Well, if I were you first of all I'll be asking all the right questions.
If paid/unpaid has been answered, well, the amount should be important to know.
Then
- Amount of pages or panels per episode
- Genre of the story
- How long the story is going to be
- What do you need to draw, like, if you're just starting then I bet you won't be good at drawing everything
- Payment type, if it's via paypal, in a specific currency, etc
- Deadlines, do they expect one for you, or you also get a chance to debate that based on how much would it take you do the job depending on the workload?
- Is there a script ready for you to follow?
- Does this person have experience
- A lot of people say paid for the sake of don't being rejected but the truth is that they are unpaid, so make sure it is payment for chapter or delivery and not something dumb like "I'll pay you once we get ad revenue, we become popular, we start making money, bla bla bla"
If you're trying to give it a shot, then the best thing I can recommend you to do is the following
- Send screenshots of your work, not high-quality stuff unless the person has paid you beforehand
- Don't send high-res files without payment first
- Try to send them clean sketches so they can have a clear idea about the direction the panels are going to go, this is to avoid erasing and re-doing until they are satisfied, demand clear communication and a proper script or storyboard even if it is in stick figures.
Regarding Webcomics App, a few years ago they started a bit wacky, mostly because they are non native english speakers and they had people that were clearly not meant for community management or to approach creators, they've now started to hire proper staff and editors so, that's a better plus.
Yes, they send a lot of people messages to join their platform, you can do it independently or under a contract, that's up to you. Back then they had a few issues with certain creators but seems that everything seems fine for now (I'm in their Discord server, and checking out their other Social Media).
Since their rebrand, they've started to look more professional, and have challenges, bonuses and more for creators who participate on them so I think that's good, the only thing is that:
- While you can get support within the currency of the app, you need to achieve certain goals in order to unlock features
- One of them, is that, I believe, once you have more than 50 chapters in their site, you can start to lock them so readers can pay for it or watch an add.
First there are basic things with PayPal that every artist should need to know before they start doing commissions.
- PayPal will never send you any email except the ones were you getting paid, or were you paid for anything. Except these two they will never send you any type of emails, in the case of payments. If you receive any then it's definitely a scam!
- Always check your account and not your email for getting paid. You need to get the payment immediately, there is no such things that you need to wait days, etc. to receive the payment, no matter how big the amount is. Even if it gets hold back for a while, it will appear it, that your payment is getting hold.
- PayPal don't require any money for upgrading your account into a business one. It's free. You can even keep your personal account too if you use another email for the business one.
- You should never give out your PayPal email, use instead invoices or paypal.me links. If the client refuses to pay with these methods, then they are scammers.
- I think this is one of the most one that you can hear a lot, but always ask at least the half of the payment before you start the commissions. I saw a lot of beginners that got scammed like that they asked the payment after they were done with the commission. No, you should ask at least half of the payment before the sketch and other half after the sketch. Or even full payment upfront. If they refuse, then they are scammers.
Any kind of problems regarding Paypal, especially, issues with payments, rejections, refounds, the account being limited or whatever. You'll receive an email but just to properly verify that, you also get the notification within the app.
So log like you would normally do be it the App or the website, not by opening a link within the email, if there is nothing regarding this, then you've received a fake email.
Paypal would never refer to you as "Dear costumer" or similars, they'll use your name, and they won't have spelling mistakes or use weird incorporated images within the email, especially anything that seems to be taken from a quick search to Google Images.