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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgbrowning" data-source="post: 1148879" data-attributes="member: 5724">That's simply not true, Joe. When you are a freelance writer the "value" of the words is what the publisher will pay you for them and the publisher's decision is based solely upon the amount of money it makes for the publisher.There is no monatary "value" for words outside of that equation. The expected value you're talking about is based upon the value of printed RPG material, not PDF RPG material. Because the PDF market is not as profitable, the payment for words will be less as well.If a publisher pays the book value and only releases the words as a PDF, he'll go under. That is not a viable business model, so the expectation that words for a PDF should be paid as if they were for a physical book is not viable either. The same is true for art.PDFs don't make as much, so you can't pay as much to get them made. The best solution is what you've done. People who write/edit/design for themselves can make money via PDF, but the standard production costs associated with RPG books are not very profitable in the PDF market, if profitable at all.And of course, if the price is too low, the writer doesn't have to write for that much if they don't want to. Same thing with the artist. It doesn't matter that they're doing the same amount or quality of work, because the work has no value outside of the profitability of the end product for the publisher. Telling any writer or artist that their words or art has monetary value outside this consideration is giving them an improper sense of the value of their work.I'm not undercutting the artist nor the writer's pay because the concept of "work" is not fixed. I'm saying its a different market. And I'm saying the writer should "take a hit" because his work isn't worth as much in the PDF format as it is worth in the print format.Another example (though a bit silly) is mining. I'm not going to pay a person the same amount to dig ditches as I'm going to pay them to mine for gold. The actions may be the same, digging, but the profitability of the same action is different and it is only the profitability of the end result that assigns a value to the work done in achieving the end result.That's why PDF work pays less than print work. The end result is less valuable. And the writer and artist shouldn't feel bad about it. PDF work pays just as less for the publisher as well.joe b.</blockquote>

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