring. They feel like a great way to push my work out there to more audiences. Some offers have panned out, for the most part. They didn't skyrocket me to super-stardom or anything but they did gain me more fans that I otherwise would not have received. So yes, there can be a benefit to taking a leap and trusting these licensing offers.

And then there's the ones that are obviously taking advantage of us indie authors. Straight up trying to rip away these worlds, characters, and universes we put so much work into. It makes me unfathomably pissed off when I see a contract/offer come over to me that is weighted so heavily in favor of the company and basically screws over the author. One such offer did come over to me. One that would've given one of my worlds, Hybrid Earth, a way to come alive. I did my due diligence. I researched and looked into the person that sent me the offer. After carefully reviewing everything, I couldn't find any of the usual signs this offer was a scam. So I reached back out and said I was interested, my hopes higher than they've been in a long time.

To make a long story short, this is my recent reply to them:

The contract is asking for exclusive rights for the life of the copyright, joint copyrights, ability to create spin offs without my knowledge or consent, the ability to make changes to my universe, world, and characters without my knowledge or consent, only 6% royalties on an unclear revenue stream, the ability to expand into different media (i.e. video games, comic books/graphic novels, etc) without my knowledge or consent, etc. These are all incredibly unfair to myself, the actual creator of Hybrid Earth. The world is mine. The characters are mine. I put a lot of time and effort into creating every piece. I don't feel comfortable signing away my rights to it, especially considering I don't appear to get much back and your team of writers can make any changes they want to my universe. As much as I would love to see Hybrid Earth come alive, I do not want to give it up to do so. Now, if there were a more equal and equitable contract that benefits us both, I would reconsider. Since that doesn't appear to be the case, I will respectfully have to decline the offer.

I don't like being taken advantage of or seeing my work be warped and twisted into something unrecognizable. This post serves as me venting but also as a warning to others. As tempting as it might be to accept an offer like this, don't throw away your hard work. I've seen so many adaptations of others work (authors much more successful than myself) be turned into something completely wrong. Something that isn't true to their original idea or story. It sucks. Every time. Not to mention, the company doing the adaptation reaps many benefits and financial gains while the author gets practically nothing in return.

I am not going to name the company that made me this offer. But just know, I hope that someone there reads this and makes changes. To advertise that your company basically wants to help indie authors get more exposure, this is an extremely poor way to show it.

Update - I did hear back from someone in upper management and like I thought, they were unwilling to negotiate better terms and essentially don't want to have a more fair and equitable contract.