Wicht
Hero
Actually $400 for 2-3 days worth of work is not a bad rate. But it may also be more than the publisher is going to actually be able to pay and still break even on a PDF which may only sell 30-50 copies a month.
Pathfinder 1E Should LPJ Design increase their writers pay rate to 4 cents a word on a Pathfinder p
- Thread starter lmpjr007
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Actually $400 for 2-3 days worth of work is not a bad rate. But it may also be more than the publisher is going to actually be able to pay and still break even on a PDF which may only sell 30-50 copies a month.
Not necessarily so - it's a balancing act between quality and price, and carefully selecting the point at which the maximum profit is generated.
A writer (or an artist, or an editor, or whoever) is worth - to a publisher - only what profits he can generate that publisher (unless we're getting into the area of free or vanity materials).
This also isn't necessarily true. The quality of a product is only one of many, many factors in producing sales - somewhat unfortunately it's frequently only a minor factor, as can be evidenced by many dire products which have sold well and many excellent products which have disappeared without a trace. The "if you build it they will come" philosophy unfortunately only works about 0.01% of the time; the rest of it is marketing. And that often costs more than the darn product to produce!
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RangerWickett
Legend
4c/ word, LMAO so hard it hurts
Presumably you're after top quality and all the rights for such a princely sum. That'd be $400 for 10,000 words - no residuals. No, no stop, I'm in pain here.
If you're a writer just don't accept this kind of nonsense. Let alone 2c. Your average sheep can publish to Kindle at 30% profit share. If the product's worth a damn you'll get more than $400. If it's not worth a damn; why didn't you work that out in the first place.
Hell, Paizo paid 6 cents a word to new writers, and they're top shelf liquor in the RPG world. 4 cents ain't bad in this industry. Of course, you're not going to strike it rich writing RPG products.
Fifth Element
Legend
That's right. If you hold out for 10 cents a word, you'll get...none of this type of work. You'd be pricing yourself out of the market.
If you're okay with that, fine. But some writers enjoy this type of work, and you can't question an individual utility decision, because no one shares specific set of criteria. If 2 cents is enough to be "worth it" for them, then 2 cents is a fair price.
nedjer
Adventurer
I'd see that as a 'publisher' wishlisting on the back of slave labour. The creative talent has an entitlement to a share of residual incomes, i.e. Skywalker contracts: where Luke was given a modest % of future net profits by George Lucas and we were, thankfully, spared the need for Mark Hammil to do too many dodgy post-holocaust B movies.
The publisher has a powerful incentive to develop good talent and to seriously motivate the creatives to meet rising standards through giving them a reasonable cut. The alternative is sooner or sooner HMTL 5 allows a whisky'd-up, blindfolded orangutan to load a word document and go.
Fifth Element
Legend
They do have an entitlement...if such an entitlement is in the contract. So it depends on the terms of the agreement. But if you're looking for a share of residuals, I'd say you're in the wrong industry.
Calling it "slave labour" is simply ridiculous. Each and every prospective author has the ability to say "no thanks" to what's offered. If you accept a contract knowing the full terms up front, that's just business. And your decision on whether the terms are sufficient for you is a personal one. You're not obligated to agree to terms offered.
The fact that many small publishers exist and pay this kind of rate suggests that you're way off here. How could that many writers willingly become slaves?
nedjer
Adventurer
Dude, we need to have a serious talk about your karma
Did Van Gogh cut off his ear and drink loads of absinthe, (probably not in that order), for the sake of thirty pieces of silver. I think not; he did it for his art 
Fifth Element
Legend
Tell that to the writers then. "You want to get paid for this? What about your art?"Dude, we need to have a serious talk about your karma
Wicht
Hero
Over the last couple of years I've done per word and I've done royalties (in this business it tends to be either/or). They both have their upsides, but doing the royalties does allow a writer to realize just how many of a given book gets sold. From my admittedly limited experience with some of the numbers involved, I would guess most 3pp paying 2 cents a word flat are paying a reasonable wage for the profits involved. The more successful franchises can probably, after building an audience, afford 3-4 cents. Royalties, on the other hand, are probably actually cheaper for a publisher testing the waters, as there is less money upfront and the royalties can end up actually coming out, in some cases, to less than a penny a word, depending on how many words were written and how much the book sells.
nedjer
Adventurer
We're kind of approaching this from a different angle.
I publish a full free RPG that gets
downloads and great feedback. And post loads of decent free RPG feature content on my blog about stuff like tricks, RPG e-commerce, RPGs and technology, campaign background material . . . Also offer a free library of many fantasy vector graphic icons as a side salad.So, though I sell artwork separately, should I start to sell anything RPG I will at no stage have it even cross my mind to compromise on quality.
