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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greg at FFG" data-source="post: 428429" data-attributes="member: 2866">Originally posted by Erik Mona I don't think it's unreasonable that a hard-working freelancer ought to be able to pay a modest rent and car payment. Most publishers don't have to struggle so hard. Most artists don't, either. I _know_ most printers don't. It's scapegoating and unfair to pay the writer so poorly. I don't think this is true. In fact, I think artists are probably the most underpaid, and I think that's why there's more turnover among RPG artists even than writers and designers. The average rate for a half-page B&W RPG illustration is $50. Out of that, the artist has to buy paper/canvas, pencils, inks, or whatever other supplies his work requires. A writer getting paid three cents per word needs to turn out a little less than 1700 words to earn that $50. Most writers, in my experience, will be able to hit that mark a lot more quickly than the artist will be able to complete his illustration. In any case, I think there's no point quibbling about it: Both the talented writer and the artist are woefully underpaid.Okay, even if the artist is as underpaid as the writer, the publisher isn't struggling like that, you say. Well, let's say this is a 176-page hardcover Legends & Lairs book that retails for $25. The publisher sells to distributors at a 60% discount, so he's getting $10 per book in revenues. He's printing 5,000 copies, and by finding the best print rates and paying his writers and artists next to nothing, he's able to produce the books for about $4 each. Sweet, a 60% profit margin! If he sells all 5,000 books, he's made a gross profit of $6 per book, or $30,000.Of course, that's just gross profit. Now he has to pay his editor, developer, and layout guy. Fortunately, this is a mid-size publishing company, so one guy does all those jobs. He has to pay his graphic designer and his sales guy. He has to pay for warehousing and shipping, and he has to pay the employees who warehouse and ship the products. He should have to pay for advertising, but he quickly realizes there's no freaking way he has any money left over for advertising. And, at the end of the month, he goes to work on that gross profit again, paying for rent, utilities, phones, computers, and all the other expenses required to keep his business operating. You're definitely going to have a tough time convincing him that he "should" be paying his writers, artists, or anyone else more. "Pay them more out of what?" he's likely to ask.All of this is just to take issue with the charge of unfairness and scapegoating. No one's getting over, here. There simply isn't a lot of money to be made in RPGs, so everyone who's involved in producing them is underpaid relative to what they could earn in other industries. If you and several people at your company (FFG) make a wage doing this, and if you sell thousands of copies of books that bring profit to that company, and if there are several other companies out there doing the same thing, why the cutesy quotation marks around the word industry?No one here -- even you -- is suggesting that no one's getting paid. Writers, artists, editors, publishers, investors -- hopefully everyone is getting *something* for their effort. I could be making more money doing something else. I know that. I also love my job, knew the score when I got into it, and would feel like I was spitting on my good fortune by sitting around and moaning about how underpaid I am.I put the cutesy quotation marks around the word industry because most of the folks involved in it aren't principally motivated by the cold, hard economic facts that govern it. If they were, they'd be doing something else. If economic considerations drove this industry, there likely wouldn't be one. This isn't unique to RPGs -- it's true of most niche hobbies. That's not a slam -- the baggage that comes with it can be both good and bad. On the good side, we have a hobby community, and producers and fans can sit around having discussions like this. On the bad side, there ain't much money in it.</blockquote>

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