Commisions - What is a fair price? [Writing]

[RavenRift]

Since I put my email address into my fictionmania story, people have been emailing me for commissions. I am not opposed to this, in fact I am very excited to be taking on commissions. My issue, though, is that I have no idea where to start price wise. A chapter of Wet Dream (part II, since those chapters are longer) is about 3500-4000 words long and can take up to 5 hours to write. Within that chapter I get in a transformation, a sex scene, and dialogue before, between, and afterwards.

I was thinking of $10/thousand words, minimum of 4000 words. Does that seem to low? Too high?

Should porn be charged more than R-rated material?

I would also like to note that I don't edit Wet Dream, but I would edit commissions.

[Fortuitous Jinx]

Too high. Like it or not, writing isn't going to be viewed the same as art. Someone looking for a commission isn't likely going to have 40 dollars to drop on it. Look at DeviantArt commissions and go from there...most people start a "commission basic" at about the $10.00 range, since that's where you're going to get the lion's share of your money. And at $10, you'll GET more commissions, whereas $40.00 is going to scare people off. It's not your rate that's necessarily wrong, it's that 40 dollar entry price point. If you think about it, that's the same price as 3-4 videos from clips4sale, or two months subscription to your average porn site. A single story doesn't have the same "value" to the average person.

[RavenRift]

Yeah, because writing as not as sought after of a medium I had no idea where to even begin.

Would the rate be fine then, just no $40 minimum?

[Fortuitous Jinx]

I think you're too high, honestly. I just took a look at Fictionmania and the MC story archive. Just looking at it (and this is just my personal view), I went to one of my favorite stories there that I consider "the right length"...not so long I lose interest, not so short I'm left wanting more. It was 9000 words. And knowing my budget, and what it will get me if I spend it on what is (essentially) fap material, I would probably have been willing to pay 20 dollars if that story was written to my specifications.


You have to remember again that people can buy a 10-15 minute video for ten-ish dollars, or a graphic novel for 3-4. Yes, those aren't custom, but there's enough of it out there that they can usually find what they want. I would probably set my price point at about 10 dollars = 5000 words. This is, again, hard to say because there's no examples out there.


One concept from the modeling world may apply here. When you first start, you end up doing a lot of what they call TFP (Time for Prints)...the photographer gets no pay, because he's getting a model for free. The model gets no pay, because she's getting photos for her portfolio. At the end of the day, they both have something they can show to other people to help boost their portfolios and convince people they're worth paying rates, even though they made no money off THIS.


Talk to some people, and do up a few sample stories, at varying lengths. Make what would be a $5.00 story, and a $10.00 story, and a $20.00 story. Put those up as examples to show people what they'd be getting for their money.


While everyone loves the idea that you can make money off what you do, the reality is, most people don't want to commit to it, they just dabble a toe. They overcharge, when there are a LOT of competitors, or they take six months to deliver a commission...things like that. The people who make it in the commission biz are the ones who start with low rates, and FAST turnaround times. That builds word of mouth and a clientele. Once you're successful and famous? Then you can raise your rates. But at the start, you build volume, cause that's what you need to build a client base.

[LycanDope]

As a counter-point, I've had people agree with a $10 per 1,000 word story. I don't do minimum words, though. We agree upon a basic set of things, a certain word count and then, do. If I go over, I don't charge extra. In a couple cases, I've had offers for more than the $10.

Writing is quite different than drawing but it takes me roughly an hour to write 1,000 words and that's not including taking time to think of the story line and setup. So, $10 an hour to write fetish-specific stuff is pretty cheap in that sense.

However, with most things I think it depends on your own ability and what people are willing to pay for your work.

Hope that helps!

[Xodiac]

Writing is not easy. If you write well enough that people want to commission you, then charge enough to make it worth the time and effort. $10 per 1000 words is not much, all told. People will either pay it or they will find someone who either writes crap or doesn't respect themselves enough to charge what they're worth.

I charge $0.01 per word when I write commissioned stories (which, I might add, is rare). That comes out to $10/1000 words. I also require an initial payment of $20, nonrefundable, before I start writing, in order to ensure the commissioner is serious. I also don't aim for a certain word count; once I've worked out what the story is to be, I figure it'll be as long as it needs to be. That means if the story is less than 2000 words (and it never has been so far) the commissioner would be paying more than $0.01/word. Otherwise, that $20 is a deposit, and I charge the remainder when the story is done (but before I send it to the commissioner, of course).

[RavenRift]

Alright, thanks for the great replies.

Finally, how do i go about the payment? Take it first? After finished product? I always see with art it's payment first, but the commissioner gets previews throughout the process.

[Xodiac]

Like I said, I take an initial payment of $20. If the story is short (less than 2000 words, as declared by my word processor) then that's it. If the story runs longer, when it is complete they owe me another payment, at a rate of $0.01 per word. Then they get the completed story.

This is simply what I do, mind. You're free to adjust the rate you charge or even the policies I describe, as you see fit. The second payment can be waived if the story isn't far over the 2000-word cutoff, for instance, and you can give them story snippets (I recommend no more than a page) to show the commissioner you are indeed working on his story and give him a hint of what he's getting. It's up to you.

[Zettik]

I mainly just say 20-25 bucks tops. I write because I like too, and it seems weird to charge for something that I pretty much do for a hobby, but I guess that's just me. I also don't bother about a word cutoff, seeing as how the commissioners don't exacly have control over that, you do. I finish a story when I feel like it's properly finished, regardless of how long or short it is.

[californiababe]

I don't know

[Groblek]

I set my rates for commissions based off the Science Fiction Writers of America's minimum for "professional rates" for short stories. At the time I looked, that was $0.05/word or $50 for 1,000 words. I did that for two reasons - first, I've been writing and posting unbirth stories for about fifteen years and figured I have the name recognition to get away with it. Second, I don't have a lot of free time, so the time I do have is quite valuable to me. At that rate, I get very few commissions, and they tend to be short, which is pretty much what I'd hoped for. Three 3,000 word scenes are a lot easier for me to write than a single 9,000 word story.

So, I'd say the rate depends on your goal. If you feel low on ideas or enjoy writing to others' specifications, set a low rate and you'll get more commissions. If you want to weed out all but the really serious people, set a higher rate. If your main goal is to make money off your writing, I'd suggest polishing your work enough to self-publish through Amazon. It's a lot easier to get someone to pay $2.99 for an ebook of a story type they like than it is to get them to pay $40+ for a custom story.
Cheers,
Groblek

[Mytransformations]

I sent you a private message about a commission.