Story Commissions for $ - No 2

[wishfulthinking]

I am so excited. I have been contacted by a site who wants to pay for a number of stories to build up their content. They need to be:

* 1000-2000 words [non-negotiable]
*

We don't want stories about women in miniskirts being bent over red Mustangs and fucked hard for 1000 words, we want stories about indie rock girls seducing nerdy skinny boys by leaving sexy messages in their i-pods and such.

ie with plot, not stroke.

I emailed back and said I can have a selection of stories from a variety of authors within the week. They seem to be willing to pay $40 per story.

Are you guys willing and able?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

1000 words? I'll bite. Do you have any examples?

 

[wishfulthinking]

Not yet. I'm waiting for his reply. Should have a better idea then.

 

[Guest]

I'm interested, too.

1000 words? Short and sweet.

 

[impressive]

I am so excited. I have been contacted by a site who wants to pay for a number of stories to build up their content. They need to be:

* 1000-2000 words [non-negotiable]
*
ie with plot, not stroke.

I emailed back and said I can have a selection of stories from a variety of authors within the week. They seem to be willing to pay $40 per story.

Are you guys willing and able?

Same terms as on your site re rights?

 

[English Lady]

I'm interested too -I've been doing 1000-2000 personalised stories on eBay for a while now so I'm used to the length

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I'd like to see some examples... but I can't see a reason why not!

 

[R. Richard]

Up to 2000 words? I'll give it a try!

 

[Boxlicker101]

I would be interested but most of my stories are longer than that and they might consider them to be too much for stroke. They would be right because I write stroke stories, and gladly admit it. I've never written about a young woman being bent over a Mustang, though.

 

[3113]

I emailed back and said I can have a selection of stories from a variety of authors within the week. They seem to be willing to pay $40 per story.

I'm with Impressive...what's the fine print on your rights regarding these stories? Do you maintain the copywrite or do they? And for how long? What if you want to post or reprint them elsewhere?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm with Impressive...what's the fine print on your rights regarding these stories? Do you maintain the copywrite or do they? And for how long? What if you want to post or reprint them elsewhere?

Given the market for 1K stories--which is like nil--for $40, they can have the rights. What am I going to get for a 1000-word story? Maybe $20-$25. I can't even give the 5,000-word stories away for free.

We're always worrying about our rights, as if there were only 8 of us in the world writing erotica. We give our stuff away for free here, so what good do our rights do us? Anyone who wants to rip us off can do it, do a quick search & replace on character names, and we'll never know we've been ripped. It's completely a buyer's market.

If you write a 1K that you feel is a masterpiece and worth keeping, just don't sell it to them. That's the way I look at it.

 

[cloudy]

I'm up for it.

 

[impressive]

Given the market for 1K stories--which is like nil--for $40, they can have the rights. What am I going to get for a 1000-word story? Maybe $20-$25. I can't even give the 5,000-word stories away for free.

We're always worrying about our rights, as if there were only 8 of us in the world writing erotica. We give our stuff away for free here, so what good do our rights do us? Anyone who wants to rip us off can do it, do a quick search & replace on character names, and we'll never know we've been ripped. It's completely a buyer's market.

If you write a 1K that you feel is a masterpiece and worth keeping, just don't sell it to them. That's the way I look at it.

Phooey on you, Mr. Wet Blanket. My rights are my rights are my rights -- and I built an anthology out of my little "masterpieces" An anthology that (even though given away here free first) landed me a publishing contract. It was a foot in the door -- and it would not have been possible had I sold those rights.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Phooey on you, Mr. Wet Blanket. My rights are my rights are my rights -- and I built an anthology out of my little "masterpieces" An anthology that (even though given away here free first) landed me a publishing contract. It was a foot in the door -- and it would not have been possible had I sold those rights.

A single thousand word story would not be worth much. However, an anthology of twenty or so of those stories might be worth a lot.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Phooey on you, Mr. Wet Blanket. My rights are my rights are my rights -- and I built an anthology out of my little "masterpieces" An anthology that (even though given away here free first) landed me a publishing contract. It was a foot in the door -- and it would not have been possible had I sold those rights.

Well now I'm wet and covered in phooey.

I just think of a deal like this as a custom writing job. I'd be selling a story and the rights to this guy for $40. If I thought I'd written something worth more, then I can always hold onto it.

I mean, if we were talking 5K-10K stories here, then I'd be concerned about rights. But a 1000 word story's hardly a story at all. More like a vignette.

 

[English Lady]

I'll join Dr M in the blaise corner (groping is allowed over here, right?)

 

[3113]

I just think of a deal like this as a custom writing job. I'd be selling a story and the rights to this guy for $40. If I thought I'd written something worth more, then I can always hold onto it.

You're certainly right that the odds are in your favor and that this 40$ writing job will be no more than that, so what matter the rights?

But I can never quite forget this little story about two young men who came up with a comic strip, stold it for next to nothing, giving away all the rights....

And Superman made everyone a ton of money but them, the creators. I'm not worried about the story I create. I'm worried about giving away ownership of the characters--which can then be used and developed by whomever owns the rights.

Like I said, the odds are very much in your favor. Stealing and developing characters from a 1000 word story on a website doesn't happen very often. So go for it. But I don't think there's anything wrong in knowing exactly what the fine print says, so that a person doesn't later say, "What do you mean you get my first born AND my soul? I thought I was only selling my soul!"

 

[MissBri]

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Neato. What's the link, my dear lady?

 

[Belegon]

I'm up for it....but wow...1000 words...I guess I'll just have to be disciplined.

 

[entitled]

Willing? Yep!
Able? Well, we'll see.

 

[Lord DragonsWing]

I'm willing and able. Np just let me know.

 

[wishfulthinking]

(EL, I'd be careful what you grope with all that phoey )

In terms of rights, this is what was originally proposed to me:

I see that you retain copyright of your stories but can we look at an arrangement where we buy an eternal license to use commissioned stories?

They don't want copyright, but they do want permission to publish it across all areas of their site, and for promotional material.

Being a liar, I will figure out what an external licence is D) so as to protect writers on my site as much as I can.

From a personal viewpoint: they are buying the stories to make money. Of course. The decision you have to make is whether a story or 10 you've written for free can sell for money. Save those works that you want to see published in 1 or 5 years.

Thank you all for your williness and ableness. As soon as details can be worked out, I will let you all know. It would be really great to start to the site.

 

[Pure]

Poll question:

3113 said:

I'm worried about giving away ownership of the characters--which can then be used and developed by whomever owns the rights.

OK, guys, is it

1) whomever [as it stands] OR
2) whoever ?

inquiring minds want to know and crave explanation.

====
hope it works, wishful
sorry about the threadjack; i figured it had run its course.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Yeah, that COULD be a problem. Maybe some of my older shit, edited to make it slightly higher quality.