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What's a Freelance RPG Writer Worth?
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<blockquote data-quote="Steve Conan Trustrum" data-source="post: 7659136" data-attributes="member: 1620"><p>Actually, it's quite possible it won't. I've seen it happen. You can look through OBS and easily find companies that have numerous products that haven't sold a single copy.</p><p></p><p>But no, that's not what I said. What I DID say was, in essence, that selling three or four products at a price of $4.99 at OBS (meaning you're earning either $3.50 or $3.25/sale) isn't making a profit if the product cost you even a measly $20 to put together. And by "cost you," I mean it took you at least an hour combined, as a self-publisher, to write it, choose a free art piece, do layout, upload it, and then just let it sit there waiting for people to buy it, not doing any marketing at all.</p><p></p><p>Your own example doesn't bear out a scenario that fits the premise of this thread. Losing money certainly isn't a living wage.</p><p></p><p>See, this is why I say you don't understand the difference between a "sale" and "profit."</p><p></p><p>NO.</p><p></p><p>This is NOT profit. It's "gross profit" if you want to stick purely to business vernacular, but it's not "net profit," which is where the sustainability that is contextually relevant to this thread comes in. Your own example dismisses the person's time investment as a cost which is, frankly, contrary to one of the core points of this thread's purpose: writing takes time, and time is money, so publishers need to account for that in the rates they pay.</p><p></p><p>And, considering all the extra time needed to self-publish a product that only grosses $10, as per your example, the person probably would have been better off just doing the writing aspect for the low rate. Not only would they probably flat out make more than $10 doing so, but all that time they didn't spend on the other aspects of self-publishing could have been spent working on other projects,or looking for them at the very least.</p><p></p><p>This is why business has what's called a "break even point." It's an actual thing that matters to a successful business that cannot merely be hand waved away.</p><p></p><p>You're confusing a lack of viable options for the guarantee of profit -- it just takes "time and discipline," as you put it. Just because an option is there -- is the most appealing option even -- doesn't mean that goal is reasonably attainable at a professional, profitable level.</p><p></p><p>You don't think that some things just come more difficultly to others than they do to others? I mean, I know plenty of artists, and I have taught myself a bit about digital colouring so that I don't always have to pay others to do it, but do you think it's a lack of "reasonable intelligence" that prevents me from learning the skills they possess? There's nothing someone you know finds simple that you can't wrap your head around, no matter how hard you try -- and do you think that makes you less than "reasonably intelligent"?</p><p></p><p>I've written style guides on SEO writing. I'm working on a product that will help small press publishers learn a thing or two about marketing. I know for a fact that some of the content in both is going to be over the heads of some people. Does this mean that everyone who reads that material but isn't able to grasp it is not "reasonably intelligent"? Similarly, I own a number of books on digital colouring, so all the info is right there before my eyes, so why-oh-why can't I do it as well as the comic book colourists who wrote them?</p><p></p><p>It's almost as though something more than intelligence alone comes into play when learning the bare mechanics of new skills, let alone figuring out the artistic aspects of effectively implementing them.</p><p></p><p>Well, consider:</p><p></p><p>a) not every freelance writer wants to work in the OSR community. Likewise, not every freelance writer wants to work in a market that is easily accessible via the OGL, creative commons licensing, etc. Some writers want to freelance because the games they want to write for are not open to third party publication, and those games may not pay the best.</p><p></p><p>b) as with any aspect of the market, the OSR community will only take on so much product before it bloats past the point of sustainability (d20 bubble, anyone?) Considering the OSR community remains a relatively small niche within an overall nice market, perhaps it's not the greatest example market to hold up in order to illustrate a point of "hey, anyone can self-publish RPGs for profit!"</p><p></p><p>c) even in a market that is inviting of third party publishers, and even if that market's standards are low, it's still not a guarantee of profit. Want me to start citing incredibly well-written, beautiful RPG books that absolutely flopped in their respective markets for unrelated reasons? Entire companies have come close to dying (if not actually been wiped out) by such scenarios. At best, an inviting market increases the chance of success, but it certainly doesn't guarantee it, no matter how much time and effort one puts in.</p><p></p><p>As for using Kickstarter to help people transition from writer to publishers, something you may want to consider is that going with Kickstarter has not only killed off products put out by freelancer-come-publishers, but also killed off their fledgling companies. Again, Kickstarter can help people out, but it has a number of risks that go with it that not everyone is able or willing to take on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Steve Conan Trustrum, post: 7659136, member: 1620"] Actually, it's quite possible it won't. I've seen it happen. You can look through OBS and easily find companies that have numerous products that haven't sold a single copy. But no, that's not what I said. What I DID say was, in essence, that selling three or four products at a price of $4.99 at OBS (meaning you're earning either $3.50 or $3.25/sale) isn't making a profit if the product cost you even a measly $20 to put together. And by "cost you," I mean it took you at least an hour combined, as a self-publisher, to write it, choose a free art piece, do layout, upload it, and then just let it sit there waiting for people to buy it, not doing any marketing at all. Your own example doesn't bear out a scenario that fits the premise of this thread. Losing money certainly isn't a living wage. See, this is why I say you don't understand the difference between a "sale" and "profit." NO. This is NOT profit. It's "gross profit" if you want to stick purely to business vernacular, but it's not "net profit," which is where the sustainability that is contextually relevant to this thread comes in. Your own example dismisses the person's time investment as a cost which is, frankly, contrary to one of the core points of this thread's purpose: writing takes time, and time is money, so publishers need to account for that in the rates they pay. And, considering all the extra time needed to self-publish a product that only grosses $10, as per your example, the person probably would have been better off just doing the writing aspect for the low rate. Not only would they probably flat out make more than $10 doing so, but all that time they didn't spend on the other aspects of self-publishing could have been spent working on other projects,or looking for them at the very least. This is why business has what's called a "break even point." It's an actual thing that matters to a successful business that cannot merely be hand waved away. You're confusing a lack of viable options for the guarantee of profit -- it just takes "time and discipline," as you put it. Just because an option is there -- is the most appealing option even -- doesn't mean that goal is reasonably attainable at a professional, profitable level. You don't think that some things just come more difficultly to others than they do to others? I mean, I know plenty of artists, and I have taught myself a bit about digital colouring so that I don't always have to pay others to do it, but do you think it's a lack of "reasonable intelligence" that prevents me from learning the skills they possess? There's nothing someone you know finds simple that you can't wrap your head around, no matter how hard you try -- and do you think that makes you less than "reasonably intelligent"? I've written style guides on SEO writing. I'm working on a product that will help small press publishers learn a thing or two about marketing. I know for a fact that some of the content in both is going to be over the heads of some people. Does this mean that everyone who reads that material but isn't able to grasp it is not "reasonably intelligent"? Similarly, I own a number of books on digital colouring, so all the info is right there before my eyes, so why-oh-why can't I do it as well as the comic book colourists who wrote them? It's almost as though something more than intelligence alone comes into play when learning the bare mechanics of new skills, let alone figuring out the artistic aspects of effectively implementing them. Well, consider: a) not every freelance writer wants to work in the OSR community. Likewise, not every freelance writer wants to work in a market that is easily accessible via the OGL, creative commons licensing, etc. Some writers want to freelance because the games they want to write for are not open to third party publication, and those games may not pay the best. b) as with any aspect of the market, the OSR community will only take on so much product before it bloats past the point of sustainability (d20 bubble, anyone?) Considering the OSR community remains a relatively small niche within an overall nice market, perhaps it's not the greatest example market to hold up in order to illustrate a point of "hey, anyone can self-publish RPGs for profit!" c) even in a market that is inviting of third party publishers, and even if that market's standards are low, it's still not a guarantee of profit. Want me to start citing incredibly well-written, beautiful RPG books that absolutely flopped in their respective markets for unrelated reasons? Entire companies have come close to dying (if not actually been wiped out) by such scenarios. At best, an inviting market increases the chance of success, but it certainly doesn't guarantee it, no matter how much time and effort one puts in. As for using Kickstarter to help people transition from writer to publishers, something you may want to consider is that going with Kickstarter has not only killed off products put out by freelancer-come-publishers, but also killed off their fledgling companies. Again, Kickstarter can help people out, but it has a number of risks that go with it that not everyone is able or willing to take on. [/QUOTE]
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