Are clients allowed to not offer payment?

[5fb77091]

I saw a job offer from someone for a graphic novel artist to "be their partner" and do the art for the book but then they said "I am not looking to pay, but, if we use my story and your artistic abilities to make a comic book/graphic novel version [it's originally a screenplay apparently]; you will get royalties from the comic book/graphic novel version." Does Upwork allow that? If so nevermind this just sounds kind of like taking advantage of the artist and akin to doing art 'for exposure'.

I know some artists are fine with this sort of deal, getting paid after the comic book sells, I did it once before and discovered for myself it wasn't worth it because there's no guarantee that the book will even sell enough to be worth the time and effort put into illustrating it. 

I came here to see if this is something that should be reported or something that should be seen as a "if an artist isn't comfortable with that they can just ignore the listing" sort of deal 

[petra_r]

No, it's not allowed. Just flag it as inapproriate and move on.

[5fb77091]

thank you, done and done 

[JoanneP · Accepted solution]

Hi Sierra,

I'd like to confirm that Petra is right. If you come across a job that includes a request for free work, you can flag it so our Trust & Safety team will be able to review it as soon as possible. "Requesting or demanding free services" is against the Upwork TOS as stated here.

[5fb77091]

thank you!