![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
I Do the Job, and Then I Get Paid
This is not a post about James Frey's new publishing scheme. Plenty of writers have already covered that topic (Genreville collects three excellent responses). But a conversation about said scheme with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lyster got me thinking about my mercenary philosophy of freelancing.
It's a very Fireflyesque rule, in general. If I take an assignment where my publisher or editor dictates what the work is, then I typically anticipate it's a Work for Hire gig. This means, effectively, "I do the job, and then I get paid." I don't own the rights to the material. My publisher can take the material and run with it, edit it in a different direction, or do whatever suits their purposes. For reference articles, this is a no brainer -- I don't need a byline for short entries about authors (though sometimes I actually do get bylines). For reviews, the same is true -- though I acknowledge that while I'm a professional reviewer (I do get paid for a chunk of the reviews I write) I also take unpaid review work. I enjoy writing about books (as you may have noticed), so I do some that's pro-bono -- or pays me in kind (even if that's just a free copy of a book I'd have otherwise spent money on). Some of my free work has led to paying gigs; some of my low-paying work has led to better paying gigs. In some Work for Hire contracts, there's a possibility of earning royalties.
If I'm writing my own stuff in a world I create, however, the situation is different. I'm happy to sell publication rights, and I've had very good luck placing some of my short stories in fair-paying markets. If I'm playing in your world (whether it's writing an adventure or writing a shared-world short story), I don't anticipate additional rights. I'll take them if they're offered, but I don't anticipate them. If I'm playing in my world, I'm a lot more proprietary.
There are writers who are in this profession just to share their vision, their story, and their characters. I think art for art's sake is a noble endeavor, and maybe the purist form of our profession. But I also think it's fair to expect to receive compensation for work. To support that as a reader, I'll buy short stories on fictionwise (for example); I try to purchase books by authors I want to write more books. I've been known to purchase print copies of books I've reviewed as ARCs or e-ARCs if they really impressed me. (blackaire and mdhenry, I'm looking at you.) I donate to web comics I appreciate -- a model I love, actually, since it's a very immediate response to my appreciation for the artist's work -- and I'll buy print books of web comics (because you never know when my internet will crash and I'll be deprived of my comics). I try to put my money where my mouth is -- because someday, when I've got the possibility of royalties accruing, I hope that my readers will do the same for me.
lyster got me thinking about my mercenary philosophy of freelancing.It's a very Fireflyesque rule, in general. If I take an assignment where my publisher or editor dictates what the work is, then I typically anticipate it's a Work for Hire gig. This means, effectively, "I do the job, and then I get paid." I don't own the rights to the material. My publisher can take the material and run with it, edit it in a different direction, or do whatever suits their purposes. For reference articles, this is a no brainer -- I don't need a byline for short entries about authors (though sometimes I actually do get bylines). For reviews, the same is true -- though I acknowledge that while I'm a professional reviewer (I do get paid for a chunk of the reviews I write) I also take unpaid review work. I enjoy writing about books (as you may have noticed), so I do some that's pro-bono -- or pays me in kind (even if that's just a free copy of a book I'd have otherwise spent money on). Some of my free work has led to paying gigs; some of my low-paying work has led to better paying gigs. In some Work for Hire contracts, there's a possibility of earning royalties.
If I'm writing my own stuff in a world I create, however, the situation is different. I'm happy to sell publication rights, and I've had very good luck placing some of my short stories in fair-paying markets. If I'm playing in your world (whether it's writing an adventure or writing a shared-world short story), I don't anticipate additional rights. I'll take them if they're offered, but I don't anticipate them. If I'm playing in my world, I'm a lot more proprietary.
There are writers who are in this profession just to share their vision, their story, and their characters. I think art for art's sake is a noble endeavor, and maybe the purist form of our profession. But I also think it's fair to expect to receive compensation for work. To support that as a reader, I'll buy short stories on fictionwise (for example); I try to purchase books by authors I want to write more books. I've been known to purchase print copies of books I've reviewed as ARCs or e-ARCs if they really impressed me. (
blackaire and mdhenry, I'm looking at you.) I donate to web comics I appreciate -- a model I love, actually, since it's a very immediate response to my appreciation for the artist's work -- and I'll buy print books of web comics (because you never know when my internet will crash and I'll be deprived of my comics). I try to put my money where my mouth is -- because someday, when I've got the possibility of royalties accruing, I hope that my readers will do the same for me.