But lo and behold, the article I was reading was posted in December 2018. Many changes have taken place since then. But perusing through the Webnovel site, how authors can earn is through their “Contracted Works Guaranteed System,” where chosen authors sign a royalty contract with the company to share revenues earned from subscriptions, direct sales, and other forms of monetization from using the platform.

Sounds fair enough to me. I have written some novels of high fantasy and science fiction in the past that I have submitted to traditional publishers and were sadly rejected, but with the consolation of encouragement telling me to keep writing. Now, this is the chance for my old manuscripts to shine. I am determined to post them in installments and entice readers to follow them.

But before I do that, I want to make one last digging effort. On Google Search, I typed, “Is Webnovel legit?” The results that yielded are a combination of positive and negative reviews about the platform. I read a blog called “Why Do People Hate Qidian Webnovel?” This article explains that Webnovel lacks any oversight, as the platform thinks nothing of plagiarism and will host content anyone gives them even if that content is stolen. The author of the piece, who goes by the pseudonym of Whatsawhizzer, laments that his novel, World of Women, that he published on the platform, was stolen from him wholesale and was copied and pasted on Qidian.

Whoa. This is a red flag for me. In the past, I have self-published my novels as e-books on Amazon and other online bookstores. Piracy became my biggest problem as I saw my work on Russian book sites offering free downloads. I had to pull out my e-books. I would rather not have them published than to see them stolen online.

I still signed up for an account with Webnovel, but before posting my work, I wanted to get in touch with their support group. I sent them an email inquiring about copyright issues and asked them what guarantees they could give to protect the author’s original work. I didn’t receive any response, so I solicited the help of one of their admins moderating their online forums. I was told that responses could take three days to a week and that Webnovel now has a DMCA request policy should authors request a takedown of their work published without their permission.

As of this writing, I started posting my science fiction novel, The Wrongfully Chosen on the Webnovel platform, and I am treading with caution. So far, I have posted ten chapters, and I am steadily gaining readership from India and Norway according to my stats. I am making a follow-up query on when I can start to monetize my work and how to apply for a Premium account. So far, I have not yet received any response and it has already been two days. I will have to inquire with one of the admins in their forum to expedite the answer to my concerns. Despite the uncertainties my work is facing in this platform, I plan to give it a chance. However, if I don’t get any response to my query, I plan to suspend posting further chapters.