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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DragonDroid" data-source="post: 236341" data-attributes="member: 5512">Man, a lot of replies in a couple of hours. Doesn't that just beat all?As for my world, I seriously think I can write 7-8 good novels about my world (some of them independent of one another). If even half or so sell for about $5,000 (usually the industry standard, assuming no royalties), I would have $20,000 AND my world AND some credentials for my next books. This, in my opinion, is better than all of WoTC's offers save one. The last thing ANY writer wants to relinquish, I guarantee, is your expanded, thought-out idea.Here are the scenarios:Scenario 1: I lose the first round. No big deal. I go back to writing about that world.Scenario 2: I win and become one of ten finalists. Then what? Go to Scenarios 3, 4, or 5.Scenario 3: I lose the second round. See Scenario 1 (though WoTC can try to use the expanded idea and twist it in a way in which I can't sue 'em...)Scenario 4: I win, write the bible, get a mere 20k for my idea, and lose the idea as well. THIS scenario is the one I want to avoid.Scenario 5: I win the whole thing. Woo-hoo! This is one I really want to aspire, but it ain't easy, and one in which the world could be warped as well.Voneth: All I need is a good lawyer to write out the contract in my favor, should the idea sell.Cevalic: My idea is supposed to be novel(s), and such that, if I put my mind to it, should sell and impress.Heap Thamaturgist: Ed Greenwood is one example. He isn't too respected for his work (many people at the FR boards hate his stuff), his thousands of pages of maps/stories/etc. has failed to garner the respect he should deserve, and he doesn't make very much off his ideas! (IIRC, he works part-time as a librarian.)Writing ISN'T what I really want to do for a living unless I make about $50,000 off every book I write, plus options and international rights. I'm not delusional! Oh yeah, you aren't selling an idea. You are selling 111 pages of the best damn work you can write.Weeble: Whee. Well, I wish you luck on your idea. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Scribe Ineti: I am trying to be a professional writer. I'm not gonna be a cheap hack doing it. Well, two things: One, I was only sixteen when I thought of my world, and two, I had plans on creating a video game, not a novel. The idea to create novels didn't come until mid-2000. If I remember, Ed Greenwood (if his "legends" are true) needed about three or so times that to create the Realms.You can't just think of something for a couple of minutes, have the lightbulb turn on, and write. That idea has to be part of an "idea net" that makes a good milieu or idea for a novel. In most cases, the idea that generated the novel probably won't be in the final draft, or at least, be only a minor setting. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but expanding them to something marketable and interesting is priceless.Yes, Stephen King had more than one good idea, and that's better than dozens upon dozens of other bestselling authors with one marketable idea. But I don't expect to be Stephen King. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Krug: LOL. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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