Transparency Agenda Daily July 14th 2016 - Artist and Pay Rates

Transparency Agenda Daily June 9th 2016 - Money, Pirates, and What its worth...

Transparency Agenda Daily May 24th 2016 - Pay rates Round 2

Transparency Agenda Daily May 23rd 2016 - You're paying them how much?

Jim Shooter talking about rates and contacts while at Marvel & DC Comics and why RPG publishers should listen...

The legendary Jim Shooter of Marvel Comic fame has a blog where he talks much about the comic book industry and his involvement in it. A few days ago he did a post talking about contracts and working for Marvel and DC Comics.  The thing that REALLY stood out to me on the contract was the artist, writing and plotting page rate amounts. They were all listed at $60 per page. $60 a page I am guessing was the "starter rate" and that was Marvel 10 years ago.   Now look at his DC freelance contract rate from 2007 - 2008. $100 a page? This guy has been the editor and chief at BOTH Marvel Comics and Valiant Comics and is on record for being the youngest paid writer EVER comics from a major (DC or Marvel) company and all he got was $100 a page.  I can bet you those rate might have actually gone DOWN due to so many new artists and writers looking to break in to the comic book industry and the book sales going DOWN. So I guess that $100 a page for artwork for a RPG page is looking a little over priced to me when most RPG don't sell over 5,000 copies. 

Now this Marvel Comics contract was from 2001 / 2002 but best of all it also included the Marvel Comic Incentive plan for the creative staff to make more money if their books sold better. Years ago (and I am talking about early to mid 1990s) I was talking to John Byrne about how much money he made while working on Fantastic Four and he told me since FF was selling so well (over 200k copies at the time) his incentive money was much, MUCH more than his regular paycheck from them. Kind of like a waitress, you make your real money on the tips and you get a paycheck.  If you want to be real scary, Chris Claremont and Jim Lee sold 8 million copies of X-Men #1 in the 1900s and just using the basic math on the incentive plan and "guestimating" on a few things, you can think that both Jim Lee and Claremont each maybe made over $100K on that single book off of their incentive plan. Now that is an incentive plan. 

After looking at this article it only makes me shake my head even more when people are asking for $150 for a single character design or 8 cents a word to write. If Marvel and DC Comics wouldn't pay you that much, why do you think I would, or better yet, be able to do it.  The ability to make a RPG for a reasonable amount is what helps keep us ALL in business. Think about that next time you do some freelance work. Maybe you should ask about an incentive plan for companies you work for over a flat rate. Looks like both of you could turn out winner on that.  Talk to you later...

I am paying 4 cents a word for writers and $250 per page for artist. Who want to work for LPJ Design?

The rate of pay and prices has one the greatest effects on who will work for what and why. In the table top RPG industry, 4 cents a word for writers and $250 a page is a “good” pay rate.  But what do you get for those rates, I mean from the business perspective?  If you get paid those amounts and your product does sell, whose fault would that be?  Even better, does the writer or artist talk any blame for the product not selling?  Where does the responsibility of poor sales fall?  Better yet as a writer or artist SHOULD you take responsibility for poor sales on a product?  Paying higher rates does give you one advantage over paying lower rates, you receive more response for work and you can pick and choose who you would like to work with. So once again I am thinking about raising our pay rate at LPJ Design.  The better question is why do you think I should pay you 4 cents a word for writers and $250 per page for artist to work for LPJ Design? Talk t you later…

LPJ Design raise its freelance writing rates

So after much discussion here and here, LPJ Design has decided to increase their standard rates for writers. While I will not be telling what that rate is to the general public (You might be able to better negotiate a better rate if you do it right), LPJ Design will be looking for writers who are looking to are looking for long term freelance writing commitments for Paizo's Pathfinder material for our NeoExodus: A House Divided line (Make sure you read NeoExodus Chronicles: World of Exodus before sending us your resume, CV or background) and some generic Pathfinder material..  So if you always wanted to write some Pathfinder material and get paid for it, you should contact LPJ Design.  Good luck, you are going to need it.  Talk to you later...

Should LPJ Design increase their writers pay rate to 4 cents a word on a Pathfinder project?

This is something I stared in Facebook page that I thought should be brought here: I am thinking about doing a Pathfinder project and paying out 4 cents a word for writers. That is A LOT more than I normally pay (Remember small PDF publisher here). Am I crazy to think like this? I am looking to hear from the Pathfinder and Paizo fans on this.  Talk to you later...

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…

As a writer what sounds like the better deal: Getting paid 2 cents a word or 5% of the total sales?

The answer to this question all depends on one simple little thing; how “good” of a writer are you? If you are just starting out, then 2 cents a word is a good rate. No matter what happens, you get paid and that is you end goal. If you are Monte Cook or Wolfgang Baur, well you are going t sell at a certain level for the life of the product, so that 5% could be some serious money if done right. It is a very simple question right? How much are you skills worth? How much are your skills worth now OR in the future? How badly do you need the money now OR in the future? How well do you market yourself now or in the future? How much to you have invested in the product you worked on is the better question. Too many people look for the easy short cash without realizing what the long term effect it might have on them. Being a freelancer, the name of the game is marketing one’s self so you can become more popular over time which in turn makes you more money. What you think you are worth is up to you. What you think you can earn over time is really up to you. What are you doing with that knowledge and how can that help you in the learn term? Just something to think about next time you are accepting a new writing position. Talk to you later…

Harlan Ellison says you should get paid for your work...

Harlan Ellison is right!  I love this video! I has been out for years and maybe you have never see it. It really puts it in a simple words of why you should be paid.  An never fall for that "exposure" line crap!  The only "exposure" you will get is what it feels like to be "exposed" to someone using and molesting you.  If Rule #1 is Don't lose money. Rule #0 is Get Paid for it.  Like the Joker said, If you are good at something never do it for free. Talk to you later...

Behind the curtain of LPJ Design…

Here is a little fact that many of you don’t know, my Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero with the over 15 pieces of artwork in it (mostly half page or larger, black and white images) cost me a whopping $200 to purchase the full righs from the artist. Roughly less than $13 per image with all the rights to resell the art to other people. Did you get that part? Full and complete rights for only $200.

There are a lot of people who head’s are exploding over this topic. Many are saying, “It is not fair to pay people so low,” or “how can an artist sell away his artwork so cheap?” or my other favorite, “ You should pay people more.” So you think it is better for me to have to charge more for my product to my customer (meaning I will get fewer sales) and then pass that money to the artist is higher wages? And people wonder why 9 out of 10 businesses fail in the first year. Now if that previous stuff made you head almost burst, it is about to get worse for you…

Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero is a silver level seller at RPGNow (meaning sales between 101 – 249 copies) on DriveThruRPG it does have a metal rating (meaning sales 1 to 49 copies). So if you take an average of both numbers you can “guestimate” that Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero sold about 200 copies. 200 copies at $8 each comes to $1,600 minus $200 for the artist means $1,400 in profit for LPJ Design. Why would an artist sell his artwork to me $200 and lose out on $1,400 worth of profit by not doing it himself? Good question. I don’t know and personally it does not matter to me. That is not my job. My job is to keep my business afloat. But here is an answer for those that have to have one: Maybe he knew it was better to have $200 when he needed it, instead of waiting 2 years to “possibly” get that $1,400 of profit that I made. A “bird in the hand, two in the bush” type of situation.

Now to make your head really explode: When I was kicked off of RPGnow back in November 2005 and came in late 2006; all my previous sales at RPGNow from 2001 to 2006 were erased. So my current sale info of Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero is only from late 2006 to now. So how many sales did Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero have from 2002 to 2005? Well after checking my personal records on sales units on Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero was more than 800 copies sold. So LPJ Design really made over $4,600 on that artwork, which is still for sale today. Best of all, this product isn’t even in my top 10 most profitable products from LPJ Design. Just something for you to think about. Talk to you later…

PS: Any of you RPG publisher who are in need of good and inexpensive artists, just let me know and I will help you get in touch with them. You have seen the guys who do my artwork so you I am dealing with good guys. Your welcome!

Paying a $100 a page for RPG artists is stupid, and you’re an idiot if you do it…

Why does this one always keep coming back up? If you know anything about me, it’s that I am a cheap bastard. My wife will tell you that. My brother will tell you that. Even my mom will tell you that. I don’t like paying more than I have to, especially in the arena of business. When I first started doing RPG all kinds of people told me all kinds of silly things about what I should pay artist. “The industry standard is $100 a page for RPG work.” That is complete crap! This is the greatest lie that has been put to RPG publishers by artists since the beginning of time. If you listen to some artist about their artwork too long they will tell you that it does everything including cure cancer so that is why they ask for that rate. Hate to break this to you “artistic” types but you make a “commodity”. A commodity as defined from dictionary.com is:

1. Something useful that can be turned to commercial or other advantage: "Left-handed, power-hitting third basemen are a rare commodity in the big leagues" (Steve Guiremand).
2. An article of trade or commerce, especially an agricultural or mining product that can be processed and resold.
3. Advantage; benefit.
4. Obsolete A quantity of goods.

And when you make your artwork to sell you are making a commodity. I know a company who paid $500 for a one print time usage right for and image that Brom did. One print run and that is it. What happens if you underprint the product and your product becomes an overnight hit (see WizKids' Pirates of the Spanish Main for that answer)? Sorry, you have to purchase a new cover for it. Think that was crazy? Well they did it two more times!

Any of you RPG publisher who are in need of good and inexpensive artists, just let me know and I will help you get in touch with them. You have seen the guys who do my artwork so you I am dealing with good guys. You don’t have to say it, but you’re welcome!

What is reasonable paywise?

I have been wondering this of late since the US dollar is going up in value against the Canadian dollar and the British pound. I mean a month ago, if I paid you for work in $100 US dollars it was equal to $100 CN dollars. Now that same $100 US is worth $116 CN. Now lets not kid anyone, PDF RPG payrates are not great by ANY means. But if you could get 50% more money for your work or 50% additional value to your money to buy goods or services, isn't that a good thing? As a writer if you write something, that sell only 10 copies should you get as much as someone who sells 25,000 copies? Now reverse it, if you sell 25,000 and the next writer sell 10 who should be paid more?

A lot of artist feel the going rate for art work is $100 a page. But, if it only takes you 2 hours to do ($50 a hour) is that a fair rate? If the average artist works 40 hours a week and 50 weeks per year, that's 2,000 hours per year. At $50 per hour, you'd be making $100,000 before taxes. Here are some other jobs in that salary range:

1. Captain/Pilot in Command (Large Jet) - Median Salary: $50.91 hourly
2. Art Director - Median Salary: $50.32 hourly (This is normally only freelance if you are VERY, very lucky)
3. Construction Manager - Median Salary: $50.66 hourly
4. Physicist - Median Salary: $50.40 hourly
5. Data Warehousing Manager - Median Salary: $51.00 hourly
6. Patent Attorney - Median Salary: $50.84 hourly
7. Commercial Loan Officer - Median Salary: $50.13 hourly
8. eCommerce Manager - Median Salary: $50.97 hourly
9. Professor of Mechanical Engineering - Median Salary: $50.08 hourly
10. Estate Planning Director - Median Salary: $50.67 hourly

How much is reasonable paywise? That is a good question. Talk to you later...