A good erotica commission policy is a one-page agreement that answers six questions before a single word gets written: what the story is, what you will and won't write, what it costs, when the money moves, how many edits the client gets, and who owns the finished piece. Skip any of those and you are negotiating mid-scene, which is the worst possible time. Below is how to cover each one, with real numbers from a working writer's published terms and the US rules that decide who owns the result.
TL;DR
- Settle scope first: tone, characters, key beats, length and hard no's, in writing, before drafting.
- Price per word, take half upfront, and collect the balance before you hand over the final file.
- Cap revisions (one major edit is a common, workable number) and give a realistic delivery window.
- In the US, the writer owns the copyright by default. A client only gets it through a signed written agreement.
- Check your payment processor's adult content rules before you take your first deposit.
Table of Contents
- What a commission policy actually does
- Scope: pin down the story before you write it
- Limits: what you will and won't write
- Pricing: per word is the cleanest model
- Deposits and payment timing
- Payment processors: read the fine print first
- Revisions, delivery and cancellations
- Who owns the story: copyright and usage
- A template you can adapt
- Perspective
- Put your policy where clients can find it
- Common mistakes to avoid
- FAQ
- Sources
What a commission policy actually does
People search for this because they got burned or they are about to get burned. The client who wanted "something hot" and then rejects a 4,000-word draft for being too slow. The writer who spent two weeks on a story and got ghosted at the deposit stage. The payment that gets frozen because nobody read the processor's terms.
A policy fixes all of that by turning vibes into terms. It protects the writer's time and boundaries, and it protects the client's privacy and expectations. It also makes you look like a professional, which in a corner of the internet full of flaky listings is a real edge.
One working erotica writer's published commission page shows how the pieces fit together: the writer talks through the requested content with the client, estimates length and time, agrees on scope before writing, and takes half the payment upfront. That sequence is the skeleton. Everything below fleshes it out.
Scope: pin down the story before you write it
Scope is the part most people rush, and it is where most disputes start. Your intake process should capture, at minimum:
- Desired content and tone. Slow burn or straight to it? Filthy and funny, or tender and shaky?
- Style and theme. First person or third, present or past tense, the power dynamic, the setting.
- Key event points. The three or four beats the client must see on the page.
- Characters. Names, ages (always adults), personalities, physical details that matter.
- Exclusions. Anything the client does not want, listed as plainly as anything they do.
The published example above has the writer and client discuss content, tone, style, theme, key events, characters and other details, and agree on scope before writing begins. Copy that order. Don't start a draft off a one-line prompt and a promise to "figure it out as we go."
A simple intake form works well. Five to eight questions, and the last one is always: "What would ruin this story for you?" That answer saves more revisions than any other.
Length and time estimates
Tell the client the expected word count before the deposit, because word count drives price. Give a range, not a single number ("2,500 to 3,000 words"), and say what happens if the story needs to run longer to land properly. Most writers either cap the length or reprice at the agreed rate once the client approves the extra words.
Limits: what you will and won't write
Your limits section is not a moral essay. It is a list. Short, specific, non-negotiable.
The writer whose terms we looked at is a useful model of how specific to be. They state that they write themes including BDSM, dubcon and non-con, bestiality and incest, and that they refuse characters who are actually underage, raceplay, anti-LGBTQ+ content, and revenge porn involving real people. You don't have to draw your lines in the same places. You do have to draw them, in writing, before the client finds them the hard way.
A few drafting tips:
- Name your hard no's. "I decline anything that sexualizes minors, including characters described as children or written to read as children, regardless of claimed fictional ages." Be unambiguous. This one is not a negotiation, and on any platform it is a bright line.
- Separate "won't write" from "costs more." Some writers price heavier or more taboo material higher, which we cover below. Others simply decline it.
- Cover real people. A story about a real, identifiable person who hasn't agreed to it is a legal and ethical mess. Say you won't write it.
- Say what happens if the client pushes. "If a request crosses a listed limit, I'll refuse that element, and if we can't agree on an alternative, the commission is cancelled with the deposit handled as described under Cancellations."
Kink is a spectrum, and consent in fiction is its own conversation. Writing a consensual scene about a power exchange is different from writing something non-consensual on the page, and both are different from helping a client act something out against a real person. Your policy should make clear you know the difference and that you decide what lands on your desk.
Pricing: per word is the cleanest model
Commission pricing gets awkward fast if it's vague. Per-word pricing is easy to explain and easy to quote. The published example charges $0.05 per word as a base, $0.06 per word for longer works of 3,000 words or more and edgier topics, and $0.07 per word for its most taboo topics.
Run the math so clients can see it. At the base rate, a 2,000-word story is $100. At $0.06 per word, a 4,000-word story is $240. At $0.07, a 3,000-word story is $210. Put a short table in your policy:
| Tier | Rate per word | Example length | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | $0.05 | 2,000 words | $100 |
| Longer or edgier | $0.06 | 4,000 words | $240 |
| Most taboo | $0.07 | 3,000 words | $210 |
Those are one writer's rates, shown so you can see the structure, not a market standard. Set your own based on your speed, your genre, and what clients in your lane will bear. Whatever you pick, publish it. A listed rate screens out people who wanted a bargain before you spend an hour on a back-and-forth.
Why tiers help
A tier system tells clients up front that some content takes more effort, research or emotional bandwidth, and that it is priced accordingly. It also keeps you from quietly resenting a commission halfway through. Resentful prose reads like resentful prose.
Deposits and payment timing
Take money before you write. It is the single clearest filter between a real client and a time-waster.
The model in the published terms is simple: half upfront, and the balance when the story is finished, before delivery. That second part matters. You hand over the final file after the last payment clears, not before. Draft previews, if you offer them, should be partial or watermarked so the client can judge fit without walking off with the whole story.
Spell out:
- The deposit amount and when it is due. Work starts after it lands, not after it is promised.
- The balance due date. Tie it to completion, not to the client's schedule.
- Accepted payment methods. And which ones you do not accept (see the next section).
- Late payment. What happens if the balance isn't paid within, say, a set number of days after you announce the story is done.
If you want a deeper walkthrough of getting paid in this space without drama, our guide on collecting payments discreetly for adult businesses goes through the practical side, and the breakdown of adult content platform fees shows what you actually keep after cuts.
Payment processors: read the fine print first
This is where otherwise tidy commission businesses fall over. Mainstream payment tools have rules about adult content, and they differ by product.
In the US, PayPal's policy permits transactions for certain physical sexually oriented goods but prohibits them for sexually oriented digital goods or content delivered through a digital medium. A custom erotic story delivered as a file is exactly that kind of digital content. Taking those payments through a personal account and calling the memo line "tutoring" is a good way to lose the account and the money in it. Don't do it, and don't tell clients to.
Buy-now-pay-later options have their own limits too: under Stripe's payment terms for that product, adult goods and content formats deemed offensive or of a sexual nature are generally prohibited from Afterpay and Clearpay. So don't list those as options.
What to do instead: use a processor or platform that explicitly permits adult content, read its current terms before you onboard, and name the accepted methods in your policy. Terms change, so check them periodically rather than assuming last year's answer still holds.
Revisions, delivery and cancellations
Revisions
Without a cap, one commission can turn into a month of rewrites. The published example includes one major edit at no extra charge. That is a sane default: one real round of changes, free, with anything beyond that billed at your per-word or hourly rate.
Define "major" in your own words. A good split:
- Major edit: changes to plot beats, character behavior, tone or ending.
- Minor fix: typos, a wrong name, a continuity slip, a word the client hates.
Minor fixes are on you. Major edits after the free round are billable. And if the client changes the brief after the draft starts ("actually, make it a different scenario"), that is a new commission, not a revision.
Delivery time
Give a window, not a promise to the hour. In the published terms, most stories take one to three weeks depending on length, schedule and research needs. Your window will depend on your pace. State when the clock starts (after deposit and after the scope is agreed), and what happens if the client goes quiet during a clarification round. A line like "the delivery window pauses while I wait on your reply" prevents a lot of grief.
Cancellations and refunds
The research behind this article didn't surface a universal standard here, so write the rule you can actually live with. A workable structure:
- Client cancels before you start drafting: deposit refunded, minus any processing fees.
- Client cancels after drafting begins: deposit is kept, because you've spent the time.
- You cancel (limits crossed, or the client becomes abusive): deposit refunded in full.
- Client disappears after delivery: no refund on delivered, approved work.
Write it plainly and apply it the same way every time. Consistency is what makes a policy feel fair instead of arbitrary.
Who owns the story: copyright and usage
This is the question clients forget to ask and writers forget to answer, then both argue about it later.
Under US law, the creator of a work is the default owner of its copyright unless there is a written agreement transferring those rights or the work qualifies as a "work made for hire" under specific legal criteria. So if you write the story and nothing else is said, you own it. The client has paid for a story, not necessarily the rights to it.
The work-for-hire route is narrower than most people assume. According to the Copyright Office's Circular 30 on works made for hire, a commissioned work counts as made for hire only if it fits one of nine categories and both parties expressly agree in a written instrument they sign. A private erotic short story for a client rarely fits those categories. If a client wants to own the thing outright, the cleaner route is a written copyright assignment, which you price separately because you are giving up something real.
So your policy should choose one of these and say so:
- Personal-use license. The client may read, keep and enjoy the story privately. You retain copyright and can't be stopped from, say, publishing it elsewhere (or you promise you won't).
- Limited sharing license. The client may share it in specified ways, such as posting it with credit to you.
- Exclusive rights or assignment. The client buys the rights outright, in a signed agreement, for a higher price.
Note that a commission can be a custom story built from a client's private fantasy. Many clients care more about privacy than rights. Say whether you will ever publish or excerpt the work, and whether you'll keep their name and details confidential. Then keep that promise. Reputation is the entire business here.
This is general information, not legal advice. If you're selling rights, or the commission involves a publisher, a contract-heavy project or any dispute, have an intellectual property attorney look at your template once. It's a small cost against a bad contract.
If your commission work ever turns toward anthologies or magazines, the formatting and rights expectations are different, and our guides on anthology submissions and getting paid for erotic story submissions cover that side.
A template you can adapt
Here is the structure, in the order a client should meet it. Write each as two to four plain sentences.
- What I write. Genres, kinks and themes you take.
- What I don't. Your hard limits, listed.
- How it starts. Intake form, scope agreement, word count estimate.
- Pricing. Rate per word, tiers, any minimum.
- Payment. Deposit percentage, balance timing, accepted methods.
- Timeline. Typical delivery window and what pauses it.
- Revisions. What's included, what costs extra.
- Cancellations and refunds. The rules above.
- Rights and privacy. Who owns it, what the client can do with it, what you keep confidential.
- Age and consent. All characters are adults, and the client confirms they are 18 or older.
Put it on its own page, link it from every listing, and make the client acknowledge it before the deposit. A single line ("By paying the deposit, you agree to these terms") does the job.
Perspective
We read a lot of listings, and the pattern is boring and consistent: the providers who last are the ones with rules. Not rigid, not cold. Just clear. A writer who says "half up front, one major edit, here's my no-list" gets better clients, because the people who can't handle that filter themselves out before they waste anyone's evening.
Kink work runs on trust, and trust is built from small, dull things written down in advance. Consent isn't only a scene thing. It's how you take the deposit, how you handle the revision request, how you treat a client's most private fantasy when you're the only other person who knows it.
That's why we built Kinky Korner as a dedicated, community-focused home for adult creators, performers and businesses, with a place for services, events and classifieds right next to the erotic fiction, comics and art readers come for. Your policy is your best salesperson. A listing that links to a clear one converts better than a listing with a pretty picture and no terms. We want your terms in front of people who are actually looking for what you write.
Prenston
Put your policy where clients can find it
A policy nobody sees does nothing. If you take custom work, list it where kinky readers and clients already browse. Kinky Korner has a free basic listing, a Monthly plan at $4.99 per month and a Yearly Premium plan at $149.95 per year. You can compare them on the pricing page, and browse the categories to see where your work fits, from professional services to fetish and kink events.
Make your listing say what you write, link your commission terms, and state your payment methods up front. For the listing itself, the guide to mistakes that get adult classifieds pulled is worth five minutes, and the fetish classified rules explain 18+ verification, consent and reporting. If you're running this as an ongoing operation, the 2026 guide to managing an adult business online covers the rest.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Starting before the deposit clears. "It's coming, I swear" is how unpaid work happens.
- Vague limits. If a client has to guess where your line is, they will find it by crossing it.
- Unlimited revisions. The word "unlimited" is never a good idea in a service business.
- Ambiguous rights. Say who owns what. Silence defaults to the creator in the US, and that may not match what the client assumed.
- Wrong payment channel. Using a tool that bans adult digital content puts your money and your account at risk.
- Writing the policy once and never touching it. Review it after your first handful of commissions. Every awkward conversation points to a missing line.
FAQ
Should I take a deposit on every custom erotica commission?
Yes. A deposit is the clearest signal that a client is serious, and it compensates you if they vanish. One published model takes half upfront and the balance when the story is finished, before delivery. Pick a split that suits your pace and apply it to everyone.
Who owns the copyright on a commissioned erotic story in the US?
By default, the writer does. A client gets ownership only through a signed written agreement, or in the narrow case of a qualifying work made for hire, which requires one of nine categories plus a signed written instrument. If the client wants exclusive rights, put an assignment in writing and price it separately.
Can I take commission payments through PayPal?
Check before you try. PayPal's US policy prohibits transactions for sexually oriented digital goods and content delivered digitally, which would include a custom story sent as a file. Use a processor that explicitly permits adult content, and read its current terms first.
How many revisions should I include?
One major edit is a workable default, and one published writer includes exactly that at no extra charge. Define what counts as major (plot, characters, tone, ending) versus minor (typos, names, small fixes), and bill further rounds.
How long should delivery take?
Give a window based on length and your schedule. In the published example, most stories take one to three weeks, depending on length, schedule and research needs. State when the clock starts and what pauses it.
Sources
- Custom erotica commission terms, scope, limits, pricing and revisions
- U.S. Copyright Office: definitions FAQ
- U.S. Copyright Office: Circular 30, Works Made for Hire
- PayPal: policy on sexually oriented goods and services
- Stripe: Afterpay / Clearpay payment terms