Ultimate Guide To Starting Your Writing Shop

Table of Contents
Introduction
Starting Out
Making Your Thread
Pricing
Advertising
Taking Commissions
FAQ
Conclusion

Introduction
Welcome to my guide for starting your own writing shop! I started out with no guidance- there were no guides on lioden, and I ended up winging it. There's guides for CSS! Art shops! Why not for writing? So, I made my own. I've done my absolute best, and if there's anything I left out, any questions you still have, dm me and I will add it to the guide! This thread will probably always be under construction as I add to it.

Starting Out

The absolute FIRST thing you need to do (before you post) is 👏Get👏Some👏Examples👏! If you don't have examples, people probably WILL NOT commission you! They need to get an idea of what your writing looks like if they're going to spend their hard earned GB/SB on your writing. The example doesn't have to be anything fancy. Maybe just a paragraph. But you need to show what you're capable of.

Show that example to someone who is BLUNT and BRUTALLY HONEST. You need critiques on how to make your writing better. If it's a train wreck, you better bet potential clients won't be into it. Some BIG mistakes I see often in people who are just starting out with selling their writing are run on sentences, grammar/spelling mistakes, or rephrasing what you just said. Another big one is switching between formal, informal and semi-formal writing. Find a happy middle or choose one, you can't have both. These are things that will definitely scare potential (high end) customers away- it makes it seem like you didn't put much effort into it. If you couldn't put effort into the example, there's nothing to suggest you will in their piece.

There is NO SHAME in practicing your writing before you're able to sell. If someone gives you a critique- negative, positive, constructive, WHATEVER, turn it into an opportunity to grow. It can be hard, but the best thing for you to do, even if the criticism is something you don't want to hear, don't get on the defensive. Critiques are always useful. If you play it right, you can change your writing to be even better. Sometimes, it's just a matter of practicing. You won't be able to please everyone, you aren't perfect. But you can damn well try.

Making Your Thread

Make sure your grammar and spelling are flawless! You're a writer, after all.

Learn a little coding. It's not necessary, but things that are less boring to read are things that will get people's attention. Simple things, such as bold, underline, italics, hyperlinks, font color and font size, are things that have helped me tons. I wouldn't recommend having bright colors or fancy fonts, things that are hard to read or show up as ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐ for certain devices. If they aren't able to read anything on your thread, they won't commission you- they'll go to a more readable shop. As a chain effect, your writing shop won't be as successful. A very helpful guide you can check out is Athene's HTML and Coding Guide.

Include rules. Specify when you want the payment. When you start? Before the writing is done? After? Right before you send it? Also include what you will not do. Everyone has their limits. Make rules such as, for example, "I WILL NOT write anything that mentions homophobia/transphobia, sexual content, or abuse." You need to establish your boundaries. Don't apologize for doing this, they can find whatever they're looking for somewhere else. Do not write something you feel uncomfortable writing. I don't care how much GB they're offering. 👏Do👏not👏write👏something👏you👏feel👏uncomfortable👏writing👏.

Establish prices and stick to them. Do a couple of your first ones cheaper than you'd like, so you know you're onto something. You can raise the price later, but you need to get examples and experience. We'll talk more about pricing and advertising later.

I STRONGLY recommend selling things in bundles/packages on top of individual purchase options. Your customer might decide to purchase a bit more when they see that there is a package for a little bit more than they were asking for, and you'll get more money.

Add a variety of different things your customer can buy! The more options you have, the more ideas they'll get for their pride lore, and the more money you have the potential to get.

Pricing (GB)

Lioden writing value is VERY UNDERPRICED. I don't care what other people price their writing at. You price yours where your time is going to be valued and calculate the amount of time you're going to be spending on a commission.

The standard conversion is 1GB = 1200SB = $0.50. So don't sell it to cheap. You want to spend like 3 hours on a comm to earn what, $2.50? Not into it.

Price your writing minimum wage times amount of hours you'll spend divided by (x).

Calculate (x) by valuing how good your writing is. Rate it on a 1-10 scale, 1 being the best writing of all time. That's (x). Not sure what your writing should be valued at? Remember the examples I was talking about? And sharing your examples? Get and use critiques.

Advertising

Advertising is probably the only way you'll get commissions, especially when you're starting out.
Here are the ways you should advertise:

Art Sales. Art Sales is the chat where you post all sales relating to art. You have to sell here instead of Sales because Sales Chat doesn't allow the Writing Sales forums to be advertised there. This chat is very slowwww moving. And I mean SNAIL LEVEL SLOW. You need a full chat scroll to pass before you post your ad, which is 10 messages, or the mods will steal your toes.
Returning clients. If you do an amazing job on one of your pieces, you might have a returning client. You know what that means? More money in your pocket;)
Credit on finished pieces. Whenever you give your client their finished product, make sure they include credit! Generally, I add this as a watermark-type thing on the bottom of my finished writings:
Credit to Polaroid (#163486)! For more information, visit Polaroid's Lore Store!
(Code is Credit to <*a href="LINK URL"*>Polaroid (#163486)!<*/*a> For more information, visit <*a href="https://www.lioden.com/topic.php?id=304429403383"*>Polaroid's Lore Store!<*/*a>)
Mutually beneficial plugs to other shops for art/coding/writing etc. One way to advertise is talk to the owner of another thread that gets about the same amount of traffic as yours. If they agree, you can each plug each other's threads to get more traffic for both of you!

Taking Commissions

There's a few different ways to take commissions, but these are the most popular ones.

Through DMS (lioden) *recommended
Pros:
Thread's comments will not be clogged
DMs can't be edited, so there is an extra layer of security to protect you
Thread's comments can overlap and you may miss someone
Cons:
No advertising through thread bumping
Inbox can get clogged, you risk your clients not being able to reach you

Through DMS (discord)
Pros:
Thread's comments will not be clogged, neither will the inbox
It's harder to miss someone's request for a commission if they dm it to you through discord
Cons:
No advertising through thread bumping
DMs can be edited, and because it's offsite the lioden mods can't do much if something goes south with your client
Character limit, which is a strong turn off if the commission is a longer one, since you might need to send it in parts

Through your thread's comments
Pros:
Inbox will not be clogged
Advertising for thread is a bit better, it's bumped when someone comments
Cons:
May miss someone when the thread's comments get clogged
Comments can be edited so there's room for someone to rip you off
Thread's comments can overlap and you may miss someone

Whatever method you use for your clients to reach out, you need a way to keep track of commissions. For my writing shop, I keep track by adding a To Do list to the very bottom of the thread. It looks like this:
To do list
Removed when commissions are completed and paid.
Completed: 11
Requested: 15
(CURRENT) Username (#User number) - Custom - TBD - Unpaid
(CURRENT) Username (#User number) - 3 paragraph king backstory - Art exchange - unpaid
(NOT STARTED) Username (#User number) - Premium Package - 10GB - Unpaid
(NOT STARTED) Username (#User number) - Lion Story - 200SB - Unpaid
(NOT STARTED) Username (#User number) - Custom 10GB - Unpaid

You need to find a way that works for you to keep track of your commissions and payment.

FAQ

Empty for now, dm me or comment questions you still have and I can answer/add them

Conclusion

Writing is hard.
It can look easy. It can feel like your writing won't be as good as other people's. And maybe it isn't. But you can only do your best. I sound like a corny kids show, but it's true. It's hard, it really is. Small things, subtle cues can mess up or imply completely wrong things. It can take more than one try or lots of edits. That's normal. My biggest piece of advice is to realize, before you make your thread, that writing is hard. Writing is fucking hard. But especially if you struggle with it, it's going to feel damn good when you knock it out of the park and your client loves it. It's rewarding.

Don't plagiarize
This is an obvious one. Don't be a scumbag, someone put time and effort into that writing. If something or someone HELPS you, it's the decent thing to include credit/thanks. But don't fabricate/plagiarize.

Be supportive of other people
Don't shoot down fellow writers and creators. We need to boost each other up as well as we can. This doesn't mean don't provide constructive criticism. Do what you can to help them make their writing this best it can be.

Have a tough skin
If you're going to write for anything or anyone AT ALL, you need to have a rock solid skin. People can be mean. Rejection happens. Rewrites. You need to take criticism well, or you can't be a writer (not a good one, anyway).

Have fun!
Writing can sometimes feel obligating or tedious, but it should be fun most of the time. Don't do it because you feel obligated to- do it because you like to write!

Most importantly, take care of yourself.
If you have the potential to be triggered by something, please don't be afraid to turn down a commission. Don't write about something you feel uncomfortable with. If you're to overloaded and stressed, prioritize one or two of the commissions on your to do list. Manage your time right and make sure you don't spend it all writing. Take care of yourself:)