General Advice Post: Declining a Commission and/or a Trade

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Be it their reputation, their attitude or just the overall theme of what they want you to draw for them - we as artists and people have the right to say 'no' to offers placed upon our plates.

The question is, how does one say 'no' in such a way that it is purely professional and has that weight of finality to it that doesn't allow for weasel room. Lets figure out the best way to create a standard of etiquette for declining inquiries we don't want to handle!

I'm opening the floor to the community on this. Please feel free to advise or suggest ways to professionally bow out of offers for commissions or trades.

If you recall someone making a post or a comment regarding this in the past, and felt it was a big help to you; please link to it for everyone's reference!

Comments

[gaaralover85.livejournal.com]

I've found that short, conscise answers are the best. Like others have said if you go into too much detail the conversation will, inevitably, drag on for too long. I've exprienced that in the past, and it ALWAYS makes you feel tonnes worse about the experience than just being direct with them.

I normally say "After some consideration I feel that I am not the right person for this piece. But thank you so much for your interest!" Or something to that effect. Short and sweet is best.

As far as trades are concerned I never do them first come - first served, and always state that I will contact the person/people I am interested in privately. And will not make any public comments to people who post on the journal in question. No sounding like a bad guy, if no-one takes your interest you just move on. :)

xx