Plain answers.

The open marketplace for African writing. You find and choose your writer; the platform holds the contract, the milestone plan and the development gates that keep the work on track from first brief to final delivery.

Commission a writer when you are paying someone to create something new: a memoir, a grant application, an edit of your manuscript. Post a pitch when you already have a book, script or idea and want a publisher, producer, co-author or other partner you have not met yet. Make a deal when you have found the other party and want to agree and sign terms: a publishing deal, a film option, a licence or a royalty split. See all three side by side.

Three routes, and you always choose: post a brief to the open board, invite a shortlist you name, or hire one writer directly. Writers bid blind, and you compare structured bids side by side.

Anyone can set up a writer profile, as on Upwork: there is no admission test. Each writer shows a sample for every kind of work they offer, lists their published work and confirms it is all true, and a profile that misrepresents its owner is removed. Everyone starts on the Ground floor and rises only on completed work. Reviews are two-sided and come only from completed, funded engagements. Ghostwriters can show private samples to you under confidentiality terms, and a ghostwriting brief can start with a paid sample.

Yes. Alongside writing, WBA is opening Editorial & production: developmental and copy editing, proofreading, design and illustration, typesetting, formatting and ebook conversion, plus translation across African and world languages. So you can take a manuscript from draft to production-ready on one platform. Printing and delivery arrive in a later phase.

The client funds each stage before the writer starts it. Payments are processed and conditionally released through Pandascrow and its designated payment partners as each stage is accepted. Each released stage is paid to the writer’s nominated bank account. Transaction funds are not paid into WBA’s operating account. WBA receives only its separately disclosed commission at settlement. Release, refund, dispute, chargeback and provider-control conditions are explained before payment.

A named operator determines whether the contract and its gates were met, on the contract and the evidence submitted, and instructs release, refund or continued hold. Releasing the money is a separate decision by the payment provider, who may investigate, delay, block or reverse a payment where fraud controls, chargeback rules, anti-money-laundering checks, sanctions, a court order or regulation require it.

If you are not satisfied with a delivery, you can ask for changes within the revision rounds in your agreement. If the work still does not meet the agreement, you can raise a dispute about that stage. WBA determines whether the stage’s conditions were met and instructs the payment partner to release the stage to the writer, refund it to you, or keep holding it while the matter is resolved. Refunding the money is the payment partner’s decision, under its own controls.

If the client does not respond within 14 days of a delivery, the delivery is treated as accepted under the agreement. WBA then instructs the payment partner to release that stage. Releasing the money remains the payment partner’s decision, under its own controls.

If an engagement ends before every stage is delivered, the stages not yet released are settled under the agreement. WBA determines whether the conditions were met and instructs release, refund or continued hold. The payment partner makes the payment decision.

No. An engagement is between you and the writer you chose. There is no code path by which WBA staff can be added to it as a participant. Staff can see engagements for trust and support, and every one of those views is logged.

It is declared at the bid and at every delivery, on the terms set in the contract, so both sides know what was used and how.

If a pairing fails, you are rematched at no additional platform fee.