How it works
You choose the writer. The platform runs the deal.
Writers’ Block Africa is the open marketplace where you find and choose your writer, and the platform holds the contract, the money and the development gates that keep the work on track from first brief to final delivery.
Commission, pitch or make a deal?
- Commission a writerPay a writer to create something new for you.You need writing or editorial work done, and you are paying for it.
- “Ghostwrite my memoir”
- “Write our grant application”
- “Edit my manuscript before I submit it”
- “Adapt my novel into a screenplay”
- How it works
- Post a brief. Writers bid. You choose one, then pay stage by stage as you approve each part.
- Money
- You pay the agreed fee, one stage at a time. The writer is paid as each stage is accepted.
- Pitch RoomShow your project to people who could take it further.You have a book, script or idea and want a publisher, producer, co-author or other partner you have not met yet.
- “My finished novel needs a publisher”
- “My screenplay needs a producer”
- “My documentary idea needs a production company”
- “My fantasy series needs a co-author”
- How it works
- Post a pitch. Anyone can read its logline and synopsis; the full material opens only to people who accept confidentiality terms. Interested people tell you so, and you choose who to make a deal with.
- Money
- Pitching is free. Nothing is bought or sold in the Pitch Room itself. Investors get introductions only: no investment money passes through WBA.
- Deal RoomAgree and sign terms with someone you have already found.You and the other party want a signed contract over a work: a publishing deal, a film option, a licence, a translation or a royalty split.
- “Sign a publishing deal with a press that read my pitch”
- “Option my screenplay to a producer”
- “License the translation rights to my novel”
- “Agree royalty shares with my illustrator”
- How it works
- Choose the kind of deal and invite the other party. Make offers until you agree, then everyone signs on WBA and downloads the signed copy.
- Money
- Advances and fees are paid through WBA in stages. Royalties pass directly between the parties. Signing fee: ₦80,000 for two parties and ₦25,000 for each extra party, shared equally.
One project can use all three. Ada posts her finished novel in the Pitch Room. Sahel Press reads it, and they sign a publishing deal in the Deal Room. Sahel Press then commissions a cover designer with a brief.
What the platform enforces
Machinery you can point at.
Each of these is a mechanism you can point at: the machinery that keeps an engagement honest from brief to delivery.
- EnforcedProfilesWriters describe their own skills and credits and confirm they are true, as on Upwork; a profile that misrepresents its owner is removed. Floors are earned from completed work.
- EnforcedContractsA counsel-approved pack is generated for the arrangement and jurisdiction you chose.
- EnforcedMilestone paymentsThe 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.
- EnforcedGatesDevelopment gates must be approved before later milestones can start.
- EnforcedDisclosureAI use is declared at bid and at every delivery, on the terms in the contract.
- EnforcedDisputesA 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.
- EnforcedReviewsTwo-sided reviews from completed funded engagements only. They cannot be bought.
- EnforcedRematchingIf a pairing fails, you are rematched at no additional platform fee.
Writing is judgement work, so the platform enforces the process rather than promising the result.
The journey
Nothing starts until the contract is accepted and the first milestone is held.
That order is enforced in the platform, not in a policy document. A writer cannot begin billable work before both parties have accepted and the money is confirmed held by the partner.
- 01 Post a brief, or invite writers, or hire one directlyThree routes. You always choose the writerActive
- 02 Compare blind structured bidsOpens when your brief is published and bids arriveLocked
- 03 Select, and both parties accept the contractOpens when you select a bidLocked
- 04 Fund each stage just before it startsOpens when the payment service is live and both acceptances are recordedLocked
- 05 Approve each stage; it is released to the writerOpens when the engagement is activeLocked
- 06 Review, two-sided, published togetherOpens when the engagement completesLocked
- 01 Set up your profile and go liveNo test and no queue: a sample for each vertical, confirmed trueActive
- 02 Bid blind, at the price you setOpens when your payout account is verifiedLocked
- 03 Accept the contract and see your net before you doOpens when a client selects your bidLocked
- 04 Deliver against gates, declaring AI useOpens when milestone one is confirmed heldLocked
- 05 Get paid to your bank account as each stage is approvedOpens when a stage is approvedLocked
- 06 Rise by floor, on delivery evidence aloneOpens from your completed engagement recordLocked
Between you and your writer
An engagement is between you and the writer you chose. There is no code path by which a member of 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.