Official "Terms of Service" Advice & Review Post

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

As an artist, it is critical to have a good Terms of Service. One that includes both your rights as the artist and the customer's rights in relation to your transaction. Not only does this educate your customers on how the process works and what to expect from it, but it protects both of you in case something goes wrong.

In our official T.O.S. discussion post, we discussed what to include in a Terms of Service, what constituted good terms, and what were questionable, shady, or downright illegal terms.

Now, artists, here's your chance to post your T.O.S. for critique. Don't know how to word a particular point you're trying to convey? Want to make sure your T.O.S. is fair for you and your customers? Need to make sure you didn't leave any gigantic loopholes? Link your T.O.S. here, and members can give you their advice.

This post can also be used to discuss any other questions that you have on your mind regarding how to build a T.O.S., maintain a good T.O.S. and how to make sure your clients read and agree to your T.O.S.

Before you post, please read through the previous T.O.S. discussion and maybe even the examples in the last T.O.S. post, apply what you learn there to your T.O.S., and then link your revised T.O.S. here for help polishing up. Please do not post a half-finished T.O.S. and ask folks to rewrite it for you. Be prepared for honest critique!

Comments

[itsamellama.livejournal.com]

Ahh yay! I'd be really grateful for any feedback (good or bad!) on my T.O.S. - I still worry I've left things out, more on the client's side than mine, really, or that I'm too vague or maybeeee too specific. I worry I overdo it and make it look like I get all the good out of the transaction and the client gets shortchanged. I'd also appreciate any advice on the wording as I think I shift between second person and third person. I have a hard time figuring out how to make things sound nicer and more concise.

Mel's Terms of Service (http://www.melgcabral.com/terms-and-conditions/)

Thanks so much, everybody!

[nowayne.livejournal.com]

i clicked your tos at random out of the list of folks here, so please don't feel i'm targeting you, but your tos comes off as almost overwhelmingly wordy, something that struck me as odd since you specifically ask your commissioners not to be overwhelmingly wordy, heh.

for example, the 'contact' section - all you have to say is "I will only accept commissions initiated through my order form, to help keep things orderly." the rest of that paragraph almost gives tacit consent to people sending pms/notes. if people do that, just link them to your tos, because you know they have not read it if they are doing that.

"discussion" section - all you have to say is "contact me through e-mail only to discuss the commission once accepted." putting in the "reminders" thing tells me as a commissioner that you might flake out and need reminders, which makes me want to run the other way. it shouldn't be my job as a commissioner to remind you! :(

telling the commissioner what you need from them is fine, and saying "you must attach all reference files to e-mail instead of providing links" should suffice. the extra lines about website servers and internet connectivity should be unnecessary.

this will sound cold, but the slot section is mostly unnecessary to me. i have money, i want to spend it with you; i don't care about public/private lists and why you keep them. just, are you open, or not. if you find you spend weeks or months with no open slots, maybe add a sign to the top of your page, "now open," or "not open for commissions - please check back around (date)."

and the waiting list policy is weird and confusing to me. you already covered an a)b)c) of when exactly a commissioner's been accepted, so having a separate list of people who haven't-paid-but-maybe-will-if-they're-serious seems like extra work and stress for you, and more confusion for the commissioner. i understand wanting to grab up all the people who want to give you money that you can, when they have the money, but you should also already be aware of your limits. if you can't accept their commission right now, i would just say "can you check back in 3 weeks because i expect to have more time then" or something.

i know i am overly critical and my feedback was wordy too! so i'll bow out now but please let me know if you wanted more feedback from me.

[itsamellama.livejournal.com]

Oh wow this is all super useful! This is great because this is actually my first publicly published TOS - I used to just have an informal 'commission notes' section.

Re: wordiness, it's totally okay to point that out as it really is a weakness of mine even in my own work (usually first drafts lol). I keep trimming and rewording this baby down as much as I can, hahaha. So don't worry, I really appreciate your critique! (And yeah LOL that is really ironic of me isn't it!)

Ahh I didn't know it came off that way re: discussion woops!

I don't think you were cold at all btw! That's really helpful; I keep having trouble with this slots part, really.

And ahhh thank you I've been confused myself over my own system (this isn't its first version, believe me!)

If it's all right to ask, is there anything I could improve on in the 'clients' and artists rights' section?

I don't think you were overly critical, I think everything you said was done so objectively. It's all really useful and I will refer to your suggestions again when I rework my TOS hopefully within the month. Thanks so much!! :D

[nowayne.livejournal.com]

hm... i think that "Should I decide to to use your commission for the aforementioned purposes, I will contact you in advance to let you know in case you later decide to purchase exclusive rights to the work" is already covered by the sentences preceding it. you have already made it clear what your expectations are. brevity is important.

it feels like "I reserve the right to recycle any sketches or preparatory works rejected by the client for other commissions or personal works" should be in the artist's rights section though.

the rest of it seems long, but i'm not really sure how to condense it because i don't know exactly what is most important to you. to give an example of a tos i find appealing in length, i commented on germanchoclates' up there. slightly longer but not too wordy also is celestinaketzia's upthread a ways. i just heavily recommend condensing where at all possible to make things easier on people who want to throw money at you.

[itsamellama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess I got a little into "did i cover all the bases"-mode too much. I'll check those TOS's out! Thanks so much for your input, and I'll definitely give my TOS a good 2-3 or more condensing/editing passes.

EDIT: Whew! Edited it with your suggestions. I think it looks a lot better though can still be distilled or re-organized, maybe? I took out some stuff that I felt overcomplicated things for myself too. It's refreshing!