# Commission question



## SashaDarkCloud (May 27, 2008)

Is there a way that someone would want to commission someone to write a short story? Also, what would be a fair price? I think 20 dollars is fair if someone were to offer it, though it also depends on how much of a length the person wanting the story is looking for. How would a writer go about even offering that? I am just wondering if there is a market for it in the furdom or just a waste of time and effort.


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## Xipoid (May 27, 2008)

I've seen very few writers commissioned, but that is to consider that I am not actively searching for such instances.


As for pricing, I'm guessing you could either just charge per word or per page. Poetigress is more aware than I of the professional prices for writers (something like $.01-$.02 a word is it?), which is something you will have to shoot under unless you happen to be a professional writer. You should await her input.


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## SashaDarkCloud (May 27, 2008)

I read some of your work. You are quite good! How long have you been writing?


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## Xipoid (May 27, 2008)

On and off for a little less than a year.


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## Rilvor (May 27, 2008)

I've never, ever heard of a writer being commissioned 

Hell, I've never seen anyone take up writers on offers for requests.


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## SashaDarkCloud (May 28, 2008)

I have heard of one, a friend of mine. Though, he put the commission offer on furbid. I figured he got really lucky.


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## kitreshawn (May 28, 2008)

The going rate for stories ranges from $0.005 a word to $1 per page (or about $0.002 a word).  It really depends on what group you are selling to.

From that stand point stories are really cheap.  A standard 5,000 word short story (10 pages) will cost you between 10-25 dollars.

From the point of writing stories it is not so great.  It could be a way to make a little extra cash on the side, but hardly a way to make a living.  I actually have a whole journal entry talking about this very thing if you are interested:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/287905/


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## Poetigress (May 28, 2008)

Really, what you charge is up to you.  With artists, the price ranges for badges and so on are a little more standard because there are loads of artists who do commissions.  For writers, there really isn't a huge market for commissioned work (most of the ones I've seen have been fetish-related adult pieces), so it's not like you're competing against other sellers or having to set your prices at a certain level so you don't ruin things for other people.  Basically, charge something and see if anyone bites.  I've seen some people offer a sort of scale -- $5 or $10 for the first three pages, and then a per-page charge after that, plus extra for multiple characters and such -- and others just setting a flat fee for anything up to a certain number of words or pages.

In terms of "pro" rates, SFWA now considers those to be at least five cents per word (up from three cents four years ago).  One or two cents/word is considered quite good in terms of pay.  1/2 cent or 1/4 cent is fairly common, as are flat fees of something like $10-20 per story.  Do the math on most commission rates, and you'll see the writer is doing custom work-for-hire at next to no pay.  Artists rightfully complain that they have to set their rates to the point that they're making less than minimum wage by the time you consider how much time and effort goes into a piece.  For writers, it's into sweatshop territory.

Personally, I considered doing commissions and decided against it.  For me, there's simply too much time and energy that goes into writing a story to be worth what little pay you'd get (I mean, to use Kitreshawn's example above -- a 5K story is hours of work, probably over several days, for $10-25 dollars?), and on top of that, I seem to have a very difficult time writing with someone else's characters.  When I considered the difficulties of ever publishing a commissioned story outside of FA, the possible conflicts of "writing to order" (how many revisions do they get, if any? how much control do they have over what's written?), and how little most people would pay for something like that, I decided I'd much rather use my time to work on my own projects.

Basically, except possibly for specialized fetishes, there's next to no demand for commissioned writing in the fandom, and a huge supply of writers... I've seen more requests and trades being done than actual paid commissions, and not even a lot of requests or trades.


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## Poetigress (May 28, 2008)

kitreshawn said:


> It could be a way to make a little extra cash on the side, but hardly a way to make a living.



Well, let's face it, the only ones who are actually making their _living_ off writing are

1) the household names like King, Rowling, Koontz, Clancy, McCaffrey, etc.

2) freelancers who write articles, features, etc. for magazines, websites, and newspapers

3) copywriters who do work for companies, direct mail advertising, and that sort of thing

Note that only #1 there involves fiction -- well, unless you count advertising and marketing. 

Unless they live very, very frugally, even writers who churn novels out regularly still usually need some other source of income (teaching, workshops, a day job of any sort, a trust fund, a working spouse with a good career, whatever).  The money just isn't there to make a living writing fiction unless your book happens to become the next mega-bestseller.  In terms of odds, you might be better off playing the lottery.  >^_^<


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## kitreshawn (May 28, 2008)

Well, there is another reason to not do comissions as well (at least for me).  It is actually really simple:

How well do I think I can write a story using someone else's plot, characters, and setting?

Right now I think the answer is "not so good."  Part of what makes writing enjoyable is that I am writing things that interest *ME* and that *I* like to write about.  It is fun.  Take that away and I am almost sure the quality will suffer.


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## Toonces (May 28, 2008)

I don't know why people are surprised writers get commissioned. The people who read stories tend to really like them.

There's no innately "fair" price for a story, just like there's really no innately "fair" price for art. I've been offered anywhere betwen $20 and $300 for stories under different circumstances. Do what I do: When you find someone interested in a commission from you, ask how much they're comfortable paying for it. You'd be surprised, people don't actually low ball you, and you can always turn it down. Writing stories take time, and if they're offering something that's not going to vindicate the effort, apologize and turn them down. 

The only thing I _really_ recommend is not to tie your price to length, not in any way. There are only negative things to come from tying commission price to length. Think about _quality_. A story isn't going to be better because it's three pages longer. It's going to be better because you put more thought and effort into it.


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## SashaDarkCloud (Jun 1, 2008)

All of these are really good points. Thank you all so much for taking the time and effort to reply. Right now, I am sort of desperate for money to move. Though, odds are doing story commissions will not get me out of where I am any faster, it least it gives the satisfaction that I am trying.


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