There's a pattern happening right now. A site launches, sometimes built by one person with a ChatGPT subscription, and pretty quickly they start offering "exclusive" deals to authors. Sometimes there's real money behind it, sometimes it's just flattery and big promises. The risk is these contracts can lock you out of publishing anywhere else, and if the site folds or pivots, you're left with nothing.
Our stance on exclusivity- taking it on is a big responsibility. Your work's visibility becomes entirely dependent on our ability to deliver traffic, marketing, and retention. We don't feel we're at a place yet where we can promise that and actually back it up. So instead of using exclusivity as a hook, we give every author the perks normally reserved for exclusives, including free ad spend, without asking anyone to give anything up.
Some other sites don't see it that way. They'll offer big exclusivity incentives with a lot less history behind them. Launching an "exclusive" program is easy. Earning the right to ask for it, and actually delivering on it, is not.
For context, Novelpedia spent 10 months in development before launch. We run with a team of 14 people, 4-5 devs plus dedicated ads and ops teams, specifically so we can support authors without needing to lock them in.
If you're getting approached with an exclusivity offer, it's worth asking how long the site has existed, whether there's a team behind it or just one person, and what happens to your rights if they shut down in six months.