WE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING EMAIL TWO WEEKS AGO:

I’m writing to you about Reedsy Prompts, their weekly writing contest. For $5, you can submit a story to their contest, with the potential to win a couple hundred dollars. Seems innocent enough, right? Except slipped into their Terms of Use is the following (apologies for the length, but it’s important):

“Each entrant retains the copyright to their entry but grants to Reedsy a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, publish, edit and otherwise use the entry on our website(s) and platform(s) to publish all or part of your entry and in all media now known or hereafter discovered at our discretion.

“You agree that such use by Reedsy may include editing and publishing your entry, including within a compilation together with others, into a book format (or any other format) which may be published and sold or provided free of charge at Reedsy’s discretion.

“If your story is selected as Winner (and even if you are not selected as a Winner), you may still publish the story elsewhere, but the publication must include: the relevant prompt; acknowledgment to Reedsy.com for providing the prompt that inspired the story.

“This acknowledgment should be in the form of a mention, and in the case of a digital publication, a “dofollow” link back to https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/.

“By submitting an entry, you agree that Reedsy may at its sole discretion edit, adapt, abridge, or translate the entry for the purposes listed in these terms and conditions.

“You grant permission to Reedsy to use your name and entry for promotional purposes without additional compensation, and to publish all or part of your entry in all media now known or hereafter discovered, worldwide and on the Internet and World Wide Web, without notice, review or approval.”

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Now that I have been exposed to a writing community outside of Reedsy—something that took several months to happen—I comprehend just how big a deal this is. But to someone who has no clue what’s going on, and who views Reedsy—a multi-million dollar corporation—as something that it is looking out for them?

Anyway, point being, I have several short stories that I wrote in response to Reedsy Prompts. I paid $5 each for the “honor” of essentially self-publishing them on their site, forever giving away—not just giving away, but paying for—the First Serial Rights. And it’s not like Reedsy is curated, either, in any way. The closest thing is if people report stories, and then they’ll probably ignore them anyway.

Anyway. Sorry for the rant. I’m upset by the whole experience.

So I have a story. In its original “Reedsy” form, it’s 2961 words. In its revised form—same characters and general plot, but with several deletions, a lot of reorganization (including a change of tense from present to past), and a lot of new additions—it’s now at 4425 words. Almost a full 50% more, not including all the deletions and other changes.

I am currently peddling it as a reprint, because I’m trying to be honest about it, using the same title (because I absolutely love the title). But is it a reprint? Is it something new? Can I offer First Serial Rights to it, because it hasn’t been published in this form?

And, I guess even more importantly, is what Reedsy doing actually dishonest and deceitful? Is there anything that can be done to rescue my other stories (which includes several involving the same character, for a potential series of stories or even a book)? Or am I just out of luck?

Thanks for your time. And, again, I’m sorry about how long this went. But I don’t know where else to turn, without hunting down actual lawyers trained in this sort of thing who’d require money.

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I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice. This is my opinion, having been a writer, author, and publisher for three decades. Also, while some may state that we “compete” with Reedsy, I would disagree. We only have four contests per year (it looks like Reedsy has one every week, with hundreds of participants). Our prize amounts are higher and, unlike Reedsy, we don’t take rights from participants. Also, when we refer authors to service providers, the authors pay those providers directly (not us) according to the terms they work out with that service provider. And, the authors work directly with those service providers via email, phone, and/or Zoom, not through us or our system. 

It’s a revision; not exactly a reprint. If you don’t follow their rules, you could be violating that contract. While I doubt Reedsy / Reedsy.com would create bad press for themselves by suing you, you honestly never know what a company will do.

Personally, I feel their rights-grab is ridiculous! Each quarter, we host the very popular WritersWeekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest that also costs $5. (1st place wins $300; 2nd place wins $250; 3rd place wins $200 + there are 100 honorable mentions that get free writing-related books of their choice from our catalog). Only 500 writers are permitted to participate in each contest.

For those who didn’t win one of the top three prizes, the writers retain ALL rights to their work. For the winners, we only ask for the non-exclusive right to post the stories on our website. That’s it. I would NEVER take Reedsy’s laundry list of rights away from writers! Their contract terms are egregious, at the very least. But, again, people rarely read contracts so Reedsy gets to keep those rights. Like you implied above, it seems like you’re basically paying them to take rights away from you. Only one person wins each of their contests yet they’re taking ALL of those rights listed above from ALL of the other participants. Again, they’re legally able to do what the contract specifies.

Aside from their contests, Reedsy is also like Fiverr but they pedal service providers for authors. They charge the author directly, take a cut of each transaction, and send the rest to the service provider. Authors should be able to get refunds from Reedsy if something goes awry but some authors (see the links below) are claiming they’re not getting those refunds.

Unfortunately, we’re finding LOTS of complaints about Reedsy online. 

Pissed Consumer – You don’t want to miss these! Wow!!!

Trustpilot – Don’t miss these, either!

A Rant: My Thoughts and Experiences Using Reedsy Discovery

Reedsy is not located in the United States so, if things go south, and if you ARE in the U.S., you might have a very difficult time getting your money back. Filing lawsuits overseas is expensive and extremely challenging. One author on the Pissed Consumer website reported that he lost $12K. Another author wrote, “Paid $7,000 and got a 1 page edited synopsis that I initially wrote.”

At WritersWeekly Marketplace, authors can get free quotes from professional editors, illustrators, book marketers, an attorney, and more. The author works directly with the professional by email and/or phone AND the author pays the professional directly. There is no middleman. So, there’s no risk of getting ripped off. Also, all of the professionals have been personally vetted by us. We’ve never received even one complaint about any of them over the years.

And, remember, we always advise authors to NEVER pay for book reviews! If someone finds out you paid for book reviews, it can harm your reputation and, subsequently, your book sales. Read this:

How To EASILY Get Awesome and Honest Book Reviews That REALLY Carry Weight With Readers!

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