Smaller Luke Theory
patreon
Commission Info
🕑 Added 2024-08-11 01:50:33 +0000 UTCIf you have commissioned me prior to the publishing of this post, you are free to ignore it. Whatever agreement we've made is the agreement I'm sticking to. The below strictly applies going forward.
Man. You know what I fuckin' hate? Money. I don't like needing it, I don't like having it and having to manage it, I don't like spending it, and I don't like figuring out how much of it to charge for my labor. Every single part of it stresses me out, so if someone could get crackin' on ushering in a post-scarcity utopia that would be real swell.
Figuring out what to charge for commissions feels like basically an impossible math problem to me. There exists some number x, which is the optimal balance between what people are willing to pay and how much I'm willing to work for, that would result in the optimal number of commissions. I have no clue how to even begin solving for x here. It should probably be less than a thousand bucks a word, but probably more than a buck per thousand words... and that's about as far as I can get.
But then I remember that this ain't my day job, it's not even my primary side-hustle, it is a fun hobby that I'm lucky enough to pick up some extra cash from, so I really don't need to stress out about it that much! The rates I've decided below are what I believe to be fair compensation for my labor; if you disagree, that is a-okay, and I hope you can find another writer to work with!
Pricing
The rate I have settled on is $0.04 per word. For reference, chapters of Give Yourself to Me are an average of 4000 words long, so a piece of that length would cost $160. Chapters of Field Research average in at 3000 words, so the commissioner pays me $120 per chapter. This works out to a rate of somewhere between 20 and 30 bucks an hour, which I think is more than fair for this kind of specialized labor.
As a rule, I'm happy to round the word count down for the purposes of pricing, so if I write you 3200 words, we can call it 3000 and I charge you $120. Or, for a longer-term project, I'm happy to go with an average; me and the commissioner of Field Research have agreed that they'd pay me a flat $120 for each chapter, even though some of them run slightly longer than 3000 words and some of them run slightly shorter. I'm happy to discuss those kinds of minor adjustments to the bill.
Discounts?
See, this is another reason I hate money: I don't like having to tell people no!
I think for the sake of simplicity and to nip certain concerns of mine in the bud, I've got to stand firm on that four cents a word price. Maybe, if this whole lil' enterprise goes on for long enough, I might hold a sale or something, but no, for right now, I'm not going lower than $0.04 a word.
Private Ownership Fee
By default, I would like to post everything I write here on this Patreon, as well as on other sites. If you would like to keep the work I write for you private, something only you can read, then that's fine... but it's going to cost an additional $0.02 per word. Time I spend writing your private story is time I'm not spending adding more value to the Patreon, so I think it's only fair to ask you to pick up the tab for that.
Regardless of whether the story is public or private, you can remain anonymous if you choose, or be credited as the commissioner; the person commissioning Field Research has requested anonymity, for instance, which I've respected.
The "Yuck Tax"
There are certain things that I don't really care for, or that aren't really my thing, but which I'm still willing to write... for a little extra money. I'm calling this the yuck tax. Like with private ownership, stories that feature these elements will cost you an extra $0.02 per word.
Promiment examples of things that will incur a yuck tax are:
Extensive foot content
Odor stuff
Vore
Crush/Extreme Violence
Ultimately, whether or not I charge a yuck tax is going to be a case-by-case thing. It's something that we'll talk about when we're establishing the terms of your commission, but ultimately it's my call whether I throw on an extra fee. If you're not interested in paying that much, then I've got great news: there's so dang many folks that will write you foot fetish or vore content, and will most likely charge a lot less for it than I will!
Hard Nos
There's some stuff that I will not write for any extra amount of money. Some of these are just kinks that gross me out, and while I won't write it, I ain't judgin' you for liking it. Some of these are things I find morally repugnant and I do kinda judge you for liking it, but I'll keep my opinions to myself unless pressed.
The below is not an exhaustive list, but some of the things that I'm gonna refuse outright are:
Anything involving piss or shit
Incest, including between step-siblings/step-parents
Anything focused on underage characters, even if there's no sex
Anything rooted in racism, homophobia, transphobia, or any other kind of bigotry
Again, not an exhaustive list, and if I refuse to take on your commission for any reason, I ask that you please respect that and don't try to argue about it.
Payment
As of this writing, the only payment I'm accepting is Cash App, for one simple reason: of all the payment platforms I've looked up, it's the only one that lets me hide my full, legal name. I've said before, I'm not really ashamed about having a size kink, buuuut, for the sake of my day job, it is probably for the best to at least make it take some effort to link this page back to my identity. I don't really know if it would cause problems for me not, but I'm also not too keen to find out!
If you know of another way that you can pay me while respecting my anonymity, I'm more than willing to discuss it.
For short/one-time commissions, you'll pay half the total fee up-front, and the second half upon completion of the work. For longer commissions, I'll release it in chapters, and will require payment for each chapter as it is completed. For our purposes here, let's say a "short" commission is anything less than 10,000 words. That said, if you want an 8,000 word commission but would prefer to break it up into pieces to space out the money you're paying, I'm happy to do that. The main point is that I can't just wait til everything is finished for you to pay me; that's a good way for me to get screwed.
The Process
Anytime you have a project you'd like to talk about commissioning me for, feel free to DM me here on my Patreon. You can try reaching out other places like DeviantArt, Twitter or Giantess City, and I will respond there, but I'll probably be slower to do so.
Depending on my current workload, and what I've got goin' on in my life, I may not be able to make room for your commission, or I may have to stick it on the backburner and develop it more slowly. I'll be upfront about this anytime it's the case.
What I'll need from you is a basic explanation of the plot, as well as any specific details you'd like to see included. I'll probably go back and forth with you a little bit, asking you some more questions about what you like and why your story idea appeals to you, so that I can be sure to focus on the aspects of it that draw you to it; I know my rate is a little high, so I want to be certain that I'm delivering on what you want. The more specifics you can give me, the more I can tailor the work to your tastes; for example, the commissioner of Field Research talked to me pretty extensively about their love of cooking, especially for a date or romantic partner, which is what inspired the eat-to-grow aspect of that story.
Once I have a solid idea of what you want, we'll agree on a word count. I will try to fit the story to any word count you want, but keep in mind that the more plot and detail you want, the harder it will be to keep the word count down while making something evocative and enticing; if you want a really extensive plot in only a few thousand words, there might not be much space for sexy stuff, y'know? When we've settled on a word count, we'll hammer out exactly how you're going to be paying (see the above section), and then I'll get started.
Once I finish a short story, or a chapter of a longer story, I'll show it to you to see if you'd like any revisions done. I'll do the revisions and make sure the story has your approval; I want to make sure that I'm giving you what you want, but I also don't want to get bogged down in endless revisions. At this time, I'm not going to put a hard cap on the number of revisions I'm willing to do for a given story or chapter, but I'd ask that you please be respectful and considerate of my time. On the flipside, I'll also make sure to do regular check-ins with you if I'm working with you on a longer story, to make sure that you're happy with the overall direction things are going, and make what adjustments I can if you aren't.
Once you're happy with it, you'll pay the second half of the bill if it was short story, or you'll pay the full price of the chapter if it's part of something longer. If the story isn't private, I'll post it here on Patreon, and elsewhere a month later.
And I think that's it! I should... definitely condense this post down into a more digestible commissions sheet, but that's for another day!
