JK Rowling accused of seeking free labor after announcing children’s contest to illustrate ‘The Ickabog’ book
Celebrated ‘Harry Potter’ author J. K. Rowling is returning to children's literature. Rowling announced on Tuesday, May 26, that she will release a new story called ‘The Ickabog’, a new chapter every week to help distract children during the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns.
“‘The Ickabog’ is a story about truth and the abuse of power. To forestall one obvious question: the idea came to me well over a decade ago, so it isn't intended to be read as a response to anything that's happening in the world right now. The themes are timeless and could apply to any era or any country," she said.
For this new story, Rowling is also enlisting help from children “needing distraction during the strange and difficult time we're passing through,” to create illustrations for her new story.
“There will be suggestions about the illustrations we might need for each chapter on The Ickabog website, but nobody should feel constrained by these ideas,” said Rowling. “I want to see imaginations run wild! Creativity, inventiveness, and effort are the most important things: we aren't necessarily looking for the most technical skill!”
According to the website for the book, under the “Competition” section, it says, “J. K. Rowling is inviting you to help illustrate ‘The Ickabog’ for her. Every day when chapters of the story are uploaded, she will be making suggestions for what you might like to draw or paint to illustrate the story as it goes along. You should let your imagination run wild!”
It adds, “If you are between seven and twelve years old, your parent or guardian on your behalf can enter your drawings or paintings into the official competition being run by J. K. Rowling’s publishers, for a once in a lifetime chance to be featured in ‘The Ickabog’ book, which is published in November.”
The competition is open in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, the U.S., and Canada, and will be extended to other countries shortly, per the website.
But this contest created some controversy on Twitter. Several users claimed that this was an attempt by Rowling and the publishers to solicit free labor and art without having to pay royalties for it.
A Twitter user pointed out: “[Rowling] is soliciting free artwork from children to illustrate her new book, #TheIckabog. However, she does not mention that by submitting your child's art, Rowling and scholastic have the right to use it as they see fit, royalty-free, even if your child doesn't win.”
The user further said, “If you see this and your child wants to participate, by all means, fine. But PLEASE read the fine print, and talk to your child about it. Companies try to solicit free art/labor from fans all the time so they don't actually have to pay to hire people,” adding, “This is spec work. Spec work is predatory and sets a dangerous precedent. Time and labor are precious resources in a capitalist society and yes this applies to children as well. We're all people, we all deserve to get paid for our efforts. Especially for something as big as this.”
According to the official rules stated for the competition, “By entering a Submission, entrant grants Sponsor and Author, including their respective designees, a royalty-free, sub-licensable, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive license to use, share, distribute, tweet, retweet, post, repost, reproduce, publish, and display the Submission, in whole or in part, on a worldwide basis, and to incorporate the Submission into other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed, including, but not limited to, on any and all Internet media, including web sites and social media sites of Sponsor, Author and their respective designees, for any legal purpose related to the Contest, including advertising, promotion, and marketing in connection with the Contest.”
The terms and conditions further state, “By entering, entrants recognize that other persons may have submitted Submissions, or otherwise submitted material to Sponsor and/or Author, or made public, or may hereafter originate and submit or make public, similar or identical material to their Submission, and Sponsor and/or Author shall have the right to use, and entrants understand that they will not be entitled to any compensation because of Sponsor’s use of, such other similar or identical material.”
While Rowling announced that, when the book is published, she would pledge all author royalties to those impacted by the virus crisis, many on Twitter remain unconvinced of why an author of Rowling’s stature and wealth would need to solicit free artwork from children at all.