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What's a Freelance RPG Writer Worth?
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<blockquote data-quote="OwenK.C.Stephens" data-source="post: 7658956" data-attributes="member: 6789999"><p>A thought on Freelance RPG writing rates.</p><p>I have been a full-time freelance writer, who made 100% of my income (and the entire households income) purely through writing. It can be done. It's hard, and it sucks. That experience, over the course of several years, left me with strong opinions about what is, and is not, exploitative.</p><p>During that time, I sometimes took assignments as low as $0.005/word. To be clear, that's half-a-cent-per word. The reason I didn't feel exploited was that I was allowed to write anything whatsoever I wanted to, including reusing things rejected from other publishers, and the terms included being paid with 12 hours of the turnover. At that time, $50 in 12 hours was worth more than $750 in 12 weeks.</p><p>I did a fair amount of work at 1 cent/word and 2 cents/word. They were all for small companies I believed (and still do) could not afford to pay me more, and they were all pay upon acceptance. Good thing too, as something like half or more of those projects did not see the light of day.</p><p>I did a *lot* of work for 3 cents/ to 5 cents/word. Those projects normally were pay upon publication, and I took them because I'd rather write game material for 12 hours in a day than file paperwork for 8. Some were really fun. Some sucked. One, worth more than $2000, I still haven't been paid for more than a decade later. Not being paid is exploitative.</p><p>And where I could get it, I did work for 7 and 8 cents/word. Those nearly all took priority, but there just wasn't enough of it to make a living. Nor do I feel that's because people who could pay me more weren't. Making new RPG material for sale is a tiny, volatile, fringe market in the grand scheme of things. There aren't that many big companies, and there aren't that many *medium* sized companies either.</p><p>Obviously I turned to the publishing end of things as well, though that was mostly self-publishing for a long time. When I did the writing, and other people took % for editing, art, and layout, I started to make more money with my pdf publishing than with per-word-rate work from other companies. And when I tried to get a raise in my word rate, companies often agreed... and then offered me less work. When I was a full-time freelancer, I couldn't survive by making 80% as much money doing 75% as much work.</p><p>So, I have turned to a royalty system for more writing, and a lot (but not all) art. We take all the money we get from distributors and pay royalties on it in perpetuity.</p><p>I don't consider 3 cents a word exploitative. I don't consider royalties on gross income exploitative. I don't consider 2 cents, or even 1 cent/word automatically exploitative, since there can be other contract terms (when and how does the author get paid? What rights are retained and what are given up?) that make up for lower payouts.</p><p>Taking the people who just want to be "published" and offer you free work is exploitative. Being clear and up front about a pay rate you can afford isn't, even if that's a sadly lower rate. If you stick to that rate when you don't have to, that becomes exploiting, otherwise it's just being at the lower end of the economic model. I do think the suggestion to look at your business model if it dissatisfies you is a good one, and I do that regularly.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="OwenK.C.Stephens, post: 7658956, member: 6789999"] A thought on Freelance RPG writing rates. I have been a full-time freelance writer, who made 100% of my income (and the entire households income) purely through writing. It can be done. It's hard, and it sucks. That experience, over the course of several years, left me with strong opinions about what is, and is not, exploitative. During that time, I sometimes took assignments as low as $0.005/word. To be clear, that's half-a-cent-per word. The reason I didn't feel exploited was that I was allowed to write anything whatsoever I wanted to, including reusing things rejected from other publishers, and the terms included being paid with 12 hours of the turnover. At that time, $50 in 12 hours was worth more than $750 in 12 weeks. I did a fair amount of work at 1 cent/word and 2 cents/word. They were all for small companies I believed (and still do) could not afford to pay me more, and they were all pay upon acceptance. Good thing too, as something like half or more of those projects did not see the light of day. I did a *lot* of work for 3 cents/ to 5 cents/word. Those projects normally were pay upon publication, and I took them because I'd rather write game material for 12 hours in a day than file paperwork for 8. Some were really fun. Some sucked. One, worth more than $2000, I still haven't been paid for more than a decade later. Not being paid is exploitative. And where I could get it, I did work for 7 and 8 cents/word. Those nearly all took priority, but there just wasn't enough of it to make a living. Nor do I feel that's because people who could pay me more weren't. Making new RPG material for sale is a tiny, volatile, fringe market in the grand scheme of things. There aren't that many big companies, and there aren't that many *medium* sized companies either. Obviously I turned to the publishing end of things as well, though that was mostly self-publishing for a long time. When I did the writing, and other people took % for editing, art, and layout, I started to make more money with my pdf publishing than with per-word-rate work from other companies. And when I tried to get a raise in my word rate, companies often agreed... and then offered me less work. When I was a full-time freelancer, I couldn't survive by making 80% as much money doing 75% as much work. So, I have turned to a royalty system for more writing, and a lot (but not all) art. We take all the money we get from distributors and pay royalties on it in perpetuity. I don't consider 3 cents a word exploitative. I don't consider royalties on gross income exploitative. I don't consider 2 cents, or even 1 cent/word automatically exploitative, since there can be other contract terms (when and how does the author get paid? What rights are retained and what are given up?) that make up for lower payouts. Taking the people who just want to be "published" and offer you free work is exploitative. Being clear and up front about a pay rate you can afford isn't, even if that's a sadly lower rate. If you stick to that rate when you don't have to, that becomes exploiting, otherwise it's just being at the lower end of the economic model. I do think the suggestion to look at your business model if it dissatisfies you is a good one, and I do that regularly. [/QUOTE]
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