Writing for Hire

[alanajoli]

John Scalzi recently posted something I read with great sadness: Dragon magazine is unfortunately buying all rights for fiction, rather than paying 3-6 cents per word and first rights (or similar). That effectively makes it work-for-hire. I don't have any problems with work-for-hire, as a rule, but I'll only do work-for-hire fiction if I'm working in someone else's world. If I'm already using their IP, then it makes some degree of sense to me that they retain the rights.

I have discovered, however, that this is not always in the writer's best interest. I don't suspect Dragon (the new digital WotC published version, not the Paizo print version, which ended) will change their minds about this, which is a shame as I'd love to be published there. And knowing that there are others out there with similar magazine tastes, I figured I'd spread the heads up. The conversation on Scalzi's blog is really interesting as well.

Comments

[matt-m-mcelroy.livejournal.com]

There is a huge thread on this over at RPGnet with some interesting views on the topic.

In my opinion, John Scalzi doesn't seem to understand 1) the game market or 2) that this not a print magazine anymore and 3) is a ezine targeted at a specific group within the gamer audience.

It sounds as though those guidelines have been removed as of yesterday however, so it may be a moot point. Rumor has it that there will be no more fiction in the Dragon ezine. A small, but vocal group of D&D gamers complained very loudly about fiction polluting their game content.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure who the fiction for Dragon was ever really marketed toward (aside from specifically gamers rather than general fantasy readers)--but he's looking at the fiction part like a fiction market. And if you're creating your own unique material, I'm inclined to think he's right--work-for-hire isn't the best option. If I'm writing in WotC IP, that's a different story.

I also find it irritating that the small but vocal people irritated with fiction could get it removed. With an online magazine, it's not like you have to click the fiction links if you don't want to.

[matt-m-mcelroy.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. If eDragon does have fiction under these terms, folks should not sell original work to them. If they want to write Forgotten Realms or Eberron those terms are not too bad...

I don't think Scalzi ever considered that. But it seems to be a moot point now.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we'll have to see what happens. I'm kind of hoping that some of my WotC insiders who are mutual lj friends will have some input. ;)

[bccreations.livejournal.com]

Forgotten Realms fiction is guarded like Fort Knox. They're not soliciting work in the realms or any of their other properties and their own blurb says so. They're looking for fresh ideas. That's innuendo for "send us your stuff."

And everyone seems to be focusing on his comments on pay, but the only thing people should worry about are rights. Unless I'm writing in Greyhawk, Faerun, or Eberron, they can't have my rights. Period.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the pay didn't seem terribly objectionable to me. It's not high end, but a heck of a lot of lit mags don't pay any better than that. So the rights issue is really the stopping block.

But if they're not going to publish fiction anyway, it's a rather moot point! We'll just have to wait and see. :)

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

Heh, it's amazing how the vocal get things removed or changed.

But, it could also be a focus, kind of a "oh yeah, what about fiction? we used to have that, right?" kind of response that the online stuff has.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I mean to get over to the forums to bring it up sometime today... ;)

[dragonladyflame.livejournal.com]

Even if it's no longer applicable, I have to agree with some of Scalzi's commenters -- it makes sense in the context of the RPG market, and the RPG market is where Dragon belongs more than the general spec fiction market. I mean, if we have a problem with the treatment of RPG writers, that makes sense :grin:, but it seems weird to single this out coming from that point of view.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

While I do get that the RPG market is different, with fiction, the comparative publications are different. I mean, there are only so many places where adventures and d20 writing can get published. With fiction, the options of places to submit work are much broader. So while on the one hand, you're publishing in the RPG market, with the fiction, you don't have to be. (It reminds me of working at Barnes and Noble in Boston. The people working in the cafe got paid a lot more money, because B&N had to compete, rates wise, with Starbucks--rather than with bookstores. I don't know that that's a valid comparison, but that's what it makes me think of.)

At this point, unless I'm contracted directly to work in someone else's IP, I won't give up rights. I honestly feel I should have taken a little better care of my IP rights in some of the work I've already done. If it's a completely original piece of work, I won't submit it to a place where I can't retain the rights after a certain period of time.

But then, I don't pay to submit work to contests either (unless my entry fee covers, say, a year's subscription to the magazine to which I'm submitting). So everyone's line about what they will and won't submit to is a little different.

[dragonladyflame.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I never pay for contests either. The concept offends me.

It's frustrating to have to deal with these kinds of issues, isn't it? "This market is less ethical than this market, because the writers will submit to worse treatment so it just makes good business sense ..." I often feel that capitalism and art just don't mix.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Oh, for the love of a patron! Dan Simmons (I think--it was either him or Neal Stephenson) at one point wrote a great essay on being a Dante writer vs. being a Beowulf writer (one writing for the academy/patron, one writing for the masses). There are days when I would so totally leap into the Dante category! That's why I keep trolling the grants listings, I suppose... ;)