I am currently working for FREE for a group project, since the premise was interesting, but as the only artist, it's really stressful for people to request MULTIPLE EDITS on a single sprite that I did for free (even when it was supposedly finished). I don't even do that for my own commissioners unless they request it (2 TOPS, not 10-15 edits; and if designs are drastically changed, I usually require a small fee). I've asked friends and artists alike and they've said that this is horribly unfair.

Plus, the head of the team wants to make profit off this project (I just hope that it'll also be split equally among the team members). He has many talented people recruited, but if a game sells for $10-$15 each and doesn't have a big following, how can such a large team be paid for their services, even if they're all working for free? I'm sure that he intends to sell demos on disk so that he doesn't lose money on burning the demo, but for the real game, I am quite worried about the final product...
Additionally, he intends for this to be a project to surpass Katawa Shoujo (don't a lot of people?) and wants to get it done in half the time to sell at conventions... Now, I'm not attacking him in any way, but working for free in a demanding position and being the oldest member there does wear me down. I was expecting to work with people around the college level, if not older (and slightly younger), considering the content of the story. This is only my preference, however.
Since I've been advertising, only one person has been genuinely interested in paying me for my services; I was lucky enough to get accepted to work for free in a visual novel project, but... *sigh*
(whining coming up) <-I honestly need a personal rant journal
It's stressing me out so much, and because my parents and I are poor and in a very bad situation, I may have to opt out of this project. We desperately need funds, and working for free won't help... I'm not qualified for any small jobs in my city and am still going to school; I can only do commissions to pay the bills and save up to help out my parents in their time of need with medicine and all... Plus, my account has had such a huge negative balance for so long due to late bills that it may close in the next 10 days...everything is pretty bad...
(whining over)
Another interested commissioner had since contacted me after the previous one ignored me for months. However, it doesn't look like he knows what the difference between a CG and sketch is, even after I've linked my samples to him...


I don't know where to proceed from here...I really need money for bills and medicine, but I don't want to work for pennies when it takes me several hours to sketch, ink and CG an illustration.
If anyone could please offer me pricing suggestions or even advice and tips on marketing and rights for a visual novel game or anything at all, I would be really grateful.
Thank you to those 3 people who were kind enough to vote in my poll and many thanks to everyone who put up with my long entry.