Commission Guidelines

(These guidelines originally established 1 September, 2016. Reposted here 11 January, 2017. Reviewed and updated 5 December, 2018.)

Hello Everypony-

This blog post details my current commission guidelines, so potential patrons can easily access what they need to know. Yes, this is a long post, but I have broken it down into categories in an effort to make it easier to absorb. If you're serious about commissioning me, I strongly suggest you read it all, because my working for you constitutes your agreement that you have read, understand, and are willing to abide by everything posted here.

First off, if you're considering commissioning me to write a story for you, I'd like to say thank you - I will do my best to live up to your expectations! I am a generalist in terms of genre, and thus I will write about nearly anything, for any audience from 'everybody' to 'mature'. I consider myself both a 'safe zone', and a strong proponent of free expression, so I want you to know that no matter what type of story you want me to write for you, even if I do not agree to write it ultimately, I will not fault you for your idea. So feel free to message me with whatever heart's desire you have in mind!

At any rate, here are my current commission guidelines. They are subject to change without notice, so consider coming here to check them again if it's been awhile!

(I do story-for-art trades under certain circumstances. If you are interested in this, different guidelines may apply - please contact me directly.)

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Rates

My current rate is $0.01 cents per word (USD). That's one cent a word. I adhere to Fimfiction's guidelines regarding minimum word count, thus the minimum story length I can write for you is 1,000 words ($10). If you wish to increase the word count after the fact, the above fees apply, but I will not charge you extra if I happen to write more than what you originally wanted. So, rest assured there will not be any hidden charges that I will demand from you later. Once you have paid me, you have paid me, unless you chose to make your commission longer than what we originally agreed upon. I require payment in full before I begin work, however it costs $0 to get into my queue - I do not ask for payment until I am actually ready to begin working for you. I do this for two reasons: 1) I do not like the idea of sitting on your money before I am ready to devote my efforts towards creating what you paid me to create, and 2) I may have other projects on my plate, personal stories I'm working on, or simply be involved with life. So please don't pay me until I'm ready to begin, so I can make you my top priority.

I do require us to agree upon some sort of word count ahead of time so that I know what to charge you, but if you are not certain how long you want your story to be, don't worry! We will discuss your idea, and if necessary I can give you a ballpark idea of how many words I will need to make it happen. Of course, if you insist upon a specific word count (and this is perfectly fine), I will restrict myself to that.

I do not offer refunds once work on your commission has begun. I always give a patron a chance to review a manuscript and suggest edits of their own before publication, but if you are totally dissatisfied with your commission, I'll see what I can do about working with you, within reason.

Word Count Limit/Placeholders

This is a new feature for me, but as of the most recent update to these guidelines I am imposing a maximum word count of 10,000 words on commissions. This does not mean that I will not write a sequel to your commission, or add chapters to it later (and thus make the overall story ultimately larger than 10,000 words). It is an attempt to give other interested patrons a fair chance for me to get to their projects as well, and it gives me a break to change it up and write something different for a bit. Note that this rule is not 100% concrete. I may consider circumventing it. Common reasons for this include no other patrons on my list, some sort of special agreement between us, or I am very interested in your idea.

Please note that I do not accept more than one consecutive 'placeholder' in my queue per patron. I do not require a down payment or any sort of fee to get into my queue, but I ask that a single patron not attempt to circumvent the word count maximum by asking to be placed in my queue over and over again in succession, unless I have no other patrons in my queue whatsoever. I also require some idea of what sort of story you intend to commission from me, as opposed to 'just put me in the queue, we'll talk about it later'.

Publication

I publish all stories I write on my Fimfiction account, and may link to them through or repost them on my tumblr, furaffinity, twitter, fanfiction.net, and deviantart accounts. I always include the following in the descriptions of commissioned stories:

-Note labeling the story as a commission, containing content that may or may not represent the views of the author (me).
-Identity of the patron (you, to give you credit for your idea).
-For mature stories: Content notes.

With regards to the above - if you desire either to remain anonymous, or really do not want your superultradoublesecretprobation story to be posted anywhere, that's fine, but I need you to tell me that.

I will do my best to adhere to the projects in the order they were received. Normally this can be assumed, but let's be frank - if a huge whopper of an assignment comes along, very high dollar or high profile, I may consider shuffling it forward a bit. By the same token, if your project is really short, as in something I can bust out quickly between other work, I may consider moving it up on that basis as well. This is another reason why I do not want to be paid until I am actually ready to begin working for you. (There's also something to be said for projects I'm personally excited to work on, but I'm a picky bitch in terms of what tickles my fancy so I make no promises there.)

My Policies

This section is broken down into subsections as follows:

Content Limits

As far as content, I have a few caveats. Here they are-

Yellow Light: These are topics that I might write about if you really want them, but they're not my top choices. I'm listing them simply for your consideration - you might want to approach an author who has greater enthusiasm about them. I will hear your idea of course, but please don't be offended if I'm not feeling up to it.

1) "Brony in Equestria" and/or HiE - To me, this constitutes human beings or people from our 'real' world suddenly finding themselves in Equestria (particularly those with 4th wall knowledge), or vice versa. This does not include Equestria Girls.
2) Mary Sue/Gary Stu OCs - I assume most folks on here know what these terms mean. If you don't, I will of course be happy to explain.
3) Extreme Implausibility - If you want Fluttershy to start murdering woodland creatures, Twilight Sparkle to enslave the citizens of Ponyville, or Rainbow Dash to kick her friends to the curb to join the Shadowbolts, I need a good reason, or at least the freedom to invent a good reason of my own in the story.
4) Crossovers into worlds I'm not familiar with - Because, obviously, I cannot write an effective story without knowing the subject matter. Of course you probably don't know what I am and am not familiar with. Please feel free to ask.
5) Stories containing explicit activity that is blatantly non-consensual (in other words, obvious rape). Mind you that this does not include dubious consent, coercion, or ravishment. Just obvious 'rape'. I will be the judge of what I consider to fall into this category on a case-by-case basis.
6) Stories consisting primarily of OCs of whom I am not familiar. See #4 above - I do not know your OC or those of your friends as well as you do. Thus, to create an effective story, I need a lot of information about them.

Red Light: These are topics I probably will not write about. You can ask - as I said you can ask for anything. But there's a very good chance I'll say no.

1) Stories that violate the posting guidelines of Fimfiction.net (There's no 'chance' here. I will say no.)
2) Fetish stories containing graphic depictions of excrement, vomit, or foot worship. (These squick me to the point that I do not feel I can write an effective story about them.)
3) Stories depicting characters under the age of 18 in explicit adult situations. Note that I will write about these characters if I have the leeway to age them up to legal adulthood for the explicit portions of the story. This rule does not cover romance, innuendo, or even dirty jokes - just blatant explicit content. With regards to humanized or "anthro" stories, note that I do not consider nonsexual nudity (such as you might encounter at a nudist resort) to constitute an 'explicit adult situation'.
4) Stories in which one or more characters are real people who are alive today, or were recently enough so as not to deem them historical figures. This includes obvious depictions of real people - Pony Donald Trump, for example. I will absolutely not write anything featuring real people who work as members of the cast or crew of My Little Pony (or any other show, for that matter).
5) Anything that I consider to be "too extreme". Yes, I'm covering my ass by putting this here. It's a big old gray area for a reason.

Please do not attempt to use the argument 'but, you wrote X story before' to persuade me to accept a commission, as what I have written in the past has no bearing on whether or not I choose to accept a new project. Also, please do not take a rejection personally. Really, unless I straight up tell you that it's a personal thing, it's not.

Furthermore, just because I wrote something fetishy for somebody, does not necessarily mean the content is of sexual interest to me, so please don't assume that. I enjoy a challenge, and thus where commissions are concerned I will write about things that do not interest me, beyond said challenge of bringing it to life in a story.

Age Policy

I am sorry, but at this time I do not take commissions from persons under the age of 18, even for stories rated 'everyone'. Please don't take this personally - this is not an attempt to insult the intelligence or maturity level of younger bronies. This rule is in place to protect me from involving myself in business transactions with minors, and/or accidentally exposing minors to inappropriate content. Bear in mind that I am not the internet police and cannot verify your identification, therefore, if you are approaching me for a commission, you are attesting that you are a legal adult, considered to be so by the older of age 18, or your legal age of consent in the country you reside. If you have misrepresented your identity to me and end up being exposed to content that is inappropriate for minors to view, the blame rests squarely on you, or whatever guardian is responsible for you. I will not assume liability/responsibility for any of it. Furthermore, I neither encourage nor condone minors reading any mature story I produce, and don't want to hear about it if you are a minor who has circumvented Fimfiction's safeguards in order to do so.

All of this may seem rather draconian, but the legal ramifications behind adults becoming involved with minors and exposure to adult content are no joke. Thus I don't take them for one.

Indemnity

For stories I am commissioned to write, I will not be held responsible for any of the following-

1)  Which characters are depicted in the story;
2)  what happens in the story;
3)  where the story is made available to be viewed/read; or
4)  who views the story.

I do, of course, reserve the right to refuse to take on a commission for any reason. This should go without saying, but by commissioning me, you are paying for my time and effort in generating a work of fan-produced parody, which in no way should be interpreted as an attempt to infringe upon any copyright held by any individual or organization.

Thanks for considering me!

Comments

[WishyWish]

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I'll at least listen to any idea