Royalties?

[timothymayer]

I just flagged a potential client becase he listed his payment as:

 "Pay is on 50/50 royalty share basis contact me for more info"

As far as I'm concerned, this is asking for free work.

I've seen a number of these posts lately.

What is the official UpWork position on royalties?

[prestonhunter]

You were correct to flag this job. You can't just offer to pay people in royalties on Upwork.

[timothymayer]

It gets better. I told the potential client I flagged him over the messaging system. Looks like he flagged me too. Guess it goes to arbitration....

[lysis10]

wait arbitration? You took a contract for this?

[prestonhunter]

Timothy was joking about arbitration.

[lysis10]

lol oh whoops

over my head and through my legs... my bad

[timothymayer]

Yeah my poor attempt at humor. 

There seems to be a rash of people who want freelancers to work for "royalites". I've had a bunch contact me, but this one was too much. I had another issue with a client who wanted me rewrite 2000 words. What the heck is going on out there?

[lysis10]

I wrote a lot of ebooks at the beginning of the year and also had someone offer it. Of course, I said no.

I posted this elsewhere but recently got invited to write 5000 words for $40, and the sad and funny part about it is that before I could bid the $1500 for the time it would take me to do what he wanted, he already hired some loser who agreed to it. The high bid was $100, so at most he paid $100 for it. I'm sure it's gonna be a load full of plagiarized junk that he can be proud of.

[timothymayer]

There is a rant Harlan Ellsion does in "Dreams With Sharp Teeth", a doccumentary about him. Seems the company doing the extas for the Babalyon Five DVD tried to get him to work for "exposure". It's hilarious.

[jefvandegraaf]

Mr Preston, I know this is years ago and I am still searching for an answer, however, has there been any updates in "Accepting Royalties" on Upwork. Have you ever done it before? Would you ever do it? Tips for doing it. Straight talk for not doing it. Much respect and gratitude for your POV in advance! _ Jef

[prestonhunter]

re: "I know this is years ago and I am still searching for an answer, however, has there been any updates in "Accepting Royalties" on Upwork. Have you ever done it before? Would you ever do it? Tips for doing it. Straight talk for not doing it. Much respect and gratitude for your POV in advance!"

No. This hasn't changed. Upwork is not a platform for paying people with royalties. And to answer your specific question: No, I would not try to use Upwork to get paid in royalties.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG in companies paying specific types of people (such as songwriters) in royalties. But Upwork is not the tool to use for that.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Timothy and others,

I would like to clarify that jobs that offer payments in royalties are not allowed on Upwork.

[timothymayer]

I'm glad to hear this. However, I have seen many of them appear on the jobs list. I understand UpWork can't go through them all, so I will flag every job I see with this in the description.

[7466e3a5]

So then are illustrators owed royalties after the product comes out? My daughter wrote a children’s book and I want to publish it but I can’t draw worth a **bleep**.

[petra_r]

---

@Dustin T wrote:
So then are illustrators owed royalties after the product comes out? My daughter wrote a children’s book and I want to publish it but I can’t draw worth a **bleep**.

---

 No, unless otherwise agreed, after full payment the product belongs to the client to do with as they please. The freelancer is owed nothing further.

[7466e3a5]

Ok. Thank you and sorry for the *bleep* word.