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2 years ago
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Hey, all. I experimented with replacing commissions with Jack’s Blacks prompts, and the results are in: I miss doing commissions.
Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping an eye on the competition, and I’ve noticed that some people are charging crazy-high prices for writing commissions. While I’m tempted to join that bandwagon, raising my prices has historically led to a steep drop-off in the number of unique commissioners who can participate and a corresponding reduction in the variety of stories I get commissioned to write. So, I’m experimenting with yet another idea: letting you guys submit both the story idea and a price per word you’re willing and able to pay. That way, I can choose which stories I want to work on based on my interest in writing them and the income to be made. I will be reopening commissions with a minimum $0.01/word rate, but you will be able to specify what you want to pay per word on my newly revamped Commission Form. Please submit all commission requests via this form so I can keep them all organized.
I’ll let you know when I’ve gotten your submission, but I won't be able to give any estimate of when I’m going to work on it since that’s dependent on a lot of factors like how interesting or lucrative your story is relative to others and how much stuff I’ve got going on in real life. For the record, “real life” has been extremely busy, stressful, and draining for the last year or so, so please don’t expect me to get through these quickly.
When I’m ready to start working on your story, I’ll reach out and ask whether you’re still interested. If so, we’ll work through all the details that we would normally go through with me asking questions to clarify your story goals. The rest of the commission process will be the same as it was before: I’ll get started on the draft, invoice 90%, share the draft, get feedback and make corrections, invoice the remaining amount based the final word count and any applicable change fees, and then share and publish the final version.
For those wanting more details on how I got here, one of my friends suggested auctioning off a limited number of slots, letting people bid on price per word and then taking the highest ones. There’s a lot of merit to that; making it competitive would almost certainly result in making more than I currently am (and possibly even more than the “crazy-high prices” some of my competition is charging), but at the same time, I saw a sharp reduction in the variety of stories I was commissioned to write when I raised from $0.01 to $0.011 per word, and an even sharper drop when I jumped to $0.02 / word. What I don’t want to do is get pigeonholed into just writing the same story over and over for the one or two people who can afford to pay an outrageous price. I am motivated by money—quite so—but also by variety, so I figure doing it this way instead gives me the option to choose from a more varied pool of commissions while still having some highly lucrative ones to drive business.
As with all of my experiments, this policy is subject to change on a whim, but this is the policy for now. You guys can start submitting topics as soon as you like, though it will take a while for my website and various accounts to reflect my newly open status, and since my (day job) company is in the process of launching a product we've been working on for over a year now, my availability to write is likely to be limited for a little bit longer. But, I wanted to get the word out since I've been looking forward to making this announcement for a while now.
Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping an eye on the competition, and I’ve noticed that some people are charging crazy-high prices for writing commissions. While I’m tempted to join that bandwagon, raising my prices has historically led to a steep drop-off in the number of unique commissioners who can participate and a corresponding reduction in the variety of stories I get commissioned to write. So, I’m experimenting with yet another idea: letting you guys submit both the story idea and a price per word you’re willing and able to pay. That way, I can choose which stories I want to work on based on my interest in writing them and the income to be made. I will be reopening commissions with a minimum $0.01/word rate, but you will be able to specify what you want to pay per word on my newly revamped Commission Form. Please submit all commission requests via this form so I can keep them all organized.
I’ll let you know when I’ve gotten your submission, but I won't be able to give any estimate of when I’m going to work on it since that’s dependent on a lot of factors like how interesting or lucrative your story is relative to others and how much stuff I’ve got going on in real life. For the record, “real life” has been extremely busy, stressful, and draining for the last year or so, so please don’t expect me to get through these quickly.
When I’m ready to start working on your story, I’ll reach out and ask whether you’re still interested. If so, we’ll work through all the details that we would normally go through with me asking questions to clarify your story goals. The rest of the commission process will be the same as it was before: I’ll get started on the draft, invoice 90%, share the draft, get feedback and make corrections, invoice the remaining amount based the final word count and any applicable change fees, and then share and publish the final version.
For those wanting more details on how I got here, one of my friends suggested auctioning off a limited number of slots, letting people bid on price per word and then taking the highest ones. There’s a lot of merit to that; making it competitive would almost certainly result in making more than I currently am (and possibly even more than the “crazy-high prices” some of my competition is charging), but at the same time, I saw a sharp reduction in the variety of stories I was commissioned to write when I raised from $0.01 to $0.011 per word, and an even sharper drop when I jumped to $0.02 / word. What I don’t want to do is get pigeonholed into just writing the same story over and over for the one or two people who can afford to pay an outrageous price. I am motivated by money—quite so—but also by variety, so I figure doing it this way instead gives me the option to choose from a more varied pool of commissions while still having some highly lucrative ones to drive business.
As with all of my experiments, this policy is subject to change on a whim, but this is the policy for now. You guys can start submitting topics as soon as you like, though it will take a while for my website and various accounts to reflect my newly open status, and since my (day job) company is in the process of launching a product we've been working on for over a year now, my availability to write is likely to be limited for a little bit longer. But, I wanted to get the word out since I've been looking forward to making this announcement for a while now.
We talked about a year ago about a commission idea and it'd be great to get a chance to follow through. However, whenever I commission an author I want the idea to fit the strengths of the writing, and your writing has so many strong points it's hard to decide on just one idea! You mentioned being motivated by variety, would you be up for doing something like a series of vignettes/short stories each focused on a different theme? If you'd be up for it how could I fit that into your commission form?
In any case, thanks again for sharing your writing with everyone! Hope we get to see more from you. Best of luck with your day job and your writing!
To answer your question, I'd suggest submitting each short story individually; it doesn't cost anything to submit an idea, and that way I can work through them as they pique my interest. As we go through the details on them, I can group them by series if they're meant to go together (similar to my The Fallen Druid series, which now has something like 20 chapters). If there are ones you'd like done before others, please make a note somewhere in the freeform text to let me know (e.g., in the "Other Details" field). That will let me make sure to match my priorities with yours.
I could see having to submit personal details over and over again being kinda annoying, though; I've modified the form to make the contact info, etc. optional so that at least there are fewer things to fill out for each one (just fill in the "what should I call you" field—be sure to be consistent so I know who's who!).
Rising you prices is honestly fine, seen most writers do .01 or .02 per word. I understand the feeling of not wanting to do that if people are just going to leave but, I feel like maybe doing something like. For fetishes that you don't like it would be .02 or for squeal stories, the cost would be be .02.
On the note of the Jack's Blacks submissions, I only got one submission that I know of, and I thought it was somebody else who submitted it. I did submit a story to Amazon yesterday and just got word that it's been published (I'll be posting a new journal entry to announce it shortly), so if that's the one you submitted, it's out now!
I have been charging $0.02 / word for stories, and based on what I'm seeing, a lot of people are charging $0.05 or more, and some as high as $0.14 or $0.15. While the idea of being able to make "I just made a dollar writing this" be a true statement (7 words at $0.15 = $1.05), I can't help but feel like that would put myself out of an awful lot of people's price range.
I did consider creating a fixed price increase for stories I don't want to do, but—and I have to be careful here because this could become a very long diatribe—I've learned that unless I could do a one-shot that would pay me so much that I could retire then and there, the incremental benefits of charging more per word don't overcome the "pain in the butt" factor of trying to write something that my brain absolutely does not want to focus on. My last job was very much like that: I was paid well, but once you get past the basic income requirements, incremental increases in pay really don't make up for a job that is mind-numbing and emotionally exhausting to force yourself to focus on. There is one exception here, and that's what I call the "Antarctica money". Basically, I really hate the cold, so for me to go to Antarctica, someone would have to pay me so much money that I could retire after it was over. Basically, one hard, time-bounded push, and then it's all over and I never have to work again. But, neither my last company nor any commissioner is going to pay me $4M to do something I don't want to do, so I think it's better if I just bow out of those.
Incidentally, that's why I'm leaving it up to you guys to pitch your story along with what you want to pay for it. That makes it a very simple "yes, I'd want to do that for that price" or "no, I don't really feel like doing that" because when it really comes down to it, yes, I could negotiate a higher price per word. But, it's not going to be Antarctic pay, so instead of solving the problem, it just gives the commissioner a false sense that "I'm paying more, so that should make this easier" while making me feel guilty for not performing at a higher standard when compensated more.
As a side benefit, letting you guys throw your ideas and pricing into a communal hat gives you guys the benefit of my capriciousness: a story I really don't feel like doing one day might be just the thing I'm wanting to write some other day.
Hope you’ve been well in the meantime.
I do vaguely remember that commission; humans basically as ants (and treated as such), if I remember right. And, I did see your submission. I'm glad you let me know because apparently Google Forms isn't emailing me anymore...
Basically the new idea would be a Sangheili noblewoman goes for a swim on a resort world and ends up mysteriously transported into the ocean of an outer human colony several miles tall.
A rampage ensues.
If it’s not your cup of tea that’s fine. I’m grateful enough that you’d just consider it. (Plus I can’t recall how familiar you are with the Sangheili)