Under what conditions would you accept a UNPAID collaboration?

[joannekwan]

Something fun or for charity, like zines.
But often they'll send contributors a physical copy of the zine that's produced, so does that still count as payment? lol
However, zines are nice since they require much less commitment than say a whole comic series. I always apply to do single illustrations in them as I can't commit to doing more than that.

[DiegoPalacios]

1-Do i know/trust the people?, if not, then i ride the nope train.

2-It is entertaining?, if not, then i ride the nope train.

3-A charity from an organization i trust?, if not, then, nope train.

4-Do i have enough time to embark in this?....if not......nope train

[Riisana]

I also like to flirt with the idea too

When I first joined the forums, I was actually really interested in a collab Especially unpaid, because I pretty much just started drawing. However, it was also really intimidating to approach people (I didn't start posting yet), so I found myself stalking profiles a lot looking for:

• Is this person someone I could vibe with? (Do we like the same things, could we get along?) It's not like we need to be friends, but I didn't want to get harassed or anything either
• Their writing style, is it something that I would want to read? (Some "pitches" I've seen are walls of text that make me unable to read through the first two lines. It makes me believe that the "Scripts" and whatever I'd have to read through would be unbearable.)
• Is the person someone who would be able to commit to the work we'd make together?
• Is their level of ambition something I can work with?
• Do I feel this will be fun or at least worth my time?
• Do I have time right now?

But I think that the most important condition would be "time" right now. for me

[KRWright]

Nothing. I can't subsist off good will alone.

In a more detailed answer: I'll work for no pay if the project honestly sounds amazingly interesting and like something I'd be involved in as a hobby. But if it's something that is even remotely like work, then I'm out. Anything with tight deadlines, turn arounds etc. then I'm gone.

[VibrantFox]

Like someone mentioned above probably only if it's a zine I'm interested in or some kind of community collab (like ya'll did for christmas) but other than that the chances of selling me on an unpaid collab, especially when I've got projects of my own I'm looking to pursue, are slim to none.

I might be swayed into something very short like a couple pages but it'd have to hit some of the same points @Rhonder brought up, like pitch presentation, familiar faces, and for me personally shared workload. For a straight up unpaid collab I think the only way a person can make it at least a little worth it is some kind of exchange of services otherwise it's kinda....eh.

[LadyN]

If I’m bored. I wouldn’t do a full blown comic or novel but I would happily do art for a novel, a cover, and thumbnail.

[vothnthorvaldson]

1) I have time. Which is rare.
2) I know the person, and they are trustworthy and honest. That's more important than their style or prefered story genre.
3) Both the person and I are aware and fine with the fact the deadline may be changed, but both honestly try to avoid multiple delays.
4) The project is at least somewhat off the beaten track.
5) IP concerns and potential future uses are discussed beforehand.
6) Project is short or in small modules somewhat independent.

[KoreanTacos]

• They must be a boyfriend free woman
• Must come over to my house to take care of me and my mom
• Must be a Sonic fan, and a real sonic fan should hate the tacky coloring choices on the Boom remake, so gross
• I must be allowed to take any of the persons characters and put it into my own work with no credit to them what so ever
• Bonus points if you're a CPU

[SagaHolmgaard]

The likelyhood of me jumping onto a thread for unpaid collaboration in this forum is... EXTREMELY low, lol. Even if I'm starting to get to know some of you guys (which is great! Yall are cool peeps) I dunno if I'd be willing to start anything with a stranger or near-stranger without feeling secure in that the project would definitely pay off in some way..
That said, I guess I am doing free work, just in circles of very close frends and on stuff that I'm excited about! I'm in a fanzine, as has been mentioned above, and me and a couple of friends from uni are playing around with a game project idea. So those kind of things are the execption

[Iris-Grimoire]

Something small, I have the time, and it's someone who respects the problem with it being unpaid. Which, usually, means it's a charity zine or someone who really wants to support someone else and pays in other ways, or a friend.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

1) If it sounds fun (if I'm not getting money, I'd better at least have some fun)
2) If the collaborator(s) has a talent that I otherwise would never have access to (like GAME DEVELOPMENT)
3) If it'll be a chill, casual experience (I'm okay with having deadlines, but not with chasing them every week)
4) If it's a short term project (that's always nice)

...That's pretty much it. ^^; I'm a relatively easy sell for this kind of thing; the biggest issue is that most unpaid collabs I see don't sound like fun to me.

[rajillustration]

If it's a charity I really believe in, otherwise if there's someone I admire that I want to do fanart for--I'll just do fanart.

...like to be honest I'm over 30 so I feel like if you can't pay for your collab, you might be so young that it'll be stranger-danger for me to work with you. Older people have expendable cash (usaully. Like right now it's Covid, but in a normal world, people will pay for services)

[fuyudust]

I'm an artist so what I'm lack off is writing skill. So when I see a "writer looking for artist" thread, I would like to see their their previous/example works. And if they already have a story for the collaboration, beside the summary and genre, I would like to see the ready-to-go script of one or two first episodes. It it's click with my liking, I'll send them my art example, what I good/not good at and what I can't draw as well.
I will skip the I have this idea or dm for more detail threads.

[drcharlotterodricks]

This was such an entertaining answer

[magnavarra]

I've made a couple of free art like covers and character design to practice something out of my comfort zone in order ro upgrade my skills. By that I mean drawing something which isn't auto approved by me by default because it's just my art but something that another person would like and accept beecause they like it, not because they paid for it. My art isn't great that's why i do it fo free and I also don't like when ppl charge 20$ for a picture worth to be hanging on their fridge exclusively.

[DiscountedArtist]

I probably wouldn't accept an unpaid collaboration here on Tapas because a reader probably wouldn't care who drew the pictures if it's not mindblowing. Other platforms, such as Youtube and Instagram (I don't have an Instagram though), I would if they have a large audience, and if I feel like I can help them. I wouldn't collaborate with a stranger on the internet, but if I'm real friends with them in real life I'll collaborate for free.

[SpavVy]

I will only do it if we've been friends in real life for a long time and some of the characters have to be mine. My friend and I actually do have a collab series of our own.

[Yoyo4991]

Well, I do lack greatly on the writing side so I do search for comic collabs. So, first and foremost:
• A good writer
Be able to create a story from start to end, with good dialogue, be clear and think on details (don't be lazy! describe or use references for characters, locations...)
• A story I love (and that can be monetized)
My final goal is always to profit from the comic. I'm not working for free, this is an investment lol so I have to think this story is so awesome that we gonna get rich or smth. But till then I should at least feel entertained enough.
• A good relationship/profesionalism/respect
If I sense a disturbance in the field I will start being less and less motivated till I quit. No winning award story can make me stay if the other person is a lower back orifice.
• Fair workload, equal levels of commitment and fair pay
If the other person writes a chapter and disappears for the month it'll take me to draw it, if they're not willing to try and reduce my workload one bit, and on top of that they expect 50/50(if profits are involved) well, you can imagine...

[darthmongoose]

I have a few very narrow circumstances under which I worked unpaid with a writer:

• It was a single page comic and it was going in a magazine with a reasonable readership (Scream magazine. It's not huge, but it was a known horror magazine) and I knew the writer well, saw the script first and felt like it'd be a good portfolio/CV thing to have because of where it was being published and the name attached to it being somebody who gets writing done at a professional level.
• It was a 6-page comic to test out a concept we were considering making a longer series of and wanted to try a test run of working together and of the property with low pressure. I'd been friends with the writer for years and seen her create multiple completed works and get recognised for it.

Both of the above comics were black and white with little to no toning.

So overall my rules are:

• The work is 6 pages or fewer.
• Done in a style that isn't excessively complex or time consuming.
• I know the writer really well, that they've completed other works and that their writing is to professional quality, at least as good, if not better than my own.
• I get something out of it; the level of exposure where this work will be seen is better than what I could get by just posting or printing the work myself because this writer has a decent fanbase of their own and/or the work is going in print somewhere I might not get in print on my own.

[Snickerdoodles]

People just aren't reliable unless you pay them for their time. I wish more people understood that.