If Instagram Can Sell Your Photos Without Your Permission, What Is Next?

I'm sure you've all heard that Instagram was going to change their Terms of Service. After January 16, 2013 Instagram wanted to sell its users' photos without their permission and without compensation. (See: Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos)

Instagram has since backed down and has pledged to remove "language from its legal terms that would have let it sell users' photos or use them in advertisements" (Instagram apologizes to users: We won't sell your photos).

Instragram Backed Down But Who Will Be Next?

Nevertheless, it boggles my mind that a company felt it had the right to suddenly change its Terms of Service to give them the rights to sell their users' creations without their permission and without any form of remuneration. That is brazen.

As Nathan Bransford writes:

WordPress shouldn't be able to publish books pulled from people's blogs. The makers of canvas and paint don't own a painting. Providing the platform shouldn't mean the company then owns and profits from the creation.... [I]f there's money to be made directly off someone's content, it should accrue to the creator. (Instagram reminds us that we are the product for sale)

Think if suddenly Wattpad announced they were changing their Terms of Service and now had the right to publish any story hosted on their servers without the author's consent and without compensating the author?

Wattpad isn't doing that, and as far as I know isn't going to do it, but the idea that it is possible for a company to make such a brash move is disconcerting to say the least.

Do you use Instagram? Perhaps I'm overreacting. What is your take on this issue?

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Photo credit: "Water and Fire..... and a cold morning" by Sukanto Debnath under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Can Wattpad Help You Sell Books?

What is Wattpad? 

For writers, Wattpad is a creative, welcoming and completely free community to connect with readers from around the world. Writers can build an engaged fan base, share their work with a huge audience and receive instant feedback on their stories.

There are millions of ways to make an impact on Wattpad! We see writers serializing their content, collaborating with readers over plot twists, interacting with fans on cover art and working together to create video trailers. (Wattpad, About)

Interesting. The question is: Can Wattpad help you sell books?

It did for Brittany Geragotelis. 13 million Wattpad users read Brittany's book, Life's a Witch, a contemorary retelling of the Salem witch trials. Bolstered by the positive feedback Brittany published her book on Amazon thorugh createspace.

Interestingly, Brittany Geragotelis was nearly published with Harper a few years before.

About six years ago [Brittany] she had an agent and came close to being published in the conventional manner. “My agent came close to a deal with Harper Children’s,” said Geragotellis ... “but it didn’t happen and my agent eventually dropped me.” (YA Author with Huge Wattpad Fan Base Tries Self-Publishing)

That is a familiar story! Fortunately for Brittany, Life's a Witch sold well and opened up a number of options for her. Ultimately she chose to enlist the help of an agent--Kevan Lyon of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency--and eventually sold her book at auction to "Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in a three-book, six-figure deal that features an e-book prequel series to be released in 2012" (S&S Acquires Self-Pubbed 'Life's a Witch' in Three-Book Deal).

Not bad!

Of course that's just one story and Brittany Geragotelis's book was one of the most popular books on Wattpad, if not the most popular, but it has worked for other writers as well, writers such as David Gaughran. David writes:

Wattpad approached me just before Christmas [2011] to see if I would be interested in making some of my work available there (for free), and this seemed like a natural fit. I agreed to post some short stories, and to serialize A Storm Hits Valparaiso over five weeks. In return, Wattpad have pledged to promote my work to their community [...]. (What’s Up With Wattpad?)

It turns out David's book did very well, garnering over 2 million reads on Wattpad. Although David has taken his story down, you can still see his profile: David Gaughran over at Wattpad.

There's a great discussion on whether Wattpad can help authors sell books over on Lindsay Buroker's blog (Can Posting Stories on Wattpad Help You Sell Books?). The discussion in the comment section is especially good.

It's worth noting that Wattpad isn't only for writers:

During the summer of 2012, Wattpad in collaboration with Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet/novelist/literary critic, held the "Attys"; the first major poetry contest offering a chance to poets on Wattpad to compete against each other in one of two categories, either as an "Enthusiast" or a "Competitor" [emphasis mine]. (Wattpad, Wikipedia)

Have you tried Wattpad? If so, what did you think of the experience?

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