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What's a Freelance RPG Writer Worth?
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<blockquote data-quote="Anguish" data-source="post: 7659181" data-attributes="member: 27032"><p>I'd like to thank the publishers who are participating in this discussion for being open and forthright. Generally the topics of income and profits are taboo, and it's heartening to see actual numbers posted.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I'm a consumer. I'm not published. But I'm a skeptical consumer. I never complain about things like pricing, or distribution models (as in the case of say... pre-painted miniatures coming in blind packaging) because I <em>think</em> about what's going on.</p><p></p><p>Is Paizo profitable? Yes. Are most 3rd-party publishers profitable? Unclear, but if so, not massively. Nobody's getting ultra-rich here. I pay attention, so I know that - for instance - Jeremy from Dreamscarred isn't using his private jet to fly over to Andreas' mansion every weekend for cocktails. No, they're both just normal guys with day jobs to pay the bills. This isn't because they're incompetent; I've read their stuff. It's because the market in which they participate isn't one with particularly deep pockets. There is only so much 3rd-party RPG "pie" to be had.</p><p></p><p>There are only a small number of positions in the RPG industry (at least - as as been alluded to - when supporting an existing game like Pathfinder or D&D) that <em>can</em> pay well enough to put a roof over your head. Doubling the number of "awesome" products isn't going to double the number of those positions. There's only so much money to be made in this <u>hobby</u> as a publisher, a writer, or an artist.</p><p></p><p>Raising product prices will reduce units moved. Finding the sweet spot is hard. With product prices as they are, and sales volume what I guess they must be, there just isn't a lot of room for <em>anyone</em> to be paid "as well as they should be".</p><p></p><p>Frankly, it's best for writers, cartographers, artists, and the likes to view this as a hobby until and unless they can land one of the plum jobs. Like all the other starving artists, you use what meager profits you glean from your early years to supplement your income from whatever <em>else</em> you need to do to pay the bills.</p><p></p><p>It's kind of like consumer electronics. I'm in IT too, but where I work there are some sales involved though we're mostly service. People freak out because "computers are expensive". They figure we're getting rich at their expense. See, <em>they</em> work hard for their money. We're just ripping them off. Fact is, the mark-up/margin on consumer electronics is (usually) pathetic. We're not talking about Monster Cables here, we're just talking about Ye Randome Laptoppe. We move the unit, and we're lucky to see $50 in profit, less our time to quote, order, unbox, test, prepare, and repackage the thing for you. Yeah.</p><p></p><p>End result is I think I'm realistic in recognizing that it ALL starts at the consumer's end. If we don't spend, publishers can't pay.</p><p></p><p>Problem is, a typical novel is about $10, in mass-printed paperback. For anywhere up to 600 pages of prose some writer struggled for half a year to produce. So when a consumer looks at a 16 page PDF or a 32-page leaflet adventure that was probably written in two weeks, laid out in a two days, illustrated with five images... it gets hard to imagine paying a big number for it.</p><p></p><p>There isn't a real <em>answer</em> here, because there's no real question. But regardless, once more, thank you to all the participants for... participating.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Anguish, post: 7659181, member: 27032"] I'd like to thank the publishers who are participating in this discussion for being open and forthright. Generally the topics of income and profits are taboo, and it's heartening to see actual numbers posted. Personally, I'm a consumer. I'm not published. But I'm a skeptical consumer. I never complain about things like pricing, or distribution models (as in the case of say... pre-painted miniatures coming in blind packaging) because I [i]think[/i] about what's going on. Is Paizo profitable? Yes. Are most 3rd-party publishers profitable? Unclear, but if so, not massively. Nobody's getting ultra-rich here. I pay attention, so I know that - for instance - Jeremy from Dreamscarred isn't using his private jet to fly over to Andreas' mansion every weekend for cocktails. No, they're both just normal guys with day jobs to pay the bills. This isn't because they're incompetent; I've read their stuff. It's because the market in which they participate isn't one with particularly deep pockets. There is only so much 3rd-party RPG "pie" to be had. There are only a small number of positions in the RPG industry (at least - as as been alluded to - when supporting an existing game like Pathfinder or D&D) that [i]can[/i] pay well enough to put a roof over your head. Doubling the number of "awesome" products isn't going to double the number of those positions. There's only so much money to be made in this [u]hobby[/u] as a publisher, a writer, or an artist. Raising product prices will reduce units moved. Finding the sweet spot is hard. With product prices as they are, and sales volume what I guess they must be, there just isn't a lot of room for [i]anyone[/i] to be paid "as well as they should be". Frankly, it's best for writers, cartographers, artists, and the likes to view this as a hobby until and unless they can land one of the plum jobs. Like all the other starving artists, you use what meager profits you glean from your early years to supplement your income from whatever [i]else[/i] you need to do to pay the bills. It's kind of like consumer electronics. I'm in IT too, but where I work there are some sales involved though we're mostly service. People freak out because "computers are expensive". They figure we're getting rich at their expense. See, [i]they[/i] work hard for their money. We're just ripping them off. Fact is, the mark-up/margin on consumer electronics is (usually) pathetic. We're not talking about Monster Cables here, we're just talking about Ye Randome Laptoppe. We move the unit, and we're lucky to see $50 in profit, less our time to quote, order, unbox, test, prepare, and repackage the thing for you. Yeah. End result is I think I'm realistic in recognizing that it ALL starts at the consumer's end. If we don't spend, publishers can't pay. Problem is, a typical novel is about $10, in mass-printed paperback. For anywhere up to 600 pages of prose some writer struggled for half a year to produce. So when a consumer looks at a 16 page PDF or a 32-page leaflet adventure that was probably written in two weeks, laid out in a two days, illustrated with five images... it gets hard to imagine paying a big number for it. There isn't a real [i]answer[/i] here, because there's no real question. But regardless, once more, thank you to all the participants for... participating. [/QUOTE]
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