Is Monte Cook worth 10 cents a word? If so, then how much is Wolfgang Baur worth?

While at my local gaming store, I was having a discussion with several RPG friends including the guys who operate Gamer Ingenuity, LLC and we started talking about the pay rates of well know writers.  While I do understand why people get paid, I do feel some people are VERY MUCH over rated.  The biggest overrated writer to me (in the non-RPG arena) is Warren Ellis. I have talked about Warren Ellis before and how I feel about him so I am not going to go over it here, but you get the point.  While we were talking Monte Cook’s name came up in the decision. We began to think about it, what would Monte Cook be worth pay rate wise in the RPG industry for both PDFs and retail bookstore sales?

I know Monte is the pinnacle of writers and creative people in the RPG industry.  His name alone on a project will help sales greatly.  I know for a fact that Monte can and has sold more than 200 PDFs on the day he releases a PDF.  How do I know this for a fact? Well when I released the original Power Corrupts for M&M Superlink, we sold 189 in the first three days that we released it and were #1 on RPGNow’s Top 100 list.  On day three of our release, Monte just happened to release an OGL/D20 fantasy product I can remember which one but it really does matter for this tale.  In less than a day, Monte blew past our #1 rating on day four, which had just hit over 200 copies sold, and in less than a day and he was #1 on the list.  If the book had a price of $10.95 and RPGNow was taking 25% (This is WAY back in the day) of the sale Monte made $1,644 in ONE DAY.  If the product did that well on one day I am sure it went on to sell well over 1,000 copies in its life time which comes out to be a minimum of $8,212.50.  And remember that was just the PDF sales, I don’t even know what his print sales must have been like.

Now here is some more mathematics for you, if you take the $8,212.50 amount divided it by the amount of pages let say 96 you come up with $85.55 dollars per page he made.  Now divide that number by 500 words (Bet most of you didn’t know that 500 words is the average amount of word per laid out page) and you get 18 cents per word.  So at 10 cents a word, Monte would be a STEAL! 

But then we started talking about other writers like Wolfgang Baur, Ken Hite, Chris Pramas, Sean K. Reynolds, Erik Mona, Jason Bulman, Bruce Cordell, Matt Forbeck, Keith Baker and John Wick.  Are they worth in actual sales that amount they charge?   Just something to think about next time you are looking for a freelance writer for a project.  Talk to you later…

Guest Blog Post - Becoming a Freelance Writer by Matt Forbeck

Matt Forbeck has been a freelance writer and RPG publishing legend of such products from companies like AEG, Atari, BOOM! Studios, Decipher, DK Publishing, Games Workshop, Green Ronin, Image Comics, Mattel, Penguin, Pinnacle, Playmates Toys, Random House, Reaper Miniatures, TSR, Ubisoft, White Wolf, WildStorm Productions, Wizards of the Coast, and many, MANY more. So if you want to know about becoming a freelance here is the person you should listen to. Matt was kind enough to do a guest post for us here at In the Mind of a Mad Man, about becoming a freelance writer.  Hope you enjoy…

I’ve been a freelance writer for the vast majority of my adult life, and even in the times I’ve had a day job, I still worked as a writer/game designer. Becoming a freelancer may seem like a huge leap, and it is, but all it really takes is determination and patience.

First, you need to figure out what sorts of things you want to write: stories, rules, RPGs, essays, poems, news articles, interviews, or whatever. Then you need to research the market for those sorts of bits — to find out who might be willing to pay you for your work.

If you already read those sorts of things — and you should if you want to get published in that field — it’s simple. Find out who published the articles and then hit their website. Most publishers have submissions guidelines listed right there.

Read the guidelines and follow them to the letter. Some guidelines feature “idiot tests,” simple things you must do so that the publisher can tell that you can read and follow directions. Do just that, and you’ll pass.

Once you know who to contact and how, do so. Usually you should send a simple query note first, nothing longer than one page. If the editor wants to see more, he or she will ask you for it. Once that happens, read and follow the direction again. Rinse and repeat until you’re published.

There’s a lot more to it than that, of course. You need to have both some talent and some skill. And you need to be able to hit your deadlines. If you can manage those three things, you can go far.

There’s no licensing involved in becoming a freelance writer. You can’t take a class to get certified. You just need to keep improving your writing and putting yourself out there until someone manages to recognize your brilliance. This usually happens slowly.

Most editors have been burnt before, and they’re shy enough about it now that they like to start out any new relationship by taking it slow. Unless you have a list of published credits already, smart editors will only give you small projects, things that they can let go of if they never show up — or that they can re-commission from someone else in a heartbeat. That gives each side a chance to make sure that they can trust each other before you move on to bigger things.

Some writers think that quality of the work is the only thing that matters, and to a certain extent that’s true. No one wants to publish crap, and no one else wants his or her name attached to it. However, if the publisher doesn’t have anything to publish when a piece is scheduled, it doesn’t matter how good it might be when it shows up. The lack of that piece means no sales (or ads or patrons or whatever) until it arrives, and the publisher’s landlord, phone company, internet provider, and printer don’t care about anything other than when they can expect their not-quite-here-yet money.

Make your editor’s job as easy as you can, and you’ll get the chance to show off your talent and skill as often as you like. Editors love writers that do that, and they’ll come back to you time and again, often with better projects every time.

Once again thanks to Matt for taking time out of his BUSY schedule to give us some great info about being a freelance writer.  Talk to you later...

Get them hooked when they are young, and you have them for life...

I saw this D&D for the Children post over at the Purple Pawn's website talking about the Monster Slayer line from WOTC and it got me think about something Matt Forbeck said years ago to me, "You want to make D&D popular again, you have to capture the kid's interest early."  While this conversion and ruleset is based off of 4E, this is something that Paizo or a 3PP supporting them could do. Even better, find a way to box it up with miniatures and dice and get a $9.99 price point on it you have a great little Pathfinder "Basic edition" or "Starter Kit".  Just something to think about when you are wondering how to get new players interested in Pathfinder and Paizo.  Talk to you later...