Let’s be honest: recently Episode hasn’t been the best of companies. We’ve found out that they own our stories and pretty much the USERS that sign its TOS. They’ve also shown they don’t care about small authors with their most recent update. It’s time for me (and many of the people I’ve spoken to) to migrate to Wattpad.
Share your story of Episode disappointment below and then give us your Wattpad username or a link to your profile!
Please don’t slam people. This is about practices we’re unhappy with, not spreading hate.
Thanks in advance!
I’m sick and tired of being underrepresented, silenced and treated like small authors are insignificant. I’m tired of working so hard to get my views up and promote other people when there is a clear class divide between big authors and the rest of us. I’m tired of the unfair, high standards for writers’ payments, and the fact that you don’t even get any of the money for the 500,000 reads you got to qualify in the first place. I’m tired of the fact that there’s a lack of communication between the Episode team and the community. I want my story to belong to me, not some shady company.
You can find me on Wattpad under the username ShanniiWrites. I’ll continue to support small authors and update Spotlight Sunday, but this is me done as an author. I may be active on the forums from time to time, but I’m abandoning all of my stories on the app. I wish you all the best. Find the first chapter of Queen of Freaks on Wattpad now!
Just a little side note: I started this post to give people the chance to air their grievances and explain why they left, but also for a second reason:
Wattpad is a big community, so it’s nice to know we have each other on there to help us through the move.
Well, the new update has been a bummer since my story needs to be calculated the first 48 hours once it’s published but other than that, it doesn’t bother me.
I’m concerned about community more because companies don’t go down hill overnight. They slowly do it. Episode has been going down hill for years and no one said anything but with one (1) update, OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING?!! WE’LL GET OVER THIS, WE ARE A COMMUNITY!! #EPISODELIFE
The community is trash for sure, Episode? well, if they get rid of all featured stories (that are fast paced and low quality) and finally care about diversity, it could be better, at least bearable.
I have a Wattpad account but I don’t quite remember the account, if I find it I’ll post it. I have an acc that I wrote a Teen Wolf fan fic when I was 12 year old… we don’t talk about that…
I’m just so disappointed by Episode. I’m still not sure if I’ll stop writing my story on Episode, but I’ll check out Wattpad. I won’t leave the Forums for now, because here are many great people, but I don’t like what Episode is doing with our ideas.
Yeah I dont think I’ll be able to convert my story into Episode style and from the looks of it, I’m not going to have much success even if I could. There’s way too many walls I’d have to get through just to submit ONE chapter.
For anyone that wants to read what I’ve got so far, it’s on Wattpad. My username on there is the same on here: MauriBlaze. The story is called Blood Price.
Warning: My story is urban and has a lot of profanity, so if that makes you uncomfortable, I’d advise against reading it.
I agree with you 200%. No doubt here… I don’t like the fact that I’m actually “selling” my story to a writing platform because eventually they are going to contact me and ask me if they could make it a featured story. So we’re basically selling our stories. That’s how I see it.
The issue with small authors has been going on for a while because the problem isn’t exactly solved because Episode still has to consider less known authors because there are a lot of new authors making stories on Episode everyday. A lot of them are noticing that it’s hard to become a known author on a platform where a lot of popular authors’ stories are plastered on the app.
The TOS we saw was kind of taken out of context. Our stories are protected under international copyright law, which comes before whatever is written in Episode’s TOS. Episode by no means owns our stories and can still be taken to task if they infringe on our rights without an agreement.
That being said, their behavior is very disheartening and as soon as another visual storytelling app opens up I am also very seriously considering leaving permanently.
I’ve been thinking about the same thing. I know my writing wouldn’t fit Wattpad because well, I’m not a good writer. I can show and tell, but I’m pretty sure my stories wouldn’t be enjoyable without the visual part. But then again some part of me wants to stop writing here so I will probably take a break to figure out what to do.
It’s bad to see people leaving the community, but I don’t really have any arguments to make them stay
I personally don’t like wattpad and never will. I read episode because I like how it’s interactive and how theres a both reading and watching tv element to it. If I wanted to read I would just read real books lol. Also there’s a lot of creepy fanfic on wattpad. If only choices opened up a user portal… I don’t think wattpad is a good alternative honestly and it doesn’t feel the same as episode and all the fun in directing and making the stories like a movie while also combining elements of a book. Wattpad can’t offer that aspect but I do hope another company is able to create something similar to episode.
I don’t usually comment on these type of things but…
Frankly, finding out that Episode “owns our stories” is completely disheartening. I’ve always had confidence in my own story — in a sense that I know it’s mine and mine alone. But now I see Episode stealing stories from their own authors disgusts me. Despite the copyright law, it still feels unsafe to continue writing on this app, and it even delays me from working on my story.
It has me questioning whether or not my story would be stolen from me one day just because I decided to write it on this app. However, if it does, I’ll be discontinuing it altogether and find some other type of platform to write it on. A platform where my own story would be mine alone.
Because of this, I might continue my story on my (slightly abandoned) Wattpad account; TheBigMystery
Edit: I guess while we’re on the subject of disappointment, I’d like to express that this company’s lack of communication with their own community baffles me. It seems they only make the effort of correcting mistakes when the mass majority call them out for it. Though, most of the time, they just stay silent. For me, the biggest problem is miscommunication — especially now that some authors, like myself, had just found out that our own stories may not belong to us alone after all.
I acknowledge some of their efforts to make the changes we ask for, but we can’t deny that it’s too little to compensate for the various other problems everyone is encountering today. Sure, it’s their app, they don’t need to give attention to every single problem, but at least focus on the big problems instead of posting memes on instagram Moreover, this is just my opinion.
Correct me if im wrong, I’m sure you probably know more about this than me, but the reason something like that would be in ToS would be so that if Episode was taken to court for plagiarism, they could whip out the ‘you agreed to it’ defence if it was a story already on their platform they plagiarised.
At least that was my interpretation, which when considered alongside the lack of an ability to delete stories is very underhanded and still predatory.
I’m glad you would go to another visual app, I need my fix of your content xD
I believe the TOS are an agreement because we all agreed to them. Basically they have the rights to rip our story off, as long as it’s in an Episode-related capacity. It’s interesting, because it does actually give them the right to copy and change all those stories, so they’re legally allowed to do what people have been complaining about
It also means that if I ever wanted to publish my story, episode would have the rights to continue to promote and mess around with the first part of it, so if it ever did get big (I’m praying), they could hold onto whatever’s already been published on Episode. At least that means it’s nothing more/less
-
Moreover, this is just my opinion.
TBM