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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jim Hague" data-source="post: 2266498" data-attributes="member: 17550">Boy, I wish.  But no - freelancers got paid a flat per word fee, minus any penalties as specified in the contract.  It wasn't big money by any stretch, and it was work for hire - AEG owns the stuff I wrote, as well as what other freelancers wrote, lock stock and barrel, save for OGC, which is a fairly hefty chunk of the WLD.  Work for hire (as Phil, Erik or any of a number of full-time pros can tell you) is the most common way to work freelance in the industry.I'll say this, as an aside, and off-topic - anyone who says that writers, editors and game companies are greedy and out to screw the customer...well, they're full of it.  The pool's too small too be greedy, and the vast majority of game companies aren't run like businesses; they're labors of (sometimes misguided) love, hobbies.  I, being a freelancer and more importantly a gamer, find myself wishing that more companies were run like businesses - that way the customer gets a better product, the writers, editors, artists and other folks that work on books could get paid a livng wage (and while I can't discuss what I got paid for WLD, I can say it wasn't even enough to buy a good home theatre system or a beat up car, for 80,000+ words).  Then I think we'd see some real movement and a Renaissance in gaming.</blockquote>