Being asked to work for free

[ravells]

This made me smile.

Warning: contains rude language (and a rude logo)

I Wish I Worked With This Man...He's Hilarious

[arsheesh]

That was hilarious!

[Falconius]

Oh the standard polite send off at the end was priceless! Especially with the response.

[Bogie]

Chuckle Chuckle!

[Jacktannery]

Even funnier than that. Thanks for the link.

[ThatGuy]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Gamerprinter]

I've had only one bad map commission experience where a client waited almost 6 months before paying me for the work I've done, but not before asking for changes to the map. I told him simply, you normally need to pay me upon completion of the map. I would have provided the changes he asked for free, if he'd already paid. Since he had not, I insisted on getting the original pay first, then charging him additional fees for the changes. Again, if he'd paid on time, I'd have done the extra at no cost. However, because of the delay, he was not entitled to any breaks. I may have been curt in my response, but I was not rude, and don't find being rude to be the best response to most client interactions, no matter how badly they treated me. I tend to get more results with sugar, than vinegar.

If a publisher ever asks to work for FREE, based on his belief that his product will eventually sell, and will be paying you based possible royalties. I say, "No way."

A given product may or may not sell, that is not my concern. If my skills are needed to produce freelance work, then I will be paid a pre-agreed upon price at the completion of work. If the product is a super success, I don't feel I am entitled for extra payment (if a publisher pays me extra, I'm fine with that). However, I will not wait to be paid at some future date based on the 'pie in the sky' possibility that it will be successful. I don't do work as an investment towards a project. If you want services from me, I will be paid the full amount at completion, or I won't do the work at all.

This is the primary reason, that I am mostly creating maps for my own published projects to avoid any of the possible payment hassles dealing with companies other than me.

[Raptori]

27b/6 is awesome, thanks for reminding me of that! My personal fave is the Missing Missy one

Edit: Gamerprinter's post reminded me of a story my dad told me about some work he did a few decades ago.

My dad is a classical musician. Everyone in the orchestra he worked for was offered two alternate contracts for recording the music for a prospective project: one in which they were paid a set amount up front, one in which they were paid a fraction of a percentage in royalties. To the last person, they were almost certain that this project would be unsuccessful. Their music being their only means of income, they couldn't afford to gamble on that kind of thing and so chose the up front payment.

The project was a film, titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The royalties contract included a percentage of all subsequent income from this and any other films in the series.

You can imagine how my dad feels about that contract choice now!

[ravells]

Ouch!!! That must have hurt - it's a great story though. I hope he got a few pints out of it.

[Ilanthar]

Funny email correspondence ! Reminds me of a few things at work...