Forum: Author Hangout

G'day,

Peoples, and others, I received a request from a site called ShadowyTales asking me to become an author for them. Below is my reply to them:

G'day,

I love the note, especially since this is the SECOND email I have from you on this. I looked at the site, and I doubt it will do much for me, especially since I couldn't readily find any information on royalty payments rates for anything published by you, nor did I like the fact it seems the only way to publish via you is to you your program to write the story instead of just loading a completed and validated e-pub, pdf, or html documents.

Since I usually write 50,000 words or more per story and already have over 3,000,000 words in print via Lulu and Stories On-line, I've no interest in having to try and stuff the stories into your on-line program.

So, thanks, but no thanks.

Ernest

The site almost looks like a copy of other sites I've seen that have fallen by the wayside, and I don't like the fact they want people to put stories on their site, even sell books, but I couldn't find anything to say how much they pay you.

Just thought to let you know so you don't have to waste your time on it if they also contact you.

I received the same offer—apparently they're doing a blanket invitation to everyone on ASSTR, sniping ASSTR's author base. I tried, in vain, for about an hour to access their site last night—never getting an error message—the page just freezing.

Apparently the key to your questions (about their Terms & Conditions) is answered by this blog entry: "Publish your work for free at Shadowy Tales". The answer is, you publish it for free, meaning you receive no compensation for your work.

Also, the site is a mess, as it keeps freezing my browser whenever I visit the site.

I agree, it's not worth wasting your time on.

It seems a combination of FanFic, racist stereotypes (lots of dominant German women dominating men) and other similar stereotypes. Their 'store' sells a variety of goods from sex toys to cheap-assed lingerie.

However, like ASSTR, it doesn't seem to limit content—meaning it'll soon cater to the kiddie-porn story crowd (which is what's strangling ASSTR at the moment, as that single market has changed most legitimate authors from the site).