How much would it cost to hire a rpg writer?

[Turanil]

Well, Lately I have compiled my various notes (some of them well detailed and complete, others just ideas and wiki copypasted texts) for my campaign setting. However, I see that I really won't have the time to write it down. I still want to do it, especially as I will do a nice layout with lots of old-school illustrations by me, and copyleft art from the medieval age. So, I have just thought that maybe I could pay someone to do the job? What do you think, anyone knows how much it would cost? anyone could be interested in doing it?

Here is my setting:
-- Although it would be for C&C, the setting book would be devoid of actual game mechanics, so could be used with other games.
-- Setting has an old-school flavor.
-- It's called "Carolingian Shadows." It's an alternate plane in a Moorcock-inspired multiverse. Real Earth is dominated by Law, but one of its reflections (the setting) is "corrupted" by Chaos. It's a world superficially similar to Europe through dark-ages to late middle-ages in which legends are true. The world is Carolingian, but with a tech level of XVth century and many historical features from IXth to XVth century. And of course magic, gates, demons, etc.
-- Otherwise the world takes inspirations from Three Hearts and Three Lions (by Poul Anderson), The Warhound and the World's Pain (by M. Moorcock), and bits of the Elenium (by David Edding).

If I find someone interested in this endeavour, it would not begun before october though. RL work speaking, I have met two possibly important clients (I am a graphic designer), but no contract has been signed yet. However, if it is done, I won't have anymore time for rpg writing, but money for someone else to do it. Note that the writer needs not be a professional one, only needs to write well.

The resulting setting would be released as a free PDF and possible purchased print-on-demand book, but I do not expect to ever sell more than 100 of the POD version (in my best optimism). I rather do it for my own satisfaction, not for money.

 

[Peni Griffin]

Then do it for your own satisfaction. If you don't have time to finish this project, you don't really want to do it. There is always time to do the stuff you truly want to do. Nobody else would do it to your satisfaction, and anybody worth paying to do it is too busy writing her own stuff to mess with yours.

 

[grodog]

Average professional freelance writer wages are 2-4 cents/word, with all rights to the writing staying with the publisher, so it shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg....

 

[Rothe]

Average professional freelance writer wages are 2-4 cents/word, with all rights to the writing staying with the publisher, so it shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg....

Is that for bulk writing, game writing? My wife does freelance articles for various business and IT magazines and gets from 1-2 dollars per word. This is the average in the magazine industry. Small time magazines and newsletters may pay only 50 cents per word. Admittedly these articles are generally in the 600 to 2,500 word range so that may be the difference.

 

[Erik Mona]

Possible tangent.

I've been reading about 1920s issues of Amazing Stories, and I came across the fact that in 1927 Amazing Stories paid .005/word. Adjusted for inflation, that means they paid $.06/word.

Only one RPG company that I'm aware of pays $.06/word: Wizards of the Coast, the industry leader. Paizo's base rate is $.05/word, and I have it on good authority that $.02/word is the "industry standard".

Which is pretty sad, but there you have it.

You can get a "professional" to write your campaign for you for two cents a word.

Plenty of companies are doing it.

--Erik

 

[jdrakeh]

Is that for bulk writing, game writing? My wife does freelance articles for various business and IT magazines and gets from 1-2 dollars per word. This is the average in the magazine industry. Small time magazines and newsletters may pay only 50 cents per word. Admittedly these articles are generally in the 600 to 2,500 word range so that may be the difference.

Word count is part of it. The other part of it is profitability. Many RPG products are initially published at a loss.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Only one RPG company that I'm aware of pays $.06/word: Wizards of the Coast, the industry leader. Paizo's base rate is $.05/word, and I have it on good authority that $.02/word is the "industry standard".

Which is pretty sad, but there you have it.

You can get a "professional" to write your campaign for you for two cents a word.

Plenty of companies are doing it.

--Erik

What about freelance editors? What's the going rate? And what's the best way to find these freelance writers and editors?

Thanks for the industry insight!

 

[grodog]

I've been reading about 1920s issues of Amazing Stories, and I came across the fact that in 1927 Amazing Stories paid .005/word. Adjusted for inflation, that means they paid $.06/word.

Sad but true! I ran some numbers awhile ago (via the Bureau of Labor Stats' Inflation Calculator @ http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl) for when TSR was paying 10 cents per word for Dragon articles in 1983 and that equates to $.21 per word today, which of course is 2-3 times what the top writers are paid in the industry these days, and 5-10 times what the standard writing contract rate is.

 

[grodog]

What about freelance editors? What's the going rate? And what's the best way to find these freelance writers and editors?

Those are standard freelance rates. Most in-house writers are lucky to make $15-23K per year, and are expected to write 8+ rpg books per year. I don't even want to contemplate the math on that one....

Context: One of WotC's top-paying non-exec jobs in 1998 was to be a project manager for MtG, and it paid $40-45K per year with no relocation benefits (though it did include medical insurance and other standard benefits, which many in-house rpg jobs still lack). Since I was already making $48K/year with Sprint in Kansas City, I turned it down (it was also a meat-grinder of a job, per John Tynes).

 

[diaglo]

And what's the best way to find these freelance writers and editors?

go to places where gamers congregate.

message boards, newsgroups, discussion lists, bulletin boards, the ads in magazines, conventions, etc...