Books and publishing
How writer floors work
Five floors, from Ground to Penthouse. You climb them with finished work and good reviews, the climb lowers how much commission WBA takes from your fees. Climbing up the floors is earned and nobody can buy or award a floor.
4 min read · Last checked 18 October 2026
The building
Think of WBA as a five-storey building. Every writer starts on the ground floor and climbs as their record grows. There is a separate building for each vertical, so a novelist who also writes business plans has a floor in Books and a floor in Business writing, and each one is earned on its own.
All five floors are open from the day you join, so you can see the whole ladder and what you are working towards.
What your floor changes
Your commission
WBA takes a commission from each stage it pays you for. The higher your floor, the smaller that commission. Here is what a ₦500,000 stage pays you on each floor:
| Floor | WBA takes | You receive |
|---|---|---|
| Ground | 10% (₦50,000) | ₦450,000 |
| First | 9% (₦45,000) | ₦455,000 |
| Second | 8% (₦40,000) | ₦460,000 |
| Third | 7% (₦35,000) | ₦465,000 |
| Penthouse | 6% (₦30,000) | ₦470,000 |
The rate on a job is fixed when the contract is accepted. If you climb a floor mid-job, the new rate applies to your next contract, and if the rates ever change, a contract already signed keeps the rate it was signed at.
How clients see you
Your floor appears as a badge on your profile and as a filter in the writer directory. It is never a sort order and never an advantage in bidding: a Ground writer's bid sits beside a Penthouse writer's on equal terms, and the client chooses.
What it takes to climb
Four things are checked for each floor. You need all four. They are counted over your finished jobs in that vertical from the last twelve months, or your last 20 finished jobs if that is more.
| To reach | Finished jobs | Earned from them | Larger jobs | Standing score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 2 | ₦600,000 | None needed | 60 / 100 |
| Second | 5 | ₦2,500,000 | 2 of ₦500,000 or more | 70 / 100 |
| Third | 10 | ₦7,500,000 | 4 of ₦750,000 or more | 80 / 100 |
| Penthouse | 20 | ₦20,000,000 | 6 of ₦1,500,000 or more | 88 / 100 |
Reading the table:
- Finished jobs: engagements completed and paid in that vertical.
- Earned from them: the total value of those jobs.
- Larger jobs: how many of them were at or above a set size. This is what stops a pile of small jobs from carrying anyone to the top on its own.
- Standing score: a score out of 100 for how well you work, explained next.
Your standing score
Your standing score is out of 100 and is built from five parts. Clients hiring you again counts for the most, because it is the clearest sign a client was happy.
- 30 Clients hiring you again
- 20 Gates passed first time
- 20 Delivered on time
- 20 Review average
- 10 A clean record
- −10 for each dispute upheld against you
Your own page shows each of the five parts separately, so you can see which one to work on.
How you move up, and down
- 1WBA checks your record every day. It reads your finished jobs, gate approvals, delivery dates, reviews and disputes. No person decides.
- 2When you clear every bar for a higher floor, you move up at that check, straight to the highest floor your record reaches. Your profile shows the new floor.
- 3If your record slips below your floor's bars, you are told which measures are slipping, and you get 90 days to recover.
- 4Only after those 90 days could you move down, and only one floor at a time.
What can never move you
- No staff member can set or change your floor. The system has no way for anyone to do it by hand, and WBA's tests check that.
- No payment, subscription or paid placement can raise it.
- A large number of small jobs cannot reach an upper floor on its own, because of the larger-jobs requirement.
Confidential work counts the same
Ghostwritten and confidential jobs count towards your floor exactly as credited ones do. They are counted without the title, the client or the content appearing anywhere, so you never have to choose between your record and your client's privacy.
Where to see your own standing
Open your profile to see your floor in each vertical, your score broken into its five parts, and what the next floor still needs. These requirements follow the way established marketplaces set seller levels, and will be revisited as WBA's record grows. Any change applies only from that point forward.