What's a Freelance RPG Writer Worth?

Freelance writers (as opposed to those on salary) tend to be paid per word. The rate varies from publisher to publisher, and on how experienced the writer is. Ed Greenwood, for example, can command a much higher rate than a new writer can. Obviously only you, the freelancer, can decide what your labour is worth - and if you're an experienced freelancer you probably already have a pretty solid idea what that figure is. But if you're a new writer, you may be a little lost. In this article, which I'll continue to update with new information, I'll tell you what rate a new writer can expect from various publishers.

[Note - this article will continue to be updated and tweaked; folks are suggesting excellent advice to include, so it's worth checking back]. Using publisher submission information on their official websites, and publishers advertising for writers I have compiled the below list. In some cases, publishers have kindly volunteered the information; thank you! At the moment, it's a bit sparse; but I hope it will grow. New writers can use this page to help them determine their own value and check out publishers that interest them. I don't want to tell you what to charge for your writing services, or what to pay freelancers, but hopefully the information here will help - a little bit - in making an informed decision. You can click through to apply for opportunities that interest you.

Advice: Here are a few things to be wary of. They don't have to be dealbreakers, they aren't necessarily bad, and you may well be OK with them, but you should be aware of them. This applies to new writers (and artists, for that matter).

• If you're doing work for somebody, and you're not being paid, you are being exploited. (Doing work for somebody is different to doing work with somebody). Volunteer work obviously falls outside this category, but volunteer work should clearly be volunteer work, not work paid in "exposure" (see below).
• Never work for the promise of "exposure", or for "experience". You should work for money. This is a common tactic, and is often puffed up with nice language, but it is exploitation and you should look out for it.
• Also be wary of jobs offering payment solely in royalties (or a percentage), unless the company has a verifiable track record of good sales - and they should be able to provide you with solid figures. Do not be afraid to ask for these figures; they're asking you to trust them and take a risk by working for royalties only, and if they refuse you those figures you should proceed with caution. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but do it carefully. Royalties on top of a fair rate is perfectly reasonable.
• Be wary of contests which grant the copyright of your work to the company; that's often a way of getting people to work for free. Look for contests which allow you to keep the rights to your work, or which will pay you if they publish your work. There is a caveat to this -- it's reasonable for companies to protect themselves from future claims of similar development to past contest entries, but, as Paizo's Erik Mona says, even then "If we publish it, we pay for it. Period."
• Look at what's being sold. "Work for hire" means the publisher owns the output completely. Other options include "first publication" (in which you retain ownership but the publisher gets to publish it first) and non-exclusive licenses. All of these are OK, but the last two are worth more to you than the former, and may make a lower per-word rate more palatable. If you're writing for an existing setting, keeping the rights to your work is far less valuable to you, because you're unlikely to be able to re-use it (you're not going to be able to re-use material about Drizzt or Yoda, for example). Be wary of work-for-hire combined with a low per-word rate.
• Be wary of pay-on-publication work. That means a publisher can shelve your work and never pay you for it. Take pay-on-acceptance work. Some publishers will portray their policy of paying-on-acceptance as a beneficent act: it's not; it's the baseline you should expect. That said, it's OK if the payment doesn't come instantly, as most publishers do their payments en masse on a periodical basis - but make sure you know when to expect it.
• Don't do "audition work" for free. You should be paid for that, too, although it is fair that that be at a lower rate. Game designer Ryan Macklin has a good article about this.
• If you re-use Open Gaming Content, it is reasonable for the publisher not to pay you for those words.
• If it's not in the contract, ask how stat blocks are paid.
• Finally, don't work in exchange for product.
• Remember, it's OK if a company can't afford you. There's things that all of us can't afford! And also remember that it's very, very difficult to make a living freelancing for RPGs. Some people manage it, but it's not easy!

Please feel free to send corrections or additional information.

The below list shows the rates I've been able to find published online for new writers.

This is just starting rates only. Experienced writers will already know what rates they usually get, and already have relationships with various companies, so they don't really need the information below. If there's an asterisk, then I've been able to confirm that the company in question pays experienced writers more, but it's generally safe to assume that these minimum rates are increased depending on the writer.

I've included links where I can so that you can apply to the companies that interest you.

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Publisher	Rate/word for new writers	Notes
Paizo Publishing	$0.07*
Wizards of the Coast	$0.06*	Freelance articles for D&D Insider; other writers work on salary
Pinnacle Entertainment Group	$0.06*	"Higher for some folks, plus a % of any crowd funding we do if they're one of the principle creators."
Evil Hat Productions	$0.05
Atlas Games	$0.05
Steve Jackson Games (Pyramid / GURPs PDFs)	$0.04 (Pyramid) or royalties (GURPs)	After publication. "Pyramid pays 4 cents a word, shortly after the article appears in final form in our PDF"; "...our base royalty is 25% of the cover price (this can go up for authors with a strong reputation that helps sell books, and can go down for inexperienced authors or those requiring very heavy edits)."
Vorpal Games	$0.04
Posthuman Studios	$0.04
Pelgrane Press	$0.03*
Goodman Games	$0.03	Link is to Level Up magazine submissions; other submission calls have the same figure
EN Publishing	$0.03*
Drop Dead Studios	$0.025
Fat Goblin Games	$0.02
Dreamscarred Press	$0.02
Purple Duck Games	$0.01*
Frog God Games	$0.01*
Kobold Press	$0.01 - $0.06	"...strict minimum of 1 cent per word... Our rates for established, proven freelancers vary from 2 to 6 cents/word."
Bards & Sages	$0.01	25% on acceptance, rest on publication
Rite Publishing	$0.01*	Rates go as high as $0.11.
Raging Swan Press	$0.01
Open Gaming Monthly	$0.01	"If your submission IS selected, you will receive 1 cent per word for your first published work. If your work requires very little editing (fixing typos, fixing grammatical errors etc.) then that will likely be increased to 2 cents per word. If your work receives great reviews and we use your work in future issues or products, you'll receive 3 cents per word in those future products."
Obatron Productions	<$0.01	Savage Insider; Word Count: 2,000 – 5,600 | $15 – $35
LPJ Design	$0.005* (half a cent)	Up to $0.02 with experience
Rogue Genius Press	royalties only
Ephemeric RPG	royalties only	$1.00 for every PDF or e-book that is ordered

What the Publishers Said
Discussing this subject with numerous writers and publishers turned into a fairly lively debate. Some of the statements made clearly illustrated why it's important that writers make themselves informed. Louis J Porter of LPJ Design says that "You kind find was to save money at the beginning that pays off very well in the long run [sic]" and that "Do I think I could get to a point were I make $10K month doing this, Oh Hell Yes!"

The way LPJ Design finds ways to save money in order to make $10K a month is to pay writers half a cent per word. As he says "if you are a first time writer never have sold ANYTHING to ANYONE, sorry you bring no value to my company... You guys sound like the college grad who wants to get paid $50K for just showing up. LOL!" I found myself very uncomfortable with Porter's language; he later said to one writer "You can die from exposure. Just prove to me why I should pay you more? You do that, you get paid better." and to that writer he later said "And there is the problem, you think this is an equal relationship. It isn't."

That said, the same company's calls for freelancers on various RPG forums take a different tone: "So if you are interested and not sure you think you can be good at this, I will just say, don't miss out on your dreams because you are afraid to go after them...It is your job to loose."

I can't help but feel that "I can't afford writers" isn't an great reason to underpay writers. It's OK to not be able to afford something but the solution is to find some other way to afford it, or accept that you can't afford it. Many small publishers have addressed this issue by using services like Kickstarter, Patreon, and others, which are great alternative models, although not for everyone. Erik Mona asked about products with margins so low that $160 is too much (assuming a 10-page PDF at $0.02 per word) "Does it make sense to put effort into projects that garner so little interest from the paying public that they require shennanigans like that? Is $80 a fair wage for what amounts to 4 days of work?"

And, definitely, the majority of small publishers do not intend to consciously underpay anybody. It would be unfair to point at a bunch of publishers and chastise them for being exploitative, and many tiny publishers can really only afford $0.01 per word (although James Ward observed "At $.01 a word you get what you pay for.") As Raging Swan Press' Creighton Broadhurst (who is a very small publisher and pays $0.01 per word) said, "If I thought I was exploiting people, I would stop doing what I do. But I don't think I am as I'm forcing no one to work with me." And I myself know what it is to be a tiny publisher with incredibly low sales, so I can certainly empathize with that position -- most micro-publishers are run by decent people paying what they can afford.

I have no idea where the line lies, though personally I feel uncomfortable these days offering anybody less than $0.03 per word (I have in the past), and wouldn't consider paying $0.01 per word. But that's just what I choose to do. Most writers I've spoken to agree that 2,000 publishable words per day is a fairly reasonable rate. As game designer Rich Baker observed, "It's hard to knock down 2000 word days, day in, day out. That's an honest 8 hours of work. At $0.05 per word, you'd be making $12.50 an hour... I am frankly appalled at the idea that someone might pay (or take) $0.01 a word in the 21st century. That's saying a writer is worth $2.50 an hour." Paizo's Erik Mona feels that "1 cent a word is not 'bordering on exploitative'. It is exploitative FULL STOP."

[As a side note, using Rich Baker's estimate of 2,000 words per 8 hour day, that works out to $10 per day at half a cent per word, $20 per day at $0.01, $40 per day at $0.02, $60 per day at $0.03, $80 per day at $0.04, $100 per day at $0.05, $120 per day at $0.06, and $140 per day at $0.07.]

With luck, this article should give writers some of the the information they need to inform themselves when considering freelancing, and ensure that the relationship is an equal relationship. I'll keep the table above updated as best I can, and folks can make their own decisions. Please do feel free to correct inaccurate figures or provide additional information! Also, if you're a freelancer, feel free to share rates (don't break any NDAs, though!)

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[Steve Conan Trustrum]

I'm not so sure. My feeling is that people see free stuff as being worth what they paid for it. Giving things away free is a sure way to obscurity. I don't have much experience in this, but I wrote a backround and talents article for 4E that was well received on ENworld, but when I had it published in a free fanzine, I got no reaction whatsoever. Maybe it was just that I didn't track it.

Offering things for free can actually make one a lot of money, but you've got to know what you're doing, and you've got to have a strategy. The idea of people not valuing free things because it doesn't cost anything is true to an extent, but not nearly the degree you'll see tossed about. A good marketing strategy can counter it. I've written an article on publishing freebies that can make money, if you're interested: http://trustrum.com/on-the-subject-of-free-books/

 

[CardinalXimenes]

I'm not so sure. My feeling is that people see free stuff as being worth what they paid for it. Giving things away free is a sure way to obscurity. I don't have much experience in this, but I wrote a backround and talents article for 4E that was well received on ENworld, but when I had it published in a free fanzine, I got no reaction whatsoever. Maybe it was just that I didn't track it.

Free is part of the strategy, but it's not the whole story. If I were in your shoes, here's what I'd do:

First, I'd go to where the eyeballs are, and that means OneBookshelf- DTRPG/RPGNow's parent. No free fanzine gets within an order of magnitude of the number of visits they get on an hourly basis. Even outlets like Amazon and Lulu can't compete for the small publisher because only a tiny percentage of their users have any interest in RPG material, while everybody who goes to DTRPG is at least a theoretical customer.

Next, I'd slap the article into a standalone freebie format. It doesn't have to be long- there are plenty of 3-4 page freebies on DTRPG- and it doesn't have to be lavishly illustrated, but it has to look nice and respectable. If you've got graphic design chops, this is a chance to settle on some trade dress you'll be using for future products.

Now upload the product. For at least a while, it's going to be on DTRPG's front page among the "Latest Free Products", and you _will_ get a lump of downloads just because it's right there in front of people. If you've done really hot work, maybe talk will spread about it, or maybe it'll drop off the face of the earth in a few days. The former is preferable, but really, the latter is endurable too. Why? Because free downloads add willing customers to your OBS mailing list. If they haven't opted out of your emails and you don't abuse them by sending mail more than once a month or so, every free product is another chunk of people willing to accept your emails.

Repeat this process for a few months. Leave some breathing room between releases- you don't want to spam the front page, and you'll need time to make your products up as well as you can. When you've cultivated enough eyeballs, then you can put up your first for-pay product and hit your mailing list with the announcement that your for-pay is available in PDF and print. If you've done good work with your freebies, you've overcome the initial stage of uncertainty in a buyer and convinced them that you're able to write something fun to read. It's not a blind buying proposition to them any more.

Now keep going. Release freebies every so often to keep snaring the marginal customers who are interested enough to take something for free but not certain enough about you to pay for it. You'll convert some of them over time. In the meanwhile, focus on for-pay releases that showcase your talents and emphasize the things you're good at. Remember that at this stage, your worst enemy is anonymity. Free stuff is doing its job if it's convincing more people to look at you, but that job doesn't mean anything if there's not paying product waiting there for enthusiastic readers to then buy.

As a side note, if all you ever plan on releasing is one or two products, then Pay What You Want can be an option. I generally advise against it as customers seem to have a fundamentally different relationship with PWYW than they do with free- it feels more like an imposition to them, so a lot of people who'd grab a free product will walk past a PWYW one. That, and the conversion rate on people who pay tends to be miserable, from what I hear. Despite this, if this is all you're going to make, then it's a tactic you can take if you know you aren't going to have any future plans for marketing the line or monetizing the product.

 

[Starfox]

Nice advice. With that 4E product, I had pretty much already decided to quit 4E, so I didn't care what happened with it. Now that I write for Pathfinder, it is different. I might look into some of these strategies. Thanks.

 

[Nellisir]

I'm not so sure. My feeling is that people see free stuff as being worth what they paid for it. Giving things away free is a sure way to obscurity. I don't have much experience in this, but I wrote a backround and talents article for 4E that was well received on ENworld, but when I had it published in a free fanzine, I got no reaction whatsoever. Maybe it was just that I didn't track it.

I'll echo what's been said. An article is different from an actual product. I've done fan-writing for GH since the mid-90's culminating in editing the Oerth Journal for 4 issues (I was assistant editor for one issue under Erik Mona). That got me enough confidence to submit three articles to Dragon (netting one rejection, one request for revision that was so extensive we mutually retconed it into a rejection, and one acceptance) at the same time 3e was announced. I've done little stuff since then, but not much public.

A few years ago I got involved in the OSR and, unhappy with a lot of what I saw, decided to write an illusionist supplement for Swords & Wizardry. I was working off a free copy of the rules, and vowed to make the supplement free in turn. The result is The Basic Illusionist, which I am absolutely proud of and rue daily the vow to make it free, but so it is and so it stays.

A year after that I wrote two issues of a fanzine, Secrets: Omens & Artifacts and Secrets: Strange Races. Those are for-pay ($1.99 each). I listed all three of them on RPGNow/DTRPG just prior to Thanksgiving, so approximately two months ago. In that time (approx two months) I've "sold" 562 copies of The Basic Illusionist; 18 copies of Strange Races, and 10 copies of Omens & Artifacts. It's not much, but TBI definitely draws attention to the other two, even though it's almost two years old at this point and has been available for free in various places around the internet that whole time.

I don't freelance because I know I'm not reliable at this point. Self-publishing is a hassle, and many self-publishers are, frankly, abysmal. Particularly with design & layout. I self-publish because I'm not adhered to a deadline (though it would probably actually work for me) and I have control over the product.

This turned in to a bit of a ramble. Hope it's helpful in some way.

Edit: I just updated The Basic Illusionist to Pay What You Want, because...why not?

 

[trancejeremy]

As a side note, if all you ever plan on releasing is one or two products, then Pay What You Want can be an option. I generally advise against it as customers seem to have a fundamentally different relationship with PWYW than they do with free- it feels more like an imposition to them, so a lot of people who'd grab a free product will walk past a PWYW one. That, and the conversion rate on people who pay tends to be miserable, from what I hear. Despite this, if this is all you're going to make, then it's a tactic you can take if you know you aren't going to have any future plans for marketing the line or monetizing the product.

FWIW, I've released two Pay What You Want OSR adventure modules

The first one was 4 pages (just a test, basically) with a suggested price of 50 cents, the second 16 pages or so, with a suggested price of $1.

The first one (released in December 2014) has 182 downloads, 24 "purchases" with a total of $12.72 in gross sales
The second one (released in January) has 152 downloads, 19 "purchases" with a total of $22.37 in gross sales

I'm surprised how consistent it is. About 1 out of 8 people who download pay for it, and pretty much the suggested price (a little bit more on average)

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I do not believe that work--writing or otherwise--lacks intrinsic value. The market may determine worth in a practical sense, but not (IMO) necessarily an ethical one.

People say this is a niche market, so most publishers can't afford to pay a living wage. I might respond by saying that a lot of publishers need to drop out, leaving only the ones who can support a living wage.

Note I said "might." I don't pretend it's that simple. But it's not that simple in the other direction, either.

(And if this is me espousing a philosophy, I'm okay with that. There's a reason the concept of minimum wage exists.)

Coming from Oz where the minimum wage is a living wage - and where real wages have been steadily increasing for 30-odd years including in the middle class - I do agree that, generally speaking, labour has intrinsic value. I also believe there is dignity in all labour, as the saying goes.

That said, writing for the RPG hobby is not like that. It's not an industry: it's a hobby. And anyone writing for it shouldn't be thinking of it as an industry where they are going to have a long career. That's reality. It's like graduating from university with a degree in Art History: that piece of paper simply isn't worth much, except in a few niche areas where there is a lot of competition from people who also wasted three or four years of their lives.

Of course, this being the internet and with me clearly not being a professional writer, saying these things may come across as being insensitive or, especially for American readers, a statement of a political opinion. Um, no. It's just reality.

Think back 100 years. How many jobs that existed then do not exist now? Think back 10 years. How many jobs that existed then do not exist now?

I think the real challenge for those who see themselves as RPG writers is working out how they can transfer their same skills to an area or industry where they will be properly rewarded. That's life. I have done it in my fields of expertise and, as a result, I have lived most of my adult life outside my country of birth.

And it has nothing to do with politics. Either what you can do has a market value or it does not.

 

[arjomanes]

That said, writing for the RPG hobby is not like that. It's not an industry: it's a hobby. And anyone writing for it shouldn't be thinking of it as an industry where they are going to have a long career. That's reality. It's like graduating from university with a degree in Art History: that piece of paper simply isn't worth much, except in a few niche areas where there is a lot of competition from people who also wasted three or four years of their lives.

Think back 100 years. How many jobs that existed then do not exist now? Think back 10 years. How many jobs that existed then do not exist now?

I think the real challenge for those who see themselves as RPG writers is working out how they can transfer their same skills to an area or industry where they will be properly rewarded. That's life. I have done it in my fields of expertise and, as a result, I have lived most of my adult life outside my country of birth.

Most of those lost jobs are unskilled jobs or jobs reliant on skills in outdated technology.

Writing is content creation, and there will always be a market for it if the author writes something people want to read. There is also money to be made in RPG writing. A very few people do very well, some do ok, and a lot don't do well at all.

I think it's like many other arts. There are some artists who do very well, but there are those who can't gain the recognition. However, continually selling your art for a few dollars will guarantee you'll never make a living. Same with writing for a penny a word. Maybe that can work for a short time for people who have no recognition, but once you're published, it makes no sense to continue working for those very low rates. It's not a viable scenario.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Most of those lost jobs are unskilled jobs or jobs reliant on skills in outdated technology. (snip)

And also those where tastes have changed and the market for those jobs has shrunk.

(snip) Writing is content creation, and there will always be a market for it if the author writes something people want to read. There is also money to be made in RPG writing. A very few people do very well, some do ok, and a lot don't do well at all.

I think it's like many other arts. There are some artists who do very well, but there are those who can't gain the recognition. However, continually selling your art for a few dollars will guarantee you'll never make a living. Same with writing for a penny a word. Maybe that can work for a short time for people who have no recognition, but once you're published, it makes no sense to continue working for those very low rates. It's not a viable scenario.

Agreed, and that's why I mentioned turning those same skills toward better-paying jobs.

 

[fireinthedust]

I'm a new publisher myself, with my first solo DCC RPG-compatible product up now on DrivethruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/143780/Wrath-of-the-Frost-Queen

That title is all me. As in aaaaaaallll me: Writing, illustration, layouts, InDesign, everything. Some feedback from others, but otherwise I'm my only employee.

Publishing itself is cheap: I had a scanner, I can draw, I can write, I have InDesign and Photoshop, which means I can make and sell PDFs with a cost only in time, if I do them myself.

It's a lot of work, and if I ever want to get to the point where I make back any money, I need other people to generate content for a back list. I also want to help other people like myself get creative content out there. I'm looking for sustainability first, so if there are lots of products being sold, even if I get just a little bit from each, that helps me. Creators who make content need to get paid: they earn it. The money up front is the kicker, though, for things like a print run. Distribution in print also takes off a share. That's why the PDF market is important for no-money companies just starting up. If I want to hire an artist, or team up with a writer to get their materials into book form and off their laptops, basically we're neither of us getting paid until the book sells.

My predicament is this: I want to hire help, and share the profits with others (like a ship captain and his crew). I am happy to pony up whatever comes in, but I don't have it until the book gets purchased, and that can't happen until the product is done.

That means a) do a Kickstarter/Indigogo to pay artists and writers (like me) up front (give them food while they work); or b) network with talented people and pay them as the money comes in.

I refuse to screw people over, period. But if I can't offer a % when it gets sold, is Kickstarter the only way to get a project up and running?

I'm happy to meet potential writers and artists in person, and work in person on the product until it's ready. But, considering I have the equipment to do everything RIGHT NOW, how else but a Kickstarter or a % afterwards, can someone who isn't already rich get going?

 

[TarionzCousin]

About 1 out of 8 people who download pay for it, and pretty much the suggested price (a little bit more on average)

That's all? That surprises me.

I just want to say I appreciate all the freelance writers, self-publishers, and essentially volunteers that dedicate their time and hard work to our shared hobby. In my opinion, it keeps the games alive. So thank you.