I stared blankly at the vircontract on my screen. If there was anything I wanted when I began writing professionally, it was to be heard through everything I was going to write. I wanted to be known as the girl who spoke through words, I wanted to tell captivating, realistic stories that people would be thrilled by.
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However, the contract before me, and two others I had gotten that year rendered that desire null.
This particular contract said I could never claim or have access to the story I was going to be writing for the company immediately I submitted the stories to them.
It felt like they wanted to wipe me off the face of the writing earth, my stories were all I had to represent me and I wasn't comfortable with giving them away without a form of recognition.
Yet recognition did not pay the bills. At least not yet.
I sighed heavily as I exited the document and went to grab the meatroll that had been lying in my snack carton for weeks. I wasn't a fan of meatrolls but since they were gotten for me by my roommate, I didn't want to give them out.
As I chewed, I turned the terms of the contract over in my mind. This was the most strict contract I had gotten so far and the pay was not even worth it.
I was supposed to submit a complete novel outline and if it was approved according to their standard, I would be paid for the job. If not, I was going to be dismissed and only given a commission for the outline I had written without further access to the story.
The question was, if it eventually didn't fit into their standard, why would I still be robbed of ownership rights?
I wasn't comfortable with the contract so I called my boyfriend, Datti, who was more exposed than I was to talk about it.
“Forward this contract to me on WhatsApp, I want to see it for myself,” he said. I did so and remained on the call chewing on my meatrolls as he read it through. “This doesn't make sense,” he said when he was done.
I knew he was going to say something like that. He was never comfortable with me picking up ghostwriting as a side hustle in the first place.
“These guys are trying to rob you, babe,” he said.
“I wanted to know if it was just me or if the contract was too strict” I responded.
“No now, you can't take this job. I'm certain that your story will not be approved whether it's good or not just so they can have that outline for free. Eventually, they can give it to someone else to develop for them” And that was the truth. I sighed again.
“But I need this job, and I'll never know unless I try”
“That’s your intellectual property babe. You can't give it out without any form of protection”
I had to laugh at that point.
“Protection? From where? I can only get protection on my stories if I apply for it so I can file a lawsuit in case of infringement…..”
“And since you don't have that, how about you don't take the job at all? You can always get better jobs that wouldn't offer such stringent conditions”
I knew he was right about the company attempting to steal my intellectual property and if I had a means, I would report them to the online community where I had pitched my profile to apply for jobs, but like I said before, I needed the money.
“How about I give them my own contract?”
It was Datti’s turn to laugh at me
“And you think they will honor it? People are looking for a way to steal your story you're saying you will give them a contract. Who is employing who?”
I saw his point then. They were the ones in a place to give a contract and not me who was simply trying to get a job with them.
“It's done then. I can't have this particular job” Datti could read the sad resignation in my voice.
“Listen, babe, it's better to protect your intellectual property by yourself especially since you haven't registered to get a copyright yet. Don't be too quick to give it away, it's your precious knowledge, if you lose it, you may never have an inspiration like it again”
I wish he was right beside me so I could put my arms around him in gratitude but since he wasn't, I said “Thank you” and went ahead to decline the contract because Just like Datti said, I needed to protect my intellectual property by myself since I hadn't registered for copyright yet.
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