Please contact us if interested: .
Job summary
The Language Creation Society (LCS) occasionally has contracts to create a new language for someone—e.g. a novelist, game company, TV studio, etc. We are always looking for qualified individuals to fulfill these jobs.
Each job is different, and might range in scope from just a naming language to a fully detailed conlang with several pages of translations and song lyrics.
Our clients rely on confidentiality during the preparation phase of their projects—and we rely on confidential information to negotiate good terms on your behalf—so you'll be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the LCS. If you are selected as a final proposal candidate for a particular job, you will need to sign a consulting contract with the LCS, and possibly a certificate of results & proceeds with our client.
You may also be required to participate in dialogue coaching phone calls, or in unusual cases, to fly out to a set for coaching.
Compensation varies depending on the job; we take a 15% cut and pass the rest on to the conlanger. Unusual expenses or extra time (e.g. for on-site coaching) is compensated, but basic equipment (e.g. a microphone, software, etc) is your responsibility, and a reasonable amount of coaching is included in your fee. You will receive official credit for your work, if published (e.g. screen credit on a TV show).
The LCS' cut goes towards finding more jobs and generally expanding our non-profit mission to promote the art & craft of conlanging.
Why work with us?
Simple: we make it easier.
We vet you, so the client is completely assured of your abilities without needing to be a linguistics expert also. We do all the negotiation and legal paperwork. We provide a reputation for excellence, and use our existing contacts to find new work.
And it's risk free—even if you work as a consultant for us, you are of course still free to find and act on conlanging work on your own.
Interested?
If you are interested, please email us at , subject line "Job interest - [your full name]", with:
- a general resume and cover letter suitable for client review (this does not need to be directly related to linguistics or conlanging)
- evidence of your ability, background, and qualifications to do this sort of task suitable for LCS review (this does)
Preferably, the latter will be by reference to a published constructed language of your own (of any sort), linguistics credentials, reviews, references, publications, press, relevant work experience, etc., but you are free to submit any evidence you feel appropriate. Please do not assume that we know about your language(s) or experience in your application; even though we might, this information will be reviewed by producers and lawyers who have never heard of you, and you need to market your background appropriately.
Due to self-dealing restrictions, you may not use any LCS board members or officers as references.
Please note that if you win a job, any of this information may be used in press releases or interviews; if you would like to keep any of it confidential to the LCS, please say so. E.g., you may want to use an unpublished paper or manuscript as supporting documentation of your qualifications; if we know it's confidential, it won't be shared with anyone outside the LCS.
If you meet basic qualifications—i.e. you have prior conlanging and/or linguistics credentials—we will respond with our non-disclosure agreement for you to sign.
This agreement does not obligate you to anything other than to not talk about or in any way disclose any information we give you (e.g. our clients' names, project details, scripts, etc). In particular, it does not create a contract to actually do the job or any other obligation to either of us.
Once we have your signed NDA, you'll start getting advanced notice of any opportunities that arise, as well as various other confidential information.
Important Note: You may submit your resume and materials at any time to join our pool of conlangers for hire. Joining our pool neither guarantees you of getting a present or future job, nor guarantees that the LCS will get a job. The purpose of joining the pool is both to get updates on future job proposals, and to participate in current or future job searches.
Formats
Emails should be in plain text. All supporting documents must be in Adobe .pdf or plain .txt format. All recordings must be in .mp3 format. Files should be sent by email attachment (please email to arrange transfer if they're >20MB). Multiple files may be collected and compressed into a .zip archive for convenience.
All phonetics must be written in IPA, X-SAMPA, or CONLANG extended X-SAMPA (CXS), and all interlinears according to the Leipzig Glossing Rules standard.
All legal documents should be sent first by email as a scan of the entire initialed, signed, and dated document, and secondly by immediate physical mail of the original.
Please note that you will be a consultant, not an employee. If getting paid, US residents will get a 1099-MISC form and be required to disclose to us the information necessary for our own tax reporting (e.g. social security number), and will need to file their own income taxes.
Residents of other countries will need to help us fill in whatever tax forms your country requires, and probably apply for a US taxpayer ID number for tax withholding purposes. As far as we know, foreign nationals should not owe US income tax overall—it's more of a temporary thing—but we're not tax experts, and we have to follow the IRS rules. In any case, this only applies if you are about to get paid, not if you're just applying, and we'll help with the paperwork. Other than government requirements, we really don't care where you're located—just that you can make a good conlang.