Commission 101: In Depth Tutorial

 Lesson 3:  Terms of Service

As a freelancing artist you are offering a service to (often) strangers. Having a fulfilling Terms of Service is important to protect yourself AND your client. Any freelancing artist need a Terms of Service. It sends chills down my spine when I think about how many freelancing artists do not. (It doesn't matter if you call it Terms of Service / Terms and Conditions. Legally it's the same and it's up to your personal preference)

As with prices and products, look to other artists for what they keep in their Terms and Service. Here’s mine - don’t be afraid to copy and paste the parts that apply to you. 

You want to keep the Terms of Service readable and short but at the same time you’ll want to cover any scenario possible. If your ToS is less than 7 sentences, you’re doing it wrong.

You also need to include legal disclaimers as a standard in any terms of service. 

The Essentials to include in your ToS: 

Rights
By default all rights remain with the artist. Printing rights, commercial rights, usage rights, all kinds of rights. But people usually do not know this so it’s best to have it included. You can sell these rights for an extra buck - but that’s something I’ll cover another day.

Payment
How and when do you accept payment? Any taxes, fees? What about partial payments? How do you accept tips?
(I will cover how to set up PayPal my next Lesson) 

Refund
How can clients ask for a refund? The standard is to give a reduced refund after the commission process has started. How much you offer and when is up to you, but you should never refund after a commission has been completed.

You also include the refund policy for when you fail to complete the commission on your part for any reason. This should be a 100% refund.

What the client can expect of the artist
What does the client receive? How long will it take? Do you keep them updated and included in the process? (the answer is yes, yes you do). Is there anything you won’t create? 

Corrections/Revisions
After the commission is completed the client might ask for corrections. Be clear on how many corrections you offer, and for how long of a timespan you offer it.

Retention of Images and Files
 This part explains how long you can guarantee to store work, in case the clients files get lost and they ask you for a new one. 

Disclaimers
I recommend to just copy + paste this part. These are good to cover your butt.

All articles of this Terms of Service are applicable unless specifically outlined within the final written agreement between Client and Artist.

By contacting me for work you are hereby agreeing to the terms expressed above.
All PayPal transactions are subject to the PayPal Privacy Policy.

Include the date when you last updated your terms of service.

You should now have enough information to put up decent Terms of Service. 

 All the lessons will be gathered in this Google Document