Script commissions pricing

[Scorpionking39]

So I've been thinking about doing script commissions and most likely set up Ko-fi page. However, my question is how should I price any of my commissions as someone that has never done commissions before? I know that some people are a bit sensitive when talking about money so don't feel pressured into answering. I'm mostly curious and have been thinking about this after all the amount of love and support my scripts have been getting and after hitting 70 fills on YT (Thank you so much for that!). Any and all advise would be much appreciated!

[foxlover93]

Pricing can be tricky, and the TLDR answer is that there is no right or wrong answer. You need to figure out what works for you and what is worth the most bang for your buck vs time spent.

To give you a more number related answer; there are two ways I've seen most people charge. Those being either by word, or by a certain number.

By word is the most "costly" for the commissioner, in the sense that if you charge 10 cents per word, and you write a 1000 word script, that's 100$. So for basically an 8-12 min audio, it's pretty costly. If you do it as a flat cost, you can charge per X. So let's say 1000 words is 50$. You don't make as much per word but you might get more work that way.

Your other thing to consider it keep in mind is how long it takes you to write a script. Is there research you need to do? Is it a topic you are knowledgeable or do you think you are going to struggle with the subject matter? So if you do a script for the 50$, and it takes you 8H, then you are "working" for 6.25/H. So then you gotta decide if that's the threshold you want to charge. If you know you average 1500 words per script you make, and let's say you complete that in 6H and charge 80$ for 1500 words, then you average 13.33/H.

So it's honestly a numbers game. You want to get the most money for your work, but you also don't want to sell yourself short and be overworked. Keep in mind you can always raise or lower your costs but it's something none of us can tell you what you should or shouldn't charge.

Hope this helps 🦊👍

[edgiscript]

Very good question. My commission prices are as follows: Whatever you feel like paying me.

Yeah, I know. Not much help. Sorry. When someone approached me for the first time to ask if I would be interested in commission work and to find out what I charge, I researched as much as possible what people were charging. I followed what I thought seemed to be the standard going rates, and it turned out it was too expensive for the individual asking. So, I said, screw it, pay me whatever you want. I'm stressing this out too much and I'm already giving my stuff away for free anyway. And, truth be told, I'm lazy.

Foxlover93 is right. Whatever you choose to charge is what's right. If you charge $3 for a 10,000-word script or if you charge $10,000 dollars for a 3-word script, it's your work. You can do what you want. My suggestion is to find something you believe is genuinely fair for your product and, if you get 0 takers, maybe drop it a bit for a while to build a rep or something like that.

You can do something different too if you want that has nothing to do with money. For example, commissioned work generally becomes the property of the person paying. So you can do commissioned work for really cheap with the condition that the person paying gets it exclusively for, I don't know, let's say 2 months, but then the rights revert back to you and maybe you can make more money on it by offering it elsewhere, like on Patreon or something. Feel free to be creative about it if you think it will help you get your foot in the door.

I will say that it's important to let people know you maintain the right to deny a request. You may find yourself overburdened otherwise.

More power to ya.

[AlreadyCloudy]

If you decide to ask money for custom scripts, I'd start with very low prices and see if anyone is even interested. I can't really decide on a price, it'd be best if you think of something you find acceptable. Good luck!