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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenmarable" data-source="post: 3283484" data-attributes="member: 40359">As the old saying goes - How do you make a small fortune in the RPG business? Start with a large fortune. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Yeah, not to start the that debate again, but the industry isn't soaring like it once was and rates reflect that. From what I recall at GenCon seminars, Paizo starts at about 5 cents a word if I recall (could be 6, I forget), but goes up from there for people they can regularly rely on. WotC starts a little over 6 cents a word (technically $1500 for each 24,000 word "module unit" I think). They are big enough and successful enough, that their rates haven't dropped with the market dropping off (most likely because their sales haven't dropped off much anyway). Probably everyone else mid-tier is 2 cents. Smaller PDF publishers can go as low as 1/2 cent a word (or often royalties only which in some cases can be even less).  For some perspective - at my best, I can crank out 1000 words an hour, but that's not counting in outlining, prep time, working on stats, etc.. So to make the math easy, let's say I can average 500 words an hour (which is probably unreasonable considering how much time I spend "planning" - i.e. procrastinating - as well as if it is a collaborative project or not, but when I really buckle down on a solo project, that's probably close. I'll have to actually clock my next project). At 1/2 cent a word, I would be making $2.50/hour - less than half the current US minimum wage. So on the low end, those rates are "unreasonable" only in the sense that you can make FAR more money flipping burgers. But if you are working on a project you enjoy, then any money is nice. Plus it builds skills and your list of credits so that you can climb up that ladder.Some people would argue that the 1/2 cent and lower crowd diminishes the whole freelance pool by dragging down the rates for everyone. *shrug* I can see that somewhat, but from my experience, publishers tend to get what they pay for, and those who pay more typically sell far better (and can therefore afford to pay more, etc.). WotC and Paizo make enough money to afford to pay those rates, but they also demand a level of quality and rework that few other publishers do. The mid-tier companies could afford 4 cents a word and up during the booming years of d20, but the reality of the market now, they can rarely afford that, and even then only for writers who can guarantee them a great product needing minimal rework, and whose name can help sell that product. Few of us can even close to that.Sorry for the long winded message that's basically a "me too" to Morrus'. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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