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<blockquote data-quote="Belen" data-source="post: 1472468" data-attributes="member: 1405">I became disenchanted by the entire RPG industry (not the game, the business practices) during my tenure as a writer.&nbsp; I decided that I was not willing to work in a system that shows little loyalty to its writers'.&nbsp; While I did not work under a &quot;work-for-hire&quot; contract, many of the staff did.&nbsp; In some cases, much of the freelance work was taken, then rewritten.&nbsp; The freelancers got paid by the word.&nbsp; While this only happened once, and I only knew about it because the person worked on my team, in one case, once the freelance work had been rewritten, the guy got paid only for the original words that remained.In my experience, RPG writers rarely were given good faith treatment.However, most of them were very happy to be writing.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because they were fans of the game.&nbsp; They wanted to live the dream of writing for a game they loved.&nbsp; Their rights as authors did not matter so much as their name in an RPG book.In the end, I quit just before they sold their entire body of work to another publisher.&nbsp; The only person that received a dime for the guy who started the company.&nbsp; No one else was able to receive any money for their creative work because they had signed contracts that said they would be paid upon publication only.Now, I have seen some of the body of work in print since.&nbsp; The publisher felt no need to put the authors names in it, although the name of the guy who sold the company did appear.Maybe that is a large part of the reason why I am offended for Mr. Noonen.I do know that working for a non-profit society who publishes their own publications has shown me that authors can get respect, which is why I left in the first place.&nbsp; I was unwilling to work in an industry where I could not get the same treatment I allowed others.Now, I still love DnD, and I still buy a ton of books, but I also am willing to make a case for what I believe in.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Belen, post: 1472468, member: 1405"] I became disenchanted by the entire RPG industry (not the game, the business practices) during my tenure as a writer. I decided that I was not willing to work in a system that shows little loyalty to its writers'. While I did not work under a "work-for-hire" contract, many of the staff did. In some cases, much of the freelance work was taken, then rewritten. The freelancers got paid by the word. While this only happened once, and I only knew about it because the person worked on my team, in one case, once the freelance work had been rewritten, the guy got paid only for the original words that remained. In my experience, RPG writers rarely were given good faith treatment. However, most of them were very happy to be writing. Why? Because they were fans of the game. They wanted to live the dream of writing for a game they loved. Their rights as authors did not matter so much as their name in an RPG book. In the end, I quit just before they sold their entire body of work to another publisher. The only person that received a dime for the guy who started the company. No one else was able to receive any money for their creative work because they had signed contracts that said they would be paid upon publication only. Now, I have seen some of the body of work in print since. The publisher felt no need to put the authors names in it, although the name of the guy who sold the company did appear. Maybe that is a large part of the reason why I am offended for Mr. Noonen. I do know that working for a non-profit society who publishes their own publications has shown me that authors can get respect, which is why I left in the first place. I was unwilling to work in an industry where I could not get the same treatment I allowed others. Now, I still love DnD, and I still buy a ton of books, but I also am willing to make a case for what I believe in. [/QUOTE]

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