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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brian W" data-source="post: 185973" data-attributes="member: 1185">Cover CreditErik,I've enjoyed reading this discussion very much.Here's my opinion of why publishers might not give cover credit for authors:#1: A lot of books are written to spec.  For example: we sit down at lunch at FFG and decide we'll publish a book called Spells & Spellcraft, that will not only have a bunch of new spells, but rules for alchemal labs and familiars and whatever else.  The book developer writes up an outline of the book, listing the new systems he'd like to see, the contents of all the chapters, maybe even a short written example of how he wants things to appear.  Let's say he gets just one freelancer to write the whole book.  Whose name should appear on the cover?  Obviously the freelancer wrote the whole book, and designed the systems and spells; but the whole concept of the book and the decision of what to include came from the company, as well as the editing of  the author's writing and design.  Are readers purchasing it because of the quality of the writing or because the idea and content of the book?  Certainly they're both factors, and certainly the author deserves writing credit, but they wrote the book to spec.  It would be a different situation if an author pitched us a book with a cool idea, and then wrote the whole thing.  But then there's also....#2: A company wants its fans to buy their book based on the line, not the author.  We have editors and developers on staff to oversee the project and to ensure that the quality of the writing and the content remains consistant throughout the line, by creating guidelines, outlines, and editing or even rewriting sections as needed.  Ultimately it's our job to make sure the quality of our lines remains high, and it's our job to find authors who can write and design well.  We want our fans to trust our judgement and to know that regardless of the author, Path of the Sword is going to adhere to the same quality standards as Traps & Treachery.That's my two cents anyway.</blockquote>

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