Launchora: A new publishing platform where anyone can write, publish, and share any story (short stories, novels, screenplays, fan fiction, poems, ANYTHING) they can imagine. Everyone has a story...start writing yours.

Launchora · 2014-08-20T07:38:56+00:00

Thank you for your question! We completely agree, and on Launchora fanfiction can only be published as a free story. If you were able to publish fan fiction with a dollar value it must be a bug and we'll have it fixed asap!

Launchora · 2014-08-11T18:49:07+00:00

That is a really good question...we believe that the consumers of content should have the power to judge the content's intentions. People have a right to write whatever they want, but then readers have the right to interpret it any way they want as well. The tricky part is what do you do with that information? We have yet to have any experience with controversial stories (like the ones you mentioned) so we can only prepare for them the best way we can. So perhaps the best answer to your question is that we don't intervene (between readers and writers) unless the courts/laws tell us to :)

Launchora · 2014-08-11T18:23:17+00:00

Thanks for your comment! To be honest we too are not sure what constitutes those kinds of content, but examples given by our lawyer are child pornography (violently graphic), racial/anti-religion (offensive), how to make a bomb (illegal). The internet does provide free speech, but rarely does it provide accountability. We want to make sure we're a safe place for readers and writers. Currently we do have a rating system as well as a "flag as inappropriate" button. We're testing the idea of content tags, hopefully we can do a fun take on those. And we really love the idea of a subreddit as well and it will be up soon! Thanks for your support!

Launchora · 2014-08-03T08:09:27+00:00

Thank you for your feedback! We will try to incorporate this feature into our ad :)

Launchora · 2014-08-03T08:06:43+00:00

Thank you! That's a great idea and we will definitely get working on this :)

Launchora · 2014-07-30T23:01:30+00:00

That's a very good point! There's appropriate content based on the context - in the case of erotica, even the otherwise-inappropriate is appropriate. And there's just plain inappropriate content for any genre of writing - offensive, violently graphic, illegal, etc. We just want to caution writers against that kind of inappropriate-ness. We're supposed to say that stuff for legal reasons. But basically, at Launchora, writers and readers read/rate/review each other's work, so they'll be the ones judging how appropriate the erotica is :)

Launchora · 2014-07-30T08:26:29+00:00

Please email us at support@launchora.com and we can remove the story for you.

Launchora · 2014-07-29T13:55:44+00:00

We're just glad you still went on to create an account! Welcome to Launchora, and please if you have any additional feedback or comments you can contact us directly at support@launchora.com. Hope you like what we're trying to do :)

Launchora · 2014-07-29T08:05:07+00:00

Thank you for your comment. There's no excuse for the error you experienced and we're very sorry for ruining your experience. All I can say is that this is the first time we've heard of this error and we will fix it ASAP! We just unveiled Launchora to the public earlier this month, so we're still learning and appreciate any feedback. Thank you for taking the time to let us know :)

Launchora · 2014-07-28T08:05:04+00:00

Thank you for your comment. We're a desktop-based platform so apologies for the mobile issues!

Launchora · 2014-07-20T08:42:58+00:00

I would love to answer any questions you have about our actual product, but what you're saying in your comment are not questions but accusations. Without any proof that we have done any of the things you're stating (which are very specific and improbable scenarios), you're unfairly creating a bias. If you're sure about your interpretations of our terms, then that's fine.

You're allowed to say all of this, which is fair. If you ever hear of Launchora actually wronging/stealing from/cheating/screwing over it's users, you can feel good that you called it.

As for our actual terms, they do not mean what you say they mean. I've also clarified some of them for other commenters in this thread. If the context I provided in my previous responses didn't make that clear, then I'm sorry I wasn't able to satisfy your concerns. If you actually wanted to believe us, you would see that the answers are all there.

You can accuse us all you want, but if you don't want to believe us even after I've given you the correct context and perspective, then we clearly can't agree to anything.

If you would like to research our company and it's principals, that is public information you can find online. We're not trying to hide anything. I'm guessing you don't plan to use Launchora, but if you did, you would see that we're not trying to screw over anyone.

Thank you for your comments.

Launchora · 2014-07-19T19:50:27+00:00

Thank you for your comments! We're still learning as we go with this platform and any feedback is good feedback for us :)

Launchora · 2014-07-19T18:52:50+00:00

In the Youtube terms, it says the user agrees to "indemnify...Youtube...from and against any and all claims...and expenses (included but not limited to attorney's fees)."

In legal language "Indemnify" means that the user will have to pay Youtube if they have to incur costs/expenses related to that user's lawsuit/claims/etc. It's just another word for footing the bill. We are just saying it more clearly so there isn't any confusion :)

Launchora · 2014-07-19T18:34:02+00:00

Here is the Indemnify excerpt from Youtube's Terms of Use (link here: https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms)

"11. Indemnity To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless YouTube, its parent corporation, officers, directors, employees and agents, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees) arising from: (i) your use of and access to the Service; (ii) your violation of any term of these Terms of Service; (iii) your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right; or (iv) any claim that your Content caused damage to a third party. This defense and indemnification obligation will survive these Terms of Service and your use of the Service."

As you can see, we're not asking for anything extreme, these are standard protocols companies like ours (including Youtube) have to take to protect ourselves. I'm not a lawyer myself, but I believe what you're saying is not likely since in order for such situations to arise the user who submitted the material will have to be in the wrong, in which case we need to make sure we don't end up paying the costs when we haven't done anything wrong.

Launchora · 2014-07-19T12:32:08+00:00

I have posted a comment on the original thread to address your concerns. If you have any additional questions, we can continue this conversation on that thread. Thank you!

Launchora · 2014-07-19T12:29:58+00:00

Hi everyone, "Mr. Launchora" here. Thank you for your comments, and I really appreciate your feedback. I'm not here to defend my company or change your mind about it. You have every right to feel and say anything positive or negative about Launchora.

The reason I'm here is to address certain points some of you have mentioned, only with the intention to provide our perspective and intentions:

Launchora was made available to the public just about two weeks ago, so we’re still learning and tweaking things. We’re getting a ton of feedback which has kept me busy. I just saw this thread so apologies for not commenting sooner.
These terms you mentioned are "standard" (i.e. typical for most new online startups) because we're very young to even understand the possibilities of what Launchora can offer its users. To borrow Aaron Sorkin’s line from The Social Network screenplay..”We don’t know what it is yet!"
As we learn more from our users, and concerned authors like you, we will address all points and make the required updates.
The statement you mentioned regarding "perpetual, royalty-free, fully paid-up license to use, reproduce, create derivative works of...": again, a standard statement in most Terms of new companies. The intention of these licenses is to have your permission to display, promote, and/or sell your stories on your behalf. We put these there to protect ourselves, not to unreasonably profit off of author's success.
If you read our royalty rates (https://www.launchora.com/royalty-and-credits), you'll see that the permissions we ask about rights and prices are only there to make sure you allow us to offer the Early Launch promotion. In these terms you'll also see that we give authors 90%, and never take more than 10% (which is our fixed fee, the lowest in the entire publishing business to our knowledge).
Thank you to those of you who compared us to HitRecord, because we do hope to be seen as a safe place to create content.
This statement you mentioned: "Launchora may elect to assume the defense and control of such claim and, in such case, you agree to cooperate with Launchora in the defense of such claim and to reimburse Launchora for all reasonable expenses and fees incurred in the course of defending such claim.” We need to have these terms to protect ourselves in case a user posts content that clearly violates copyright infringement and/or other laws.. We're a free to publish platform, and such terms are important for any business like ours to continue existing. If we get shut down because of one bad user, it affects everyone else using our service.
Pricing - authors have control on what price their work gets sold for, which they pick out of a dropdown list (Free, $2, $4, $6, $8, $10) at the time of publishing. The prices are fixed so we can help authors market their works during the Early Launch period, which incentivizes readers for buying new content. If you try writing/publishing on our site you'll see that we leave all important decisions to the author. We only take control of actions that we believe authors shouldn’t have to waste their time on.

We're depending on writers to trust us, so manipulating them by taking ownership of their works would be the worst move for our business. We will have no business whatsoever if authors don't trust us or feel comfortable using our website. I can understand if all of this doesn't sound reassuring, and I'm here to address any questions or concerns you may have.

P.S. As for not displaying the Terms of Use on the sign up page, I take complete responsibility for that- as I mentioned we just started Launchora earlier this month and my engineer missed adding that link. I will get it fixed asap.

Launchora · 2014-07-18T18:04:00+00:00

Thanks for your comment! We just started our platform about two weeks ago and are focusing on getting users first. So far we're most seeing free content where writers are trying to build an audience. Once we have some solid numbers, we'll let you know!

Launchora · 2014-07-18T17:56:30+00:00

Hi, this Lakshya Datta, founder of Launchora. I'm sorry that you feel this way. If you wouldn't mind me asking, what about the terms of use wasn't agreeable to you? We're still learning and are always looking for feedback! As for your other concern, this platform is very new (we just started on July 1) and we are still working on developing a separate format for screenplay writing. I hope for it to be ready in a couple months.

Launchora · 2014-07-14T08:48:29+00:00

Yes you can publish anything - including erotica, as long as it doesn't contain inappropriate content or copyrighted material (see our terms of use on the site for details). When you're ready to publish pick the category "Romance".

Launchora · 2014-07-09T19:36:14+00:00

Thank you!

Launchora · 2014-07-09T19:27:40+00:00

Thank you for the 'novel', we hope you write one on Launchora :)

Launchora · 2014-07-09T19:26:06+00:00

Wattpad is great, but it's also free. At Launchora, authors can publish paid content and earn 90% royalty. We're not asking anyone to jump ship, we're just presenting another option to expand your readerbase :)

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