Yeah, we used to be the same way. The reason we've changed our mind is... well, we once listened to a podcast regarding artist contracts. You know, how writers and artists of a comic split the earnings, stuff like that.
And even if everyone was well-intentioned and liked each other, things could go horribly wrong. For instance, a common slip-up: say you're drawing a comic, your friend is writing it, and y'all decide to split the earnings 50/50. Simple enough, right?
But what exactly does that mean? Say your friend goes to a con alone and sells a bunch of the books. Do you get half the earnings before or after expenses? (The cost of the table, the printing, advertising, etc.) What if you're tabling too, does that change things? Do you have to share in the expenses?
These are the fights that will destroy even the best friendship, because you have different ideas of "50/50." And this is why you write shit down, to hammer down those little nitty gritty things BEFORE they become problems. Because if you never need the contract, awesome! But if you do, it will save your hide.
We started writing out the rules in part because we realized we were making the same mistakes over and over again. We would forget the rules we made about, say, our meal plan, and keep claiming they were irrelevant or not necessary anymore.
Also, sometimes it's way easier to think rules are reasonable when you don't have them written down. Rogan had almost taken over all front life, even though it wasn't good for him, because in his head, the responsibilities weren't very big. Once we wrote them out, though...
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Date: 2017-10-31 08:12 pm (UTC)And even if everyone was well-intentioned and liked each other, things could go horribly wrong. For instance, a common slip-up: say you're drawing a comic, your friend is writing it, and y'all decide to split the earnings 50/50. Simple enough, right?
But what exactly does that mean? Say your friend goes to a con alone and sells a bunch of the books. Do you get half the earnings before or after expenses? (The cost of the table, the printing, advertising, etc.) What if you're tabling too, does that change things? Do you have to share in the expenses?
These are the fights that will destroy even the best friendship, because you have different ideas of "50/50." And this is why you write shit down, to hammer down those little nitty gritty things BEFORE they become problems. Because if you never need the contract, awesome! But if you do, it will save your hide.
We started writing out the rules in part because we realized we were making the same mistakes over and over again. We would forget the rules we made about, say, our meal plan, and keep claiming they were irrelevant or not necessary anymore.
Also, sometimes it's way easier to think rules are reasonable when you don't have them written down. Rogan had almost taken over all front life, even though it wasn't good for him, because in his head, the responsibilities weren't very big. Once we wrote them out, though...