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Thoughts on commission policies...
18 years ago
Today, after doing a lot of thought over the last couple of weeks, I came to the conclusion that I could not complete a promised commission in a timely fashion.
So I refunded the person's money, and wrote a letter of apology explaining why, and that I was sorry. (Apology, by the way, isn't just saying you are sorry... it's saying why you did as you did - it means literally, "the words that come after")
Anyway... I felt extra bad, because this is a person who I know has had artists keep him hanging on commissions for ages sometimes, and not only never deliver, even after years, but don't return the money paid.
And I've heard similar complaints from lots of people in the fandom - that they pay up-front for commissions, and then end up getting neither the commission nor their money back.
I don't think that's fair.
I also hear about artists who don't ask for money up-front, do the commission, and then don't get paid.
That's sure as hell not fair either.
I've worked as a commercial artist off and on for years. Back when I started, I got burned by more clients than you could shake a stick at. For a while, I was lucky if I saw ten percent of what I was owed - they'd get the art, and even use it, and then not pay, and I'd have to go into collections.
So, what I started doing, years ago, and which has worked very well, is to ask for good faith money up-front from most of my customers... but not the whole amount. I get a _percentage_ of money up front, and do not begin work until I have it in hand.
Then, when the client gets the finished work, I demonstrate that the work is completed, get paid the rest, and give them the finalized art, website, or whatever.
At the worst, I do some work and only get paid half (I usually ask for 50% up front), and I at least don't _lose_ money if there are any material costs.
And obviously, the client doesn't sink a bunch of money into me and then lose all of it if I get hit by a truck or something.
It's a good way, I think, of establishing trust in a new business relationship, where both parties have something to win, and something to lose.
I think, frankly, that there's a lot of artists that will be much more highly motivated to finish a piece of work if they know that they won't finish getting paid until they actually finish it.
But I also think a lot fewer artists will get screwed if they have good faith money, up-front, that the commission purchaser will lose if they aren't willing to come through with the rest when the work is done.
Often, I am sure, it's not even that anyone is out to screw anyone. I'm betting that sometimes, life just goes wrong for artist or client, and someone's not _able_ to come through.
But artists? It's just not fair for you to take the client's money and never deliver anything but empty promises. The least that you can do is be honest with the client if you can't finish and can't refund for some reason - even if that means that people are going to hear you didn't deliver.
To begin with... that will look a lot better on your reputation than having a bunch of people say "I've been waiting two years for this picture, and can't even get a refund or a straight answer out of them!"
If everyone would at least _try_ to do the right thing, even when it's uncomfortable, I think it's safe to say that the right thing would happen a lot more often, and maybe a lot fewer people would end up feeling jaded.
But when you make an obligation, you should always try to either live up to it or make real amends. Not just blow it off.
Heck.. I gave a refund and an apology, and I still feel like a heel. But I did it anyway, because I'd be a heel if I didn't.
P.S. I think that if you are a person who pays for a commission and gets screwed or if you are an artist/creator who does a commission and gets screwed, you should say so. You should be fair and honest about the circumstances, and you shouldn't let your temper get the better of you and cause you to blow it up so that the person is a worse villain than they are... but you should tell people, as long as what you tell them is the truth.
That will help people other people avoid getting screwed. It will help truly dishonest and unreliable people from being rewarded for their actions. And that could contribute to making "getting screwed" a lot less likely to happen in the community.
So I refunded the person's money, and wrote a letter of apology explaining why, and that I was sorry. (Apology, by the way, isn't just saying you are sorry... it's saying why you did as you did - it means literally, "the words that come after")
Anyway... I felt extra bad, because this is a person who I know has had artists keep him hanging on commissions for ages sometimes, and not only never deliver, even after years, but don't return the money paid.
And I've heard similar complaints from lots of people in the fandom - that they pay up-front for commissions, and then end up getting neither the commission nor their money back.
I don't think that's fair.
I also hear about artists who don't ask for money up-front, do the commission, and then don't get paid.
That's sure as hell not fair either.
I've worked as a commercial artist off and on for years. Back when I started, I got burned by more clients than you could shake a stick at. For a while, I was lucky if I saw ten percent of what I was owed - they'd get the art, and even use it, and then not pay, and I'd have to go into collections.
So, what I started doing, years ago, and which has worked very well, is to ask for good faith money up-front from most of my customers... but not the whole amount. I get a _percentage_ of money up front, and do not begin work until I have it in hand.
Then, when the client gets the finished work, I demonstrate that the work is completed, get paid the rest, and give them the finalized art, website, or whatever.
At the worst, I do some work and only get paid half (I usually ask for 50% up front), and I at least don't _lose_ money if there are any material costs.
And obviously, the client doesn't sink a bunch of money into me and then lose all of it if I get hit by a truck or something.
It's a good way, I think, of establishing trust in a new business relationship, where both parties have something to win, and something to lose.
I think, frankly, that there's a lot of artists that will be much more highly motivated to finish a piece of work if they know that they won't finish getting paid until they actually finish it.
But I also think a lot fewer artists will get screwed if they have good faith money, up-front, that the commission purchaser will lose if they aren't willing to come through with the rest when the work is done.
Often, I am sure, it's not even that anyone is out to screw anyone. I'm betting that sometimes, life just goes wrong for artist or client, and someone's not _able_ to come through.
But artists? It's just not fair for you to take the client's money and never deliver anything but empty promises. The least that you can do is be honest with the client if you can't finish and can't refund for some reason - even if that means that people are going to hear you didn't deliver.
To begin with... that will look a lot better on your reputation than having a bunch of people say "I've been waiting two years for this picture, and can't even get a refund or a straight answer out of them!"
If everyone would at least _try_ to do the right thing, even when it's uncomfortable, I think it's safe to say that the right thing would happen a lot more often, and maybe a lot fewer people would end up feeling jaded.
But when you make an obligation, you should always try to either live up to it or make real amends. Not just blow it off.
Heck.. I gave a refund and an apology, and I still feel like a heel. But I did it anyway, because I'd be a heel if I didn't.
P.S. I think that if you are a person who pays for a commission and gets screwed or if you are an artist/creator who does a commission and gets screwed, you should say so. You should be fair and honest about the circumstances, and you shouldn't let your temper get the better of you and cause you to blow it up so that the person is a worse villain than they are... but you should tell people, as long as what you tell them is the truth.
That will help people other people avoid getting screwed. It will help truly dishonest and unreliable people from being rewarded for their actions. And that could contribute to making "getting screwed" a lot less likely to happen in the community.
When an artist and a fan arrange a commission, it's a contract and has all the elements of a standard contract: two parties who agree to exchange something of value for a good or service.
If an artist takes a commission and more importantly, takes money - then fails to deliver the contracted work, nor returns the money (which, from a legal perspective, might not be enough compensation), they open themselves up to legal action.
Similarly, if a fan commissions a work and then accepts it and refuses to pay the agreed price, unless the fan can show that the delivered work was substatively flawed or defective or is not what was agreed to, then they are legally obligated to pay.
Typically the amount of monies involved and the nature of the work and relationship between the artist and fan tends to discourage legal action on either side, but it's important to know that just because people don't sue each other, it doesn't mean they can't. Depending on the amount of money involved, small claims courts can handle these complaints at a far more economical rate.
And the lack of a formal paper contract does not mean there is no contract - but getting it in paper (or email) is a good idea for both sides.
It sucks that it is coming down to that, but for the safety of both parties...
Usually, if the work is a 'work for hire' (ie: commission) then the commissioner retains the copyright, not the artist. On the other hand, if the artist simply sells the fan a preexisting work, then the artist retains the copyright. But changes in laws makes this more complicated while just stating the exact nature of the agreement fixes the problem.
I recommend anyone doing commissions to make up a standard commission agreement - even if it's just a simple 'I agree, on this date _________, to create a work of art as described on the attached sheet for __________ for which the amount of $_______ is to be paid. The commissioned artwork is agreed to delivered by _________ or this agreement is cancelled and all monies prepaid will be refunded. The commissioner of the work will/will not acquire the copyright of this work. No additional obligations shall be construed or derived from this agreement.' to which the email or a transcribed copy of the verbal description is attached and the commissioner and artist signs and retains a copy.
Technically, at least in the US (and I believe the recent US copyright laws are supposedly pattered after UK law), as soon as an artist creates a work, it is copyright to the artist until they expressly transmit copyright.
However, it is possible to lose copyright by failing to respond to challenge, so if you do work for a client, and they start using it in ways unintended by you, a judge might rule that you implied a release of copyright by acknowledging transmission of the work to the client.
Or not. Pretty hairy.
I generally assume when I do contract work, that the work will then belong to the client, unless I expressly get an agreement that I will retain certain rights. I always make sure to establish that at the outset.
When you threaten someone for legal action over something like this, I imagine that most of the time they'll just blow you off.
When I used to do freelance art, I would regularly have customers that would refuse to pay, and basically say "So sue me." If I'd actually tried to sue all of them, I'd have spent all my time in court, and probably come out of the whole thing with less money.
So, mostly I just harrassed the crap out of them until some of them finally paid me just to get some piece. Or I'd show up at their offices and scare them. That worked well for the most part, since usually all I had to do was look menacing and pretend to be polite, but could have gone terribly wrong.
(I was young and foolish).
Sometimes, there are better ways to get people to be honest than through the threat of legal action. I think that making it more costly and difficult to be a jerk, or to get the person bound into an agreement that they _lose_ something by backing out of prevents a lot of problems without hurting anyone or making things more difficult.
Also, I forgot to mention... even when you have a _written_ contract, you have to go through quite a bit of rigmarole to enforce it, at least in the USA. It's not like you can call the police and say "someone broke a contract with me" and they'll run over and arrest them and give you the money.
First, you have to actually sue. Then, even if you win, you have to find a way to collect on the judgment - and you've never lived until you've tried to do that. It's especially fun to do when your client has hidden their money or doesn't have any! You have to actually track down where their money is yourself, too.
Since the object is generally to get paid what you are due...
It's also for YOUR protection in case they decide to sue you.
I think that's a better approach than harrassing people in their place of work... Which, BTW IS illegal and could have easily landed you in jail. Employers are a little more inclined to call the cops than the average guy is.
It's unlikely to have landed anyone in jail, but it's still not really appropriate in today's age.
Also... keep in mind... this isn't people who had employers, this was people who were employers. Many of them didn't really want police attention anyway, because they were pretty scummy.
Mostly, my presence reminded them that there was an actual person who could come to where they were whenever they liked, who wanted money from them. Just me there being creepy, if nothing else, disrupted their day, frustrated them, and ran off potential clients and vendors.
I never made threats, not even veiled ones, except through my presence.
I'm usually more concerned with practicality and ethical solutions than legality. Fortunately, if you are ethical in your dealings, you are less likely to have problems in the first place.
I do wish I knew then what I know now. I often look at my behavior as a young man and go "Wow. What a terrible idea!"
My ex-wife hated when people would not get out of the way of an ambulance. So, we'd pull up alongside the slowpoke (on the shoulder, if necessary) and I'd hold on to her waistband or belt, and she'd pummel their window and scream obscenities at them and tell them that they're not supposed to block emergency vehicles. This usually after we'd roar around the person and cut them off so that the ambulance could get around.
At the time, it seemed funny and helpful. As an _actual_ grownup, I look at that practice and think "My... we were psychotic, weren't we?"
So, this won't work for everyone all the time. Neither will my suggestion either, of course.
I live outside USA, and 98.9% of furs live in USA, so get payed for a comission is almost impossible without an International credit card (demanded even for paypal). For have one of those you need to show that you are a money bags.
So my comissions are *free money*.
You can pay with:
* Another picture
* Information for my website
* English prrof reading
So if people don't agree my rules of "you do it first". Well I can't do anything more, like it is said "furries want everything for free" ;)
It just wouldn't work for everyone, but like I say, neither would what I do. : )
I didn't mean to sound disparaging, and hope I didn't come across that way.
Yay!
To me, something like legal action or collections are a last resort. They're something you employ after a problem has already occurred or rapport has already completely broken down.
I prefer, where possible, to try and prevent such a breakdown in the first place.
For instance, when I was younger, I would become adversarial with people who had wronged me... and very quickly. So I spent a lot of time "punishing" people for offensive behavior. Calling cops on noisy neighbors, hassling people who hadn't paid me, etc.
But I eventually realized, often my actions weren't fixing anything or making it better, or took far more energy than any possible benefit was worth. Since then, even if I feel justified in being angry, or feel that _if_ a person did something wrong I _would_ be justified in taking legal action, that the best way to solve problems is to work on preventing them. The object isn't to punish people who do something rotten, it's to succeed at something positive.
Sometimes, that means being courteous or understanding. Sometimes, it means trying to frame a situation in such a way that it doesn't _pay_ to have someone screw you, or where you can't easily _be_ screwed.
You don't always know who will be a jerk. But that doesn't mean treating everyone like a jerk.
If I expect someone to be trustworthy to me, I feel I must also be able to give them a reason to expect I will be trustworthy.