What do you guys look for in an unpaid collaboration

[JRHoch]

Unpaid collaboration is sort of like the check is in the mail....

[TheOne]

As a writer I've been in 5 collaboration projects. The first 3 went absolutely terrible but my most recent 2 was great. If you don't care about how they went you can just skip to the last sentence.

1st project: In this collaboration the artist was helping me with converting my Dark/Romance Novelette into a manga. So one part of our agreement was to do check-ups every 2 weeks. So when the first check-up came. I found out that the art they showed me when we first made contact belonged to someone else. So I just decided to end it there.

2nd Project: This was actually a paid collaboration. This was also for my Dark/Romance Novelette. Since I was paying this time I wanted to meet someone in person. So a buddy of mine suggested one of his colleagues. So after a few days of talking we agreed on $500 a week over the course of 8 weeks. So $4000 in total. I thought this was pretty high but I could afford it at the time. So as a part of our agreement I would pay the $500 then she would give me the completed chapters the following weekend. A week passes after I paid her and it's time for me to receive the chapters. An hour passes after our scheduled meet up time and I don't hear anything from her. After waiting for another hour and a half I go home. So after two days of me trying to contact her and my friend getting ignored by her, I just gave up.

3rd Project: This time it's for a different story of mine. An Action/Coming of Age kinda story. Anyways me and the artist mutually agreed to end it, after we couldn't get along with each other.

4th Project: This one actually went well. This time I was helping a random artist I found on Instagram. It's not much I can say about it. It was just an overall great experience and we both were able to hold up our end of the deal.

5th and my current collaboration project: This time it's for my main Novel and will total about 500+ chapters (yes this unpaid, surprisingly). So far everything is going well.

All in all I just want someone I can trust. Someone that believes in me just as much as I believe in them.

[burginlewis]

Honestly, I can't believe a lot of the posters I see have the chutzpah to ask for unpaid artwork (or writing, but it's usually art).

It's one thing to ask an existing good friend if they want to join forces. It's quite another to blanket blast complete strangers with unpaid work requests.

[elyss]

I'd be down if people weren't demanding such a long commitment. Unpaid and 5-10 yrs of dedication do not connect for me.

[elyss]

I can't believe someone would use someone else's art and still expect you to go with it

Thank you for sharing your experiences! It seems you ran the whole gambit. I admire that you trudged along even after so many bad experiences.

[TheOne]

Yeah. You can't get any lower than that. I've had to deal with that for commissions before but never for a Collaboration.

Thanks, it's just that I really want to see my stories become an anime or movie someday, so I just gotta keep going.

[BradathonNu30]

Yeah. It's always best to start really really short. A huge commitment is not the way to start off your comic career. I learned that the hard way a few years ago.

[Maps]

Sometimes I think people forget that a ton of artists are creating (“writing”) stories of their own and have a lot of their own ideas they want to draw out.
And Tapas is wonderful because it has a novel section for writers.
I know it’s cool to see a story come alive visually, but I feel like there’s got to be some compensation.
There’s no problem in asking for a free collab, but it just tends to get nowhere unless an artist is asking for a writer or if the writer isn’t presenting (preferably finished) material of their own.

[nostalgicroxas]

I've mentioned this before on here, but the way I was taught is that "collaboration" is always unpaid. If there's money involved up front then it's a job you've been hired for.

That off my chest, I agree with everyone saying the projects need to be super short. Start off small, see if you work well with someone, and then see if they even have time to work with you as co-creators of the monster you have under your bed.

[rajillustration]

I'll do unpaid if it's for charity. Usually charity zines and the like is fanworks anyway so I never have to really worry about copyright. But, most of the unpaid collabs on here that aren't charity or some sort of cross promotion, are completely unaware of the time commitment art takes and are extremely demanding (and they'll have REALLY intense deadlines too, of 30+ panels a week and it's like good lord you aren't paying that person!) I don't want to work with a controlling bossy person.

And like, I'm an adult, so in my mind, forking over a couple hundo is what you would pay to fill your car that month with gas. It's what an artist deserves, so they too, can fill their car with gas. If you refuse to do even give as much as gas money, then it looks like you are either a child (which is fine, but I'm an adult so it would not be appropriate me to work with an underage person that closely behind private DMs. Some stranger-danger there, so I don't respond to those collabs.) or, that you are an adult but you have absolutely no confidence in your work to invest in it, and that you are actually looking for an artist to fix your project for you.

And then finally, many of the collabs are kind of...poorly written, as just a collab post. So it's like...you want to be my writer and you can't write a post? And I know it's because of the age of the collab makers, many of them are teens. But, they are trying to convince seasoned artists that they're a better writer than them. All artists on here also write and are sitting on like 3 or 4 scripts at all times, that's why we got into webcomics. So instead of writing a boring collab post that reads like a grocery list, write to get me interested. Convince me my script isn't anywhere as good as yours, and then I might look twice at it.

[SpavVy]

Being unpaid for me is the big fat no if I don't know them.
Sure they may seem warm and welcoming but I've seen cases where that went south real fast.

I have a good friend who I'm currently doing a collab with for a comic but that situation is different because some of the characters in that story are my own and I also pitch ideas.

[Eightfish]

For sure.

The artists looking for writers always get way more responses than the writers looking for artists, but I think a large part of that is because the artists always post examples of their own art, while the writers hardly ever do.

Which of course makes me assume that the writer has never seriously written anything before. Imagine the reverse: if someone who has never drawn before wanted to illustrate your passion project? Who would sign up for that?

I think an issue is that while drawing well and writing well are equally difficult, people who suck at drawing tend to know while people who suck at writing tend to not.

[winterpenwell]

Seeing what you come up with on a smaller (and simpler) scale is, I think, the best way to decide if you work well together without wasting too much of anyone’s time. Both should be clear about what they want out of the collaboration—growth, experience, fun? Also…if you’re not interested in the same content, it’s probably not going to work out.

Artists have ideas too and might want to develop them with an experienced writer, but I almost never see that offered in requests. A while ago I was helping my friend develop her comic (plot/characters) in my free time, and she was going to look over my short story to estimate its length if adapted—an exchange rather than a collaboration, I know, but my point is that someone who can’t draw can still contribute in other ways, even outside of a shared project.

[Karmillina]

I wouldn't do it unless it was with a very close friend, someone I trust. But if I were to accept an unpaid collaboration, I'd look for (beware negative bias):

1. For the person to actually express interest in my work. I have had people who don't even follow me slide into my dms asking for me to draw their story. I'd bet it was the first time they discovered I existed and people liked what I do and figured I'd TOTALLY say yes to someone I didn't know, just because I had a webtoon. It's all about them them them them, and have nothing to offer in return or don't even know what my work is about. They don't even take into account the fact that I'm already writing my own story and I'm already struggling to release every so often. I can't work with someone who doesn't have a sense of what my work entails and how long it takes. It feels like mooching, it's plain disrespectful. So for a collaboration, I want someone who cares about my work, and for whom I can care about their work.
2. A portfolio. It's hard to compare writing to drawing, but I'd expect someone I collaborate with to have skills at a somewhat comparable level. I wouldn't want to downgrade their writing with art that wouldn't convey correctly their ideas, and I wouldn't want to take someone by the hand and correct every single little thing. Also, I have been practicing for years. While my work is certainly not close to the best or in many eyes even to good, I wouldn't collaborate with a child who has nothing under their belt, both because they're kids (and I'm not gonna risk getting in trouble over dming a minor) and because they have nothing to show for it, I can't learn from them. Can't expect others to do all the job if you're not willing to put some skin in the game.
3. I resonate with the story. If the values in their story are not in line with my own, I can't work for free. If I'm gonna do it for free, I might as well believe in the project. My name would be associated with it, after all.
4. Make it short. No way in hell I'm doing a long collab with a stranger for nothing in exchange.

[Rosso]

i don't like it when someone comes out of nowhere, name still in grey, no avatar, no body of work to show, made no effort to get to know the forum goers, and expect everyone to be flocking towards them instead of working on their own projects. (regardless if the gig is long or short term)
If that's not entitlement, idk what is.

Now for what i look for in an unpaid collab?
We either have to be friends or good acquaintances and feel strongly about the things we like.
We should at least be on equal footing when it comes to artistic skills (writing/drawing are both art to me)
And of course, we should both already have our own published projects to show for.

addition: if it's unpaid, then i expect no deadlines UNLESS it has to meet a special day, like Valentine or something.

[GabiWolf]

that you are an adult but you have absolutely no confidence in your work to invest in it, and that you are actually looking for an artist to fix your project for you.

This right here! If you are serious and confident in your project you will spend money on it. A while after posting my comic I spent money on ads. The most expensive ad I run, was the least successful, but that’s the risk you have to take. In the past when I would submit my writings to magazines, some asked for fees and I paid them, I never got accepted. So you can look at it as a waste of money, or an investment in your future and your career.
I understand it’s scary to spend money and it’s really scary to invest money into something that might not take off, but that is what every business had to do at one point. It shows a level of commitment. You are serious enough about a project to invest in it, and then because you invested in it you are serious about getting it off the ground do you can get your investment back.

If you want an unpaid partnership, I think it’s best to ask someone you know. Or at least not be picky about the type of art style you want. Most likely if an artist is looking for unpaid work, it’s because they want to improve their own skill. You can’t ask for professional level work for free, and then put down the art style of the people actually responding to you.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I really don't have enough time for collaborations, but if I did, I think I would only do a collaboration with someone I know, like the work of, and have a preexisting good relationship with.

The only thing that could make me consider a collaboration with an unknown person is if they were coming with a story that is highly specific and on a topic I love, but would not likely tackle myself in a comic form.

Something that makes me think 'if I let this opportunity go, it will NEVER come again' (eg. if someone comes with a story about a 8th century Indian scholar discussing early linguistics, what can I do? I can't let them go, right? ).

[GesuGesu]

Length - most collab posts are looking for longterm, magnum opus works. Just mentioning "I've had this story in my head since I was a kid" means no.

I will agree to a collab if the projected length is <5 episodes, or they're only asking for a single episode promotional sample.

Story - I'm in no mood to draw the 103847401th high fantasy, action battle high school, or sci-fi drama. I have my own personal tastes.

Writing skill/portfolio - I can judge writing skill entirely just from reading the collab thread post. A majority of them are poorly written and give off an air of seemingly poor planning done by a teenager.

Either too vague or overly wordy (get to the point! Give me the info in point form)

Tldr; reasons why I ignore or refuse collabs:
50% length of project
15% story genre
35% writer's skill

No, I don't care about payment.

[claiborneart]

I'd actually be interested in doing one of those longform, unpaid at onset, shoot-for-the-moon trying to become a featured webtoon collaborations.

I like working with people on projects, and create better comics when I have someone to bounce ideas off of. But every post I've seen looking for that always has at least one red flag. The big flags that I see a lot are:

• no examples of their work - other people in this thread have already explained better than I could've why having no writing you're willing to show is a red flag for skill/experience level, but I also like being able to judge compatibility based on what stories/tropes they work with. Given on what I usually like working on, I probably wouldn't be a good fit with someone who's written nothing but gritty crapsack dramas or mature-rated romances.

• Thinking only writing is exactly half of the work - Someone who thinks that plot outlines/scripting a comic is an equal workload to thumbnailing/pencils/inks/backgrounds/flats/shading/lighting/lettering/final effects/exporting is someone who doesn't understand how much actually goes into making comics.
  I'd personally love to see more posters offering to take up less artistically skill-intensive parts of the workload, such as lettering or flatting, or helping with the pre-art stages like looking for reference photos, or even doing a first pass at thumbnails if they're good at thinking visually. Even if they lack the skills/tools to do flatting/etc., taking over the social media/advertising workload is a huge plus to offer. Speaking of:

• no marketing plan - Of the all these posts saying they're shooting for a webtoons featured series, I can't think of one where they talked about their plan for promoting the comic. Which reads to me as counting on getting extremely lucky.

• Wanting someone to jump onto their existing idea - I know this is actually the opposite for many people, and I think it's good to have at least some idea of the type of comic you want to make going in, but personally for a longer series I want to help out with the initial story planning. Plus, when someone has a story idea, but no script, it flags to me that they might've confused coming up with ideas (fun, easy, everyone has at least a few) with the actual writing of the comic (often difficult, a lot of skill and discipline required).

• Jumping straight into a full comic without a shorter test run - You always gotta do a test collaboration before jumping into a full project, doubly so if they're a stranger. The few times I've seen people who wanted to do short collabs before a bigger project, it for the entire first chapter of their 20-part series, or a fully rendered one-shot. Way too long for a preliminary collab comic, in my mind.

I guess for me it seems like a lot of these posts are being made by beginners; nothing wrong with being new (we've definitely all been there), but a collaboration shouldn't be considered someone's first step into making comics. I just worry the trend of these posts is discouraging more intermediate creators from seeking out collaborations on here.

[GamerPrincessXI]

A friendship plain and simple.