Coming Soon: General Advice Posts

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

I am proud to be a member and moderator of a community which has an astounding number of resourceful, knowledgeable, and helpful members. By sharing your advice and experiences, you have helped countless artists and commissioners over the years. While advice posts aren't the primary reason this community was formed, I think they contribute to its purpose by preventing issues from escalating to the point of a 'beware'.

In the community guidelines, we request that people who make an advice post browse through the previous posts to see if their issue has come up before. However, this is a tedious and often fruitless task. We have a lot of advice posts, and they are all tailored to the OP's specific situation. For someone with a similar (but not identical) situation, gleaning advice from the comments in these posts is a monumental task. 

So, we are going to do something different.

Every other week, a moderator will make a post about a different topic. Then y'all can comment with your advice. Also, if you recall someone (including yourself) making a particularly helpful comment related to this topic in a previous advice post, please link to the comment (or you can copy-paste if it's your comment originally).   You can also link to entire posts that match this topic. 

The purpose of this is to create a library of advice to which we can point people who submit advice posts, and to which people can refer as needed.  We will still allow advice posts that don't necessarily fit into our general posts.

For our list of topics, so far we have:

What do I do if I am featured in artists_beware ? (this will be the very first one, the others are in no particular order)
How much should I charge for my art? Done
Copyright:  What are my rights as an artist?
Copyright:  What are my rights as a commissioner?
Copyright:  What do I do when someone wants the rights to my image?
Copyright:  The do's and don't's of referencing from photos and other art.
Copyright vs. Trademark
What should my contract include?
What should I put in my terms of service?
How long should I wait until I ask for my money back/warn about this person?
What printing services have you used and would you recommend them to someone else?
Someone wants me to do a comic/sequential art, how much do I charge/should I treat it differently than a regular commission?
How do you handle when someone wants corrections/repairs/fixes?
Very general "How to get along with artists"/"How to get along with commissioners".
What do I do if my art is stolen?
What's the best way to ship my art?
What do I do if the item I mailed didn't arrive?
How do I help ensure an international shipment arrives (safely)?
Websites/resources to help artists.
Good business practices.
Techniques for organization and keeping track of commissions.
How do taxes work with regards to commission income?  (Must keep in mind the advice there will be country-dependent.)
How long should I keep the art and how should I store it? (Digital or real media.)
Emergency commissions:  do I jump on the good deal or let it pass?
What do I do when an emergency comes up and I can't work on commissions/send my payment?
What do I do when I need to do a chargeback or do a PayPal dispute?
What do I do when someone issues a PayPal dispute or chargeback on me?
What do I do when my commissioner/artist disappears? 
Are there measures I can take to make it harder to steal my online art?
Someone wants a pic of someone else's character (with their character or as a gift).  How do I make sure it's legit?
Books? How much to charge for the images, and how to have a conversation with an author who is most likely not educated in how the art world works.

Any other suggestions for topics that get asked a lot?

(p.s.  Kudos go to kayla_la  for this awesome idea!)

EDIT:  Adding topics as they are suggested so we don't get repeats.

EDIT 2:  We mods are just posting the topic; the advice will be in the comments.

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Your LJ code borked, apparently!

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

perhaps advice on mailing art? badges, larger flat work, fursuits, sculptures, etc

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I'd also suggest perhaps doing a topic on useful resources, say linking things like posts we've found elsewhere which are useful in general to working artists and clients?

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

lol *facepalm*

[yoka-neko.livejournal.com]

delivery overseas?/delayed mail?

as i have a few experiences with that, which id like to share advice:3

[sovy.livejournal.com]

I can write advice posts.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Would you put a permanent link to that first topic at the top of the community page? You've probably already thought of that, but I just want to make sure since it would be an extremely valuable post to have easy link to.

[crisis-the-hat.livejournal.com]

Not sure how well this would work out- but perhaps a very broad and generic work ethic?

Or maybe something along the lines of a compilation showing other others go about their "business" so to speak what should be encouraged, what's discouraged and how that could be changed/rearranged?

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Yep! All of these topics will have permanent links on the community page for easy access.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

How about organisation tips? I'm terribly disorganised myself (I'd forget my own head if it wasn't screwed on). And perhaps something on taxes in general? Also art storage, how long to keep something if a client up and disappears either after paying or before they pay?

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Wunderbar! Kudos to the moderators for this general idea/these specific topics, too. :)

[theblackdragon.livejournal.com]

just a suggestion -- i would be very, _very_ careful with the 'how much should i charge' question to avoid accusations of price fixing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing).

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

That isn't meant to be a "charge X amount" post. It's more like general advice on determining how much to charge for your art, which will vary considerably between artists.

[ocelotish]

Hmmm...

What about one about sales and how to handle emergency commissions? What to do if you have an emergency? How to handle "creeps" or unwanted contact. A discussion on copyright, trademark and what it means for the artist and commissioner. How to handle quoting prices/delayed commissions?

[ocelotish]

Oh! Paypal+refunds+chargebacks too!

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Price fixing only counts if everyone or the vast majority of people supplying the stuff agree to fix the price at a certain point. Discussing the going rates and current prices wouldn't be price fixing.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

The creeps part could fall under "how to get along with ___" posts.

For the quoting prices/delayed commissions, are you referring to when someone gets a quote, but doesn't order the commission for a while, then prices go up and they suddenly want a commission at the original quote price?

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

Why you should always offer tracking and insurance on shipped items.
Return or refund policy.
How to watermark or protect your online images from theft
Beyond FA, where can I host and sell my artwork?

[ocelotish]

Yeah that sort of thing, or if they order a color piece, only approve the sketch, then they disappear for a while and when they come back they want it completed.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Definitely will mention the tracking and insurance under "What's the best way to ship my art?"
Return and refund policies are part of Terms of Service, so we'll make sure to discuss them in there.
Added #3
#4 goes with "websites and resources to help artists" and is a good suggestion for one category to have in that post.

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't have any suggestions for topics (yet), but I'm digging this idea!

[ocelotish]

Also, handling couple-pics/gift art, and dealing with couples that break up.

I'm wondering for the format if it makes sense to have little subthreads for some of the broader topics like say... sequential art whether it's a single page or a long-term project. Those could have very different answers.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

We'll see how things go with this and whether it gets too difficult to filter the advice given in the post comments. We're trying to keep them more general to help as broad an audience as possible (while not so broad that it's hard to find the help/advice you're looking for). It's a new thing so it'll probably evolve as we go along. Some of the topics above may be split up, while others get put together.

Perhaps once each post has been up for a while, a mod (or volunteer) can compile all of the advice from the comments into an organized post with subcategories and the like...

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I actually don't know how to watermark my images withoutit being huge and obnoxious. Usually I just upload tiny versions.

[theblackdragon.livejournal.com]

all's i'm saying is to be careful how things are worded and how the people responding word their posts. all it takes is for a few people to agree in the comments that (insert amount here) is a 'fair price' and that they're all going to charge that much for (insert work here) and *bam* there you have it, y'know?

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

I guess I can legitimately ask the first question since I actually was posted about here. XD

[petercat.livejournal.com]

I'd urge you to break this out into a separate community instead of diluting the main purpose of artists_beware ("A place to voice positive or difficult experiences with commissioners or artists"). I think people have been posting general advice here because they know a lot of artists see it and there doesn't seem to be another community more appropriate to it.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

"This community is also open to discussions and questions on how to conduct business between artists and their customers."

The vast majority of members voted to continue allowing advice posts a few years ago. Sometimes they fix a problem before it becomes a beware, sometimes they become bewares.

We get repeats of many of the above topics in advice posts. We mods don't have time to browse back through the advice posts to try to find one that fits the one in the queue, so we just approve it. The point of these posts is to eventually have fewer advice posts, as we mods can point people to these general posts if we feel the advice can answer their questions.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

I plan to do a review of more print-on-demand companies... I think that would still be best as it's own separate post though?

[ocelotish]

*nods* Either that or have some list of what topics could be included because some people will tracking etc. is part of shipping art (when there's another planned discussion of that), but clearly I thought unwanted solicitations would be a different discussion when it's grouped with talking with clients.

[holydust.livejournal.com]

I think it's a great idea, though it's obviously going to be a LOT of work for the mods! But anything worth doing is worth doing well.

What will be the standard process for checking to see if a newcomer needs to make a new post or simply consult a general one linked in the list? Would they need to send someone a PM and ask? (Forgive me if this is a stupid question -- I'm actually pretty new to A_B.)

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Posts are moderated, so what'll happen is people will submit advice posts like normal, and if we feel it fits in with a general advice post, we'll reject the post and link them to it. The posts will be linked on the profile, so otherwise users can peruse them at their leisure, and I do recommend they do that before trying to submit an advice post, just to see if it's been covered.

[hunter-san.livejournal.com]

Would it be possible in the "How much should I charge for my art?" section to have a follow on question about comic pages?

I recently got asked about it and I have never done a comic page before and have no idea what an acceptable price would be :x

Also, maybe a question about red flags? At what point should I politely go "sorry I no longer feel comfortable?" If you know what I mean C:

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

This is a great idea! :D

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

Seconding your last question since I'm one of the few artists on here who doesn't do furry art so it'd be helpful to hear about sites other than FA, lol. XD

[ocelotish]

I have one that seems a bit odd, but might be interesting - is art a service or a product?

There doesn't seem to be much difference, but the difference is a lot in "Are shortcuts allowed?" and "What happens if the picture doesn't turn out right?/The customer isn't happy with it?" You can get different, but completely legitimate answers based on how you view it.

Also, are we getting a tag for this? And what happened to the first discussion about what to do if posted here?

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

"What happens if the picture doesn't turn out right?/The customer isn't happy with it?" would definitely be a good topic.

We decided to try out a more simple topic for our first post...testing the waters, so to speak. The "What to do if posted in A_B" post will come later.

I went back and tagged the pricing post, thanks for reminding me. :)

[ocelotish]

Oh, I was thinking it might be good to tag the community discussions as such, just because they're a lot of general advice posts vs. one specific situation, but what you have works too.