You write …
Series
… featuring ongoing or self-contained stories
… short and snappy, in (micro) episodes or as multi-part series
… dialogue-heavy and gripping, without any unnecessary padding
… with the intention of bringing the series to an end.
Stand-alone volumes
… featuring self-contained stories with no sequels
… in a clean e-book format
Basic requirements
Genre:
romance – thriller (action) – comedy – fantasy – sci-fi – crime
(including subgenres)
children’s books or comics
Languages:
German – English – Spanish – French – Italian
You get
for series:
Participation in the subscription scheme
50% of all net subscription revenue goes directly into the central revenue pool, which is distributed fairly among all active works.
High security
Thanks to sophisticated security mechanisms, we provide the best possible protection for your works against pirates.
Full control over original works:
Non-exclusive rights, monthly payouts, and fair notice periods.
for stand-alones:
You will receive 70% of the net proceeds from each sale. Payments are made monthly, subject to a minimum amount of 20 euros.
Full control over your books:
Non-exclusive rights, monthly payouts.
Write, Publish, and Earn Twice
Maximize your earnings via VG WORT.
The VG WORT Turbo for your royalties!
We are not a traditional publisher that profits from your copyrights or royalties. On our platform, your subscribers read securely and protected in our online reader.
The best part: You can integrate your own personal VG WORT tracking pixels directly with us! This applies not only to our series and serials, but now also to official sample readings of your standalone books.
Whether series or standalone: For your sample readings and permitted secondary exploitation, we provide the appropriate technology so that every external view is tracked directly for you. Since sample readings on author websites or partner platforms are heavily trafficked, this accumulates into a nice extra income over the year.
(Note for Austria and Switzerland: In these countries, a perception agreement with Literar Mechana or Pro Litteris is usually sufficient to receive royalties.)
Frequently questions
Concept & Submission
Our portal was created as a real community project. With us, the focus is not on the hard-hitting competition or the pressure for maximum sales figures, but on creating together, mutual inspiration and visibility for each individual book.
We want to offer an environment in which writing is a pleasure and every work – regardless of writing speed, genre or number of pages – is perceived as a personal heart project and valued with a fixed share from the common pool.
The portal should be a creative space and a stage for all of us, not primarily a means of denying a living.
We are a platform for e-books.
We do not offer editing, proofreading, or cover design services. As an author, you are responsible for the quality and completion of your work. We only review submitted books against our quality and content criteria before publishing them.
Once you have set up your account, you can instantly submit your first episode via the dashboard. Depending on how many book submissions we have, the exam and setting can take between 12 and 48 hours.
Our team and book jury check whether it meets the formal criteria (e.g. B. Genre fit, no illegal content). If everything fits, your book will be included on the platform and will be available to our readers.
Classic platforms almost always work with star ratings, rankings and top lists. At first glance, this has an orientational effect, but in practice it often leads to a skew: Subjective criticism, taste judgments or even targeted reviews can quickly drag books down, although they are great in their niche.
We deliberately refrain from public reviews and rigid top lists in order to preserve a fair and neutral environment. Every work on our platform should have the same chance to be discovered – without algorithmic pressure or the frustration of bad grades.
Remuneration & payout
Under the subscription model, we distribute 50% of our total net revenue directly to a large pool of authors each month.
The total pool is divided by the number of books published on the platform. This results in a fixed monthly amount per book.
When a book is sold, you receive 70% of the net price.
A model that pays for read pages requires that success can be planned – it is often like a lottery. Those who do not have a huge range or slip backwards in the algorithm are hardly rewarded for their work, even if the book is great.
For us, this works differently: As with a fair royalty, you will be rewarded for making your finished work available. We find it fairer to treat each book as a valuable building block from the beginning, rather than sending the authors into a tough displacement contest.
Often the argument comes that it is unfair if an author is remunerated with only one book as much as someone with a large backlist. But thinking has trained us large platforms where you have to constantly burn advertising budgets in order to be seen at all. Instead, we believe in a partnership base: every contributed work enriches the platform – and this is exactly what is reliably and independently of click-through numbers is remunerated.
You have a complete overview: In your personal author dashboard, you can track the sales figures for your available books.
The payout is made monthly as soon as your credit has reached the limit of €20. If you are in a month below, the amount will simply be taken into the next month until the limit is reached.
Absolutely!
You can submit tracking pixels for any excerpts of 1,800 characters or more.
Following an internal discussion with VG Wort, we have decided not to use paywall pixels, as this is not compatible with our responsibilities under copyright law and our internal measures to protect against piracy.
Yes, the place of residence is irrelevant when entering into a representation agreement. What matters is the distribution of the author’s works in Germany.
Fanno eccezione l’Austria e la Svizzera. In questi paesi è sufficiente stipulare il contratto di gestione dei diritti con una delle tre società affiliate Literar Mechana (Austria), Pro Litteris (Svizzera) o VG WORT per ricevere le royalties tramite la società di gestione collettiva prescelta.
https://vgwort.de/service/faqs/wahrnehmungsvertrag
Rights & Obligations
Yes, you retain the full copyrights to your work. You only grant us the distribution rights for our platform. This also means that you can publish your books in parallel on other portals.
However, there are two important exceptions that you need to consider:
- Amazon KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited (KU): If your book is signed in to Amazon KU, Amazon’s rules stipulate that the title must not be available on any other platform during the 90-day exclusive period. You can still submit your book to us in advance. Please enter the exact date on which the book will expire at KU – only at this date will it be published on our platform.
- Translated works: In order to ensure fairness to the translators/speakers, translated parts can only be removed from our platform again with the consent of the service providers.
Exact details are set out in your author agreement.
In order for your book or series to be unlocked on the platform, the following formal, content and tactical criteria must be met:
- Cover resolution: Your book cover must have a minimum resolution of 500 x 800 pixels.
- In accordance with our authors’ agreement, any series that have been started must be brought to a proper conclusion.
- Allowed genres: romance, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, action, crime comics and children’s and youth books.
- Unauthorized content/genres: horror and drama.
- Extreme and hardcore thriller as well as psychological thriller.
- Violent content or content that is directed against certain races, religions, or same-sex.
Yes, and not just for the portal itself. We are of course promoting your books and series on social media. Of course, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be for the benefit if you advertise yourself. Every subscriber won brings the whole community boost and notoriety.
This is what we have planned for our subscription model in the future! We want to make your stories accessible in the long term, across language and national borders, and to create emotionally engaging listening experiences through professional narrators. To achieve this, we do not use AI models, but real people.
The great thing about this is that there will be a fully collaborative model for translators and narrators. Instead of large financial advances, they will receive 50 per cent of the revenue from the respective translated or narrated works on an ongoing basis.
However, as such a move requires a solid foundation, we are focusing initially on building up our library. As soon as enough works are available, we will gradually expand this network to pave the way for your series to reach the international market.