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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zak S" data-source="post: 7768676" data-attributes="member: 90370">I accept that but when people point out to the companies involved that these rates are sub-poverty line and predatory, they often go "That's the industry standard, you must not know much about the industry".And the fact is we need to make sure there is no rhetorical room for that position: that is only the "standard" for companies where 1 or 2 people make a living wage and the rest are working on what amounts to a content farm and in 2019 we can all do better.Again:1  Mothership and Dead Planet (and the original pre-Lotfp Carcosa) all made more than 10cents a word  off less than 1000 sales. All they did to "build an audience" was hang out on forums and put out something good.  And they didn't need much of an audience to make decent money2 Being an underpaid freelancer will not help build an audience.3 You keep saying "kickstarter" and "self-publishing" without acknowledging the simplest option: partnering with a small publisher who thinks you do good work and will just pay you. I pay people more than that and I'm just one guy. I don't want to see your freelance credits, I'll hire someone on the strength of a single page of great game prose.That was decades ago. Pre-internet in Monte's case. Things have changed.If that's true then where are these people? I've seen dozens of people complain about how little they get paid by the big companies after years of knowing their names as just "random internet people" i didn't even know had worked for these companies. The "contacts" didn't get them anywhere. Whereas Sean McCoy puts out Dead Planet which is basically a zine, or Ben Milton makes some Youtube reviews and Maze Rats, or someone just has a cool blog and they're getting more substantive offers than anything in that pdf.It may be true that once upon a time you started by writing an article for Dungeon or Dragon and slowwwly building trust starting at 3 cents a word and slowwwly working your way up until finally someone like Monte left WOTC and you got a coveted spot but:1. That isn't how the industry works any more o has to work, and2. The idea that it does has allowed Green Ronin, Evil Hat and others to exploit authors by claiming their offering them a rare opportunity and it has lead to extremely forgettable product as well.Things are different than they used to be--and better. Writers who demand respect and write what they love are getting recognition for it a lot faster than people who were promised the world in exchange for putting time in down in the salt mines.</blockquote>

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