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What's a Freelance RPG Writer Worth?
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<blockquote data-quote="Steve Conan Trustrum" data-source="post: 7662797" data-attributes="member: 1620"><p>Royalty arrangements can be a good idea for publishers up front (woohoo! No up-front expenses for writers and/or artists!), but can cost money in the long run (wow, this book is selling so well I would have paid the writers and/or artists off by now, but I have to keep splitting profits.)</p><p></p><p>For example, I released Better Mousetrap for Mutants & Masterminds 2e in 2007. At the time, Misfit Studios wouldn't have been able to afford the type of artist I wanted to provide original artwork for the whole book. As such, an artist I'd worked with who was interested in the project came on board for 50% of the profit in exchange for doing all of the interior artwork in colour (I had already created a cover for it.) As time went on, the project kept expanding so that my share of the writing kept getting bigger, which means the time I'd need to spend on layout would also take more time -- I even did the flat colouring for the interiors to speed things up. By the time BMT came out, the time I'd put into the project was well over half the overall work (I'd guess <strong>at least</strong> 90% of what needed to be done to get the project out, in man hours.)</p><p></p><p>In 2012, I decided to re-release the project for M&M 3e. I was still bound by the original contract for use of the book's interior art, and the same artist did a new cover as part of the existing "you do the art" agreement. I then went about rewriting everything for the new rules, which meant adding some new content to get everything to convert as true to the original as possible. It took me about 6 months (spread out) to do the rewrite, oversee playtesting, and then do layout for the PDF/print version and for a tablet-ready, interactive version. The artist, on the other hand, added some new weapons and insignia for the interior at no additional expense (it was considered accommodating the original agreement of providing interiors), a new character art piece (which I wrote the content for), and then the previously mentioned cover (and because the artist was working for royalties, their other, flat rate jobs took priority, delaying the project by 8+ months.) So, I was again doing far more than half the work for the new release, but was still getting 50% of the profits because of the new book being an extension of the original agreement.</p><p></p><p>I don't begrudge paying the artist this royalty rate or blame him for anything, as it's what we agreed to, but continuing to keep the book out beyond its first (and now second) iteration means more ongoing work for me (say if M&M 4e comes out) while the artist could quite possibly never have to do any more art for it in the future. Because of how the original agreement was written, there is never a need to renegotiate how royalties are split, regardless of the reason why doing so would seem to make sense and be fair. I am bound to keep paying a 50%/50% royalty rate when the division of labour was something I would estimate to be at about 99%/1% with me taking on the heavier share. Considering the 3e version, released at the end of 2014, outdid the 2e version's sales (after 7 years) in just 2 months, you can imagine how frustrating the royalty agreement can be in hindsight given the division of labour behind the 3e release. It would have been better for my return on the project to not use any of the artist's original work, but rather pay him to do all new art at his usual rate, thus keeping all future profits beyond this flat expense for Misfit Studios. </p><p></p><p>Now, not all of these issues will come up in royalty agreements; most are issues that arose from me lacking foresight (I didn't expect the product to do as well as it did initially, or that its popularity would see the 3e rerelease surpass it so quickly), and it being my first time working with someone on a royalty basis I made some mistakes in how the agreement was prepared. However, you can see why it would leave me shy of doing so again, especially if I have to sell the other participants on signing on with a contract that, while fair to the amount of work I'd put in, on the bare face of it would seem to skew in favour of me. These sort of unforseen circumstances can easily pop up with any royalty-based project because closing all possible holes is problematic -- and the unexpected is something publishers want to avoid. It leads to expensive learning experiences (as my example illustrates.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Steve Conan Trustrum, post: 7662797, member: 1620"] Royalty arrangements can be a good idea for publishers up front (woohoo! No up-front expenses for writers and/or artists!), but can cost money in the long run (wow, this book is selling so well I would have paid the writers and/or artists off by now, but I have to keep splitting profits.) For example, I released Better Mousetrap for Mutants & Masterminds 2e in 2007. At the time, Misfit Studios wouldn't have been able to afford the type of artist I wanted to provide original artwork for the whole book. As such, an artist I'd worked with who was interested in the project came on board for 50% of the profit in exchange for doing all of the interior artwork in colour (I had already created a cover for it.) As time went on, the project kept expanding so that my share of the writing kept getting bigger, which means the time I'd need to spend on layout would also take more time -- I even did the flat colouring for the interiors to speed things up. By the time BMT came out, the time I'd put into the project was well over half the overall work (I'd guess [B]at least[/B] 90% of what needed to be done to get the project out, in man hours.) In 2012, I decided to re-release the project for M&M 3e. I was still bound by the original contract for use of the book's interior art, and the same artist did a new cover as part of the existing "you do the art" agreement. I then went about rewriting everything for the new rules, which meant adding some new content to get everything to convert as true to the original as possible. It took me about 6 months (spread out) to do the rewrite, oversee playtesting, and then do layout for the PDF/print version and for a tablet-ready, interactive version. The artist, on the other hand, added some new weapons and insignia for the interior at no additional expense (it was considered accommodating the original agreement of providing interiors), a new character art piece (which I wrote the content for), and then the previously mentioned cover (and because the artist was working for royalties, their other, flat rate jobs took priority, delaying the project by 8+ months.) So, I was again doing far more than half the work for the new release, but was still getting 50% of the profits because of the new book being an extension of the original agreement. I don't begrudge paying the artist this royalty rate or blame him for anything, as it's what we agreed to, but continuing to keep the book out beyond its first (and now second) iteration means more ongoing work for me (say if M&M 4e comes out) while the artist could quite possibly never have to do any more art for it in the future. Because of how the original agreement was written, there is never a need to renegotiate how royalties are split, regardless of the reason why doing so would seem to make sense and be fair. I am bound to keep paying a 50%/50% royalty rate when the division of labour was something I would estimate to be at about 99%/1% with me taking on the heavier share. Considering the 3e version, released at the end of 2014, outdid the 2e version's sales (after 7 years) in just 2 months, you can imagine how frustrating the royalty agreement can be in hindsight given the division of labour behind the 3e release. It would have been better for my return on the project to not use any of the artist's original work, but rather pay him to do all new art at his usual rate, thus keeping all future profits beyond this flat expense for Misfit Studios. Now, not all of these issues will come up in royalty agreements; most are issues that arose from me lacking foresight (I didn't expect the product to do as well as it did initially, or that its popularity would see the 3e rerelease surpass it so quickly), and it being my first time working with someone on a royalty basis I made some mistakes in how the agreement was prepared. However, you can see why it would leave me shy of doing so again, especially if I have to sell the other participants on signing on with a contract that, while fair to the amount of work I'd put in, on the bare face of it would seem to skew in favour of me. These sort of unforseen circumstances can easily pop up with any royalty-based project because closing all possible holes is problematic -- and the unexpected is something publishers want to avoid. It leads to expensive learning experiences (as my example illustrates.) [/QUOTE]
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