How Do Commissioned Book Projects Work?

Let's face it, a full-time author is never going to have a stable income from book royalties unless you're J.K. Rowling. So what's a writer to do? One option is to do school visits and talks, but most schools in Singapore are reluctant to pay decent rates; the other option is to take up commissioned projects.

My fellow authors, Emily Lim and Linn Shekinah have successfully published  commissioned picture books for the Singapore Zoo and the Public Utilities Board among others. But writing a commissioned project is far different from writing your own story. Your a hired gun so to speak and you may or may not have the final say on how your project turns out.

So how does a commissioned project work? What can you expect? I guess it varies from project to project, but here's the general gist:

1. You're either asked to submit a proposal or the client/publisher will approach you about working on a project. 

2. You'll be provided with a project brief which includes topics to be covered and the timeline. 

The Brief

3. The client may then ask for a sample of your writing or an outline for your story idea for consideration.

The Outline

4. Once offered the contract,  then you will have to negotiate your terms of engagement: 

Fee: For a commissioned project the author is usually paid a flat out fee rather than royalty payments. 

Rewrites:  I usually limit the number of rewrites to two. You don't want to end up in endless rounds of rewrites!

Kill Fee: In the event that the project fall through and your services are no longer required, you should insists on  a Kill Fee clause in your contract. That means you will still get paid something for your time and effort. E.G: A couple of years ago, I was commissioned by a financial institution to write a series of comic book stories based on their original concept. The project fell through but I was still paid for my effort.

5. Once a draft is approved, the illustrator begins to sketch the story out.

A tight sketch

 The blue damselfly was later
changed to a red dragonfly.

Final artwork.

6. Be patient and compromise. You don't have complete artistic control over the content of your project as the client is paying you to tell their story. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't compromise your creative integrity. 

With this project, Gardens agreed to use the characters from my existing Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di series, so I guess I had a slightly easier time than other writers as I was already working with the familiar.  

Having said that, the project was not without its challenges.  How could I make the educational topics entertaining and fun without being overly didactic while sticking to the client's criteria? Thankfully I was lucky to work with a brilliant editor, illustrator, project manager and publisher, so that was sorted out as much as possible.

The whole project- from concept to completion - took up almost an entire year. The books were published early this month and are sold exclusively at Gardens by the Bay at $S58.00 for a set of four. So if you would like a set head on down there today!

At the Gardens with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Princess Diana says she remembers me

It was with great excitement that I headed down to Gardens by the Bay with the hope of meeting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I've been a huge supporter of the royal family since I was a kid, well since I saw Princess Diana driving through the gates of Buckingham Palace right before her wedding.  Through the years I was fortunate enough to have met her several times and I even curtsied to her in my excitement- that is something I will never live down. By the way she remembered me the next time I met Her because she said "I remember you. You're so sweet you gave me flowers last Tuesday."

So for this visit, I bought two bouquets of flowers, a framed photo that I shot of the late Princess when I met her and one of my children's books that I intended to give the Duchess as a souvenir.  Having conducted a reconnaissance mission of the Gardens with my Mum who said she would go along to meet the Duchess, I was fairly confident that we stood a good chance of doing so. Well OK, I did get a hint as to where to stand because I asked one of the ladies in charge of the tree planting ceremony where I should stand. I explained that my mother was old and it would be nice if she had a chance to meet the royal couple. Without hesitation,  she told me the route that the couple would be taking and told me where we should stand if we hoped to meet them.

So with information in hand I headed home and set the alarm for 6am. Didn't really need it since I was up at 4am as was my mum. Dad agreed to pick my niece up and give us a lift to the Gardens.  So with a folding chair, packets of Ribena, water, and dried apricots we headed down to the venue. Big signs were posted along the route as to where we should go to meet the couple. We got to the Super Tree Grove at around 8am only to find that scores of other fans had gotten there earlier. Thankfully we managed to find a spot along the barricades behind some nice English folk. My niece positioned herself along the barricades and my mum set up her folding chair and sat down for the long wait. We had two hours to go before William and Catherine arrived or so we thought...