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What Are The Current Freelance Writing Rates In The TTRPG Industry?
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<blockquote data-quote="Abstruse" data-source="post: 9108579" data-attributes="member: 6669048"><p>I think part of the problem is the industry itself hasn't really changed pricing in over a decade despite inflation and major shifts in the logistics side of things. For quite a few years there, printing in China and other parts of Asia plus new printing technology meant dirt cheap prices to get high quality products. So the B&W interior matte thin paper softcovers of the 1970s-1990s was long gone and since the 2000s-2010s the standard has been full-color glossy heavy stock hardcover. And the past several years, prices on printing went up between the paper shortages and supply chain issues from the pandemic. Then there was the shipping crisis where costs to get product from Asia back to North America or Europe went up between 400% to over 1000%. A couple of companies went out of business over this because they had Kickstarters to fulfill and their estimates in late 2019 and early 2020 were a fraction of what they were charged when they went to print in late 2020 and early 2021. Then there's inflation and the fluctuating exchange rates...</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, prices have stayed stagnant until <em>just this year </em>when more companies started to move from $50 for a hardcover core rulebook to $60. So on top of increasing per-unit costs, the already razor thin margins of TTRPG books got even smaller because the prices weren't going up to keep up with inflation.</p><p></p><p>Looking at the D&D books, they announced a price increase starting with Glory of the Giants and affecting all future reprints, going from $49.95 to $59.95. The core rulebooks published in 2014 were $49.95 then, and adjusted for inflation that cost should be over $65. So even with that price increase, they're STILL not matching inflation alone not counting the other factors.</p><p></p><p>My guess is why there's such a dip between Wizards of the Coast and Paizo on one end of the graphs and the single-proprietor publishers on the other end. Paizo and WotC order print runs in a large enough size they can drive the per-unit costs far below what any other publisher can do (with rumors that Wizards physically <em>can't </em>print all three core rulebooks for 2024 at the same time because the print run is so large there's not enough capacity) plus they own their own warehouses. Meanwhile, the single proprietor publishers are typically the ones making a push for higher rates, with many companies offering pay raises for freelance writers and artists as stretch goals in crowdfunding campaigns. I couldn't imagine even just a few years ago someone running a Kickstarter and saying "At this stretch goal, you customers get nothing but all the people who worked on the game get a raise" and people <em>applauding them </em>for it when about a decade ago, several Kickstarters caught flack for disclosing budgets where the creators got paid <em>at all</em> because the mentality was all the Kickstarter funds should go into production and nothing else.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Abstruse, post: 9108579, member: 6669048"] I think part of the problem is the industry itself hasn't really changed pricing in over a decade despite inflation and major shifts in the logistics side of things. For quite a few years there, printing in China and other parts of Asia plus new printing technology meant dirt cheap prices to get high quality products. So the B&W interior matte thin paper softcovers of the 1970s-1990s was long gone and since the 2000s-2010s the standard has been full-color glossy heavy stock hardcover. And the past several years, prices on printing went up between the paper shortages and supply chain issues from the pandemic. Then there was the shipping crisis where costs to get product from Asia back to North America or Europe went up between 400% to over 1000%. A couple of companies went out of business over this because they had Kickstarters to fulfill and their estimates in late 2019 and early 2020 were a fraction of what they were charged when they went to print in late 2020 and early 2021. Then there's inflation and the fluctuating exchange rates... Meanwhile, prices have stayed stagnant until [I]just this year [/I]when more companies started to move from $50 for a hardcover core rulebook to $60. So on top of increasing per-unit costs, the already razor thin margins of TTRPG books got even smaller because the prices weren't going up to keep up with inflation. Looking at the D&D books, they announced a price increase starting with Glory of the Giants and affecting all future reprints, going from $49.95 to $59.95. The core rulebooks published in 2014 were $49.95 then, and adjusted for inflation that cost should be over $65. So even with that price increase, they're STILL not matching inflation alone not counting the other factors. My guess is why there's such a dip between Wizards of the Coast and Paizo on one end of the graphs and the single-proprietor publishers on the other end. Paizo and WotC order print runs in a large enough size they can drive the per-unit costs far below what any other publisher can do (with rumors that Wizards physically [I]can't [/I]print all three core rulebooks for 2024 at the same time because the print run is so large there's not enough capacity) plus they own their own warehouses. Meanwhile, the single proprietor publishers are typically the ones making a push for higher rates, with many companies offering pay raises for freelance writers and artists as stretch goals in crowdfunding campaigns. I couldn't imagine even just a few years ago someone running a Kickstarter and saying "At this stretch goal, you customers get nothing but all the people who worked on the game get a raise" and people [I]applauding them [/I]for it when about a decade ago, several Kickstarters caught flack for disclosing budgets where the creators got paid [I]at all[/I] because the mentality was all the Kickstarter funds should go into production and nothing else. [/QUOTE]
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