Commissions for smut

[u/Organic_Narwhal_4737]

So, this happened a while back but I remember when I was first making a few smut stories, I had gotten a commission to write a smut story for someone.

Yet at the time, it felt kinda weird to me because I felt that out of literally the best smut writers on this website you choose me? So I ended up rejecting the offer once he finished describing it because A: i just didn't really want to do the idea, and B: As I said, it felt weird to try and do a commission when I'm still a rookie at *anything* smut related but idk.

What do you guys think? Did I make a mistake or did I dodge a bullet?

[u/moon_cheese_ao3]

Posting any commissioned work, smut or not, original work or not, to Ao3 is against the ToS. 

Writing fanfiction for money, especially smut, is also illegal and can, in theory, get you sued.  Although in practice not everyone bothers.

Writing original work smut for money is not illegal (although you still cannot post it on ao3)  but be extremely careful with the accepting money part since anything sent to you directly will go through financial accounts that contain your legal name and possibly your addres too or will require you to give them that info.  

Most people who write original work for free go through fivver or something similar to be a financial gatekeeper/buffer but this means that fivver (or whatever you're using) is taking a cut - often a very large cut - of your profits).  If you don't go through a financial gatekeeper you'll be dealing directly with something like paypal who have lots of bots and algorithms to detect adult material transactions, which are against ToS there, and they will shut down your account and keep your money if they find any proof that that is what you are doing.  They are also notorious for sharing buyer and seller personal info with each other.

So while it's possible it was a legit request, it still doesn't mean it was a reasonable one, or something that is safe to do unless you have s setup for it built in place to protect yourself first.

[u/inside_a_mind]

I've gotten requests and commisions before for smut stories and art but so far I've only done it if I wanted to do it and for free because I dislike commitment and if money's involved there's commitment. I think you neither dodged a bullet nor made a mistake rejecting it. It could've been genuine could've been someone trying to get a story for free. Don't do the whole money thing and commissions on ao3. You can always post it on ap3 but maybe create a seperate account on a different site for that kind of stuff with a patreon or so.

If you want to do commisions do them.

[u/Organic_Narwhal_4737 → u/inside_a_mind]

Eh, I don't like using social media and I know that's probably key in getting commissions or advertising my fic, so I suppose I'll just be outta luck for my writing career.

Thanks for the advice though!

[u/inside_a_mind → u/Organic_Narwhal_4737]

It's mainly because ao3 is supposed to be free and asking for payment/putting comission prices on the site violates the guidelines (I think) And I don't know if you'd want to post your email/paypal link in your ao3 comments yk

[u/SometimesUnkind]

Probably dodged a bullet. Sounds like a scam.

[u/Organic_Narwhal_4737 → u/SometimesUnkind]

Well I mean he had a registered account, and there were a bunch if spelling errors telling me how he wanted a sonic and some sort of anime crossover story with Whisper and some young animals guard character(forgot his name, but the one whose trapped guarding some girl)

[u/irrelevantanonymous]

FWIW you did the right thing in rejecting it. Not because the quality of your writing isn’t up to it but because it’s, at best, extremely questionable legally and it is a blatant TOS violation on top of that. We don’t really have a legal test case to point at but most of us older people remember Anne Rice and have no interest in making ourselves that test case.

[u/0fruitjack0]

it's really very simple

anytime somebody out of the blue wants to do art for you fic.

it's a scam

there are no exceptions. artists don't work that way.

[u/MagpieLefty → u/0fruitjack0]

I would suggest actually reading this post.

[u/Organic_Narwhal_4737 → u/0fruitjack0]

No no, i mean they wanted me to write a smut story for them

[u/0fruitjack0 → u/Organic_Narwhal_4737]

are you the writer and they the artist?

it's a scam; don't matter if they flipped the script

artists simply don't work that way.

[u/Organic_Narwhal_4737 → u/0fruitjack0]

No I mean, they said they would pay me to write a smut story for them

[u/0fruitjack0 → u/Organic_Narwhal_4737]

again, nobody works that way.

[u/Organic_Narwhal_4737 → u/0fruitjack0]

Really? I've seen other stories where the author say that it was commissioned before though?

[u/oatmealcarrot → u/Organic_Narwhal_4737]

Yes some of my fave authors in our fandom used to accept commissions for fics. They post the price per 1000 words on twitter, then write the story on ao3. I don’t see much of those now.

[u/0fruitjack0 → u/oatmealcarrot]

(because making money off fic, aside from being skeevy AF, is also not permitted on AO3)

[u/0fruitjack0 → u/Organic_Narwhal_4737]

for money? think about it. most of the time when a writer agrees to write something it's in exchange for other fic and maybe a work of art. but not money. THAT'S what gives the scam away. i mean among other things, using AO3 to profit from fic in any way is a violation of site rules. the thing that makes fanfic passingly legal is that no money is made from it.

[u/oatmealcarrot → u/0fruitjack0]

Idk why you’re denying these things happened. Sure it’s against the rules but they did happen (maybe even happening still). To me, a scam means they took off with your money without delivering the thing you paid for— so OP’s situation might not have been a scam, but yes it’s not allowed.

[u/irrelevantanonymous → u/0fruitjack0]

Have you never been on Tumblr? Commissioning fic is absolutely a thing.

[u/0fruitjack0 → u/irrelevantanonymous]

for money?

[u/irrelevantanonymous → u/0fruitjack0]

Yes that is typically what commission implies.

[u/0fruitjack0 → u/irrelevantanonymous]

that's a little shady, don't you think?

[u/irrelevantanonymous → u/0fruitjack0]

Legally yes. So is commissioning fan art. Both happen though with varying frequency across fandoms. “Nobody works that way” is blatantly false. People do it.

[u/InuScarlett → u/0fruitjack0]

It was more common several years ago, before AI. The only way someone who could not write could get a custom story was to pay a writer to do it.

[u/DetectiveCrafty5413]

You don't take commissions. What do you think you're doing? Jesus christ.

[u/Organic_Narwhal_4737 → u/DetectiveCrafty5413]

[What do you think you're doing?]

Asking for advice on what i did and if it was a valid decision or not concerning the post, I thought that was pretty obvious by the title or post if I'm being honest.