I recently needed a cover for my latest e-book. The Angel and the Poet. I found someone on the fiverr website and he came up with this lovely cover. It was exactly what I had in mind, so I was pleased.
While I was browsing around on the site… Fiverr.com. a window popped up, asking if I wanted to place a gig of my own. Now you know how I like to try something new, so I typed up a few lines, saying I’d write a children’s story for a fiverr, not sure why they insist on two r’s in the word fiverr, because it’s dollars. My cover cost £3.80, and the fiverr people keep a dollar for themselves, so the fiver, becomes a fourer. Then when you pay it in to your pay pal account, they take twenty pence as well. That’s how a fiver becomes £3.80, if you’re with me. So when you have your gig on there, you’ll get £3.80, which takes a week to clear, another thing that’s not obvious.
So I’m on fiverr with four gigs. I have:- Write a 500 word story for children, write 50 lines of a poem for your special day, write 500 words funny story, and also write a romantic story in 500 words. In no time at all, I’d had three gigs, all I had to do was provide the story, and send it. It crossed my mind, that I liked these stories, and I could always use them again, which made me wonder about copyright.
Around the same time, I was explaining to Alan that I’d done some stories, and he said, ‘so they’re still your stories?’ I needed to find out. Trust me to plough on in and think about that at a later stage! Here’s my page. Susan on Fiverr
When I looked at the small print, at the very end, it says that when you sell a story, you are selling the copyright as well. You can either make the copyright another gig, or state on your gig description, that someone can use your story, but copyright remains with you, and hope they acknowledge that the work is yours when they use it. So now I’ve added that to my gig descriptions.
So far I’ve earned $12, which goes to your pay pal account. The last customer I had loved my story and wanted to order another two. That’s when Alan said, ‘watch it, if your stories get made in to a film… (I love the faith he has in me:)) you want your name on them. Not sure about that, and it’s what ghost writers do all the time, isn’t it?
I’ll keep my gigs on the go for a while, but I’m sure that because I was selling the copyright with the stories, that’s why I got a rush on. New members might miss that little detail, so wanted to point it out. Saying all that, each person has given me a five star review for my children’s stories, so I have to be pleased with that. And I enjoyed writing them. Getting practice in ready for when our new Grandchild arrives…
Susan Jones - Writer 
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