SJGames Updates Warehouse 23 Writing Guidelines
I’m copying the information verbatim from here. Steve Jackson Games has updated their pay structure and guidelines for GURPS Fourth Edition.
Last Updated: December 11, 2020
We are interested in new GURPS submissions sold electronically through Warehouse 23. (Note: Publishers looking to sell PDF game materials via Warehouse 23 should send email to smarsh@sjgames.com. The information here is for writers who want to write for us directly.)
We handle our digital-supplement projects the same as all of our projects, so read our general Authors’ Guidelines; everything there is important, and we expect authors to be familiar with our style. For most products, the Roleplaying Book Submission Guidelines information will be particularly relevant. There is a lot there, but it’s worth your time.
Here are the specific things to know about writing GURPS material for Warehouse 23.
The Submission Process
Follow the guidelines linked above, with two exceptions:
- Your query letter should go to the submissions editor. The subject header should start with “[PROPOSAL]” and follow with an identifiable title. The query letter is otherwise the same as described in the Guidelines linked above.
- For the formal proposal stage, if the final PDF is intended to be 32 pages or less, a writing sample of about 850 words (the equivalent of one printed page) will do.
What We Want
For now, we are looking for GURPS Fourth Edition materials. New supplements can relate to published Fourth Edition books, or they can stand alone. (We might consider other projects, but such initiatives usually begin in-house.)
Size: We are mostly interested in products ranging from about 7,000 to 22,000 words, although we will review larger projects. The PDF format is flexible, so we can vary quite a bit on the specifics. Nonetheless, we prefer small, bite-sized supplements that go in-depth on reasonably narrow topics.
Topics: Read over the wish list! We’ll entertain other ideas, but the wish list gives you a list of topics we already know we want – no salesmanship required on your part.
Layout/Art: This will usually be our problem. If maps or diagrams are required, we expect an understandable sketch we can work from, but that’s about it. (If you are able to generate usable maps, please let us know!)
Pay and Rights
We normally offer flat fees. That’s because most PDFs are too short and inexpensive to justify the bookkeeping costs of a royalty! We pay what we think is a competitive 8 to 10 cents per word, depending on the quality of the manuscript. If it needs a lot of editing but shines in its own way, we may accept it . . . but we’ll pay at the low end of the scale and tell you how you can improve
We’re willing to discuss royalties for works substantial enough to merit the added bookkeeping. To learn whether your project qualifies, contact the submissions editor. For PDFs, our base royalty is 25% of the cover price (increased for authors with a strong reputation that helps sell books, decreased for inexperienced authors or those requiring heavy edits), paid monthly.
When we buy something to sell digitally, we are buying all rights as a work-for-hire contract unless we negotiate otherwise. When it’s appropriate, we will negotiate otherwise. For supplements to our existing products, that’s not negotiable at all; we have to own all rights in supplementary works. But for products like (for instance) game adaptations of webcomics, our contract will of course recognize the rights of the original creator!
Contact
If you somehow missed it . . . all submissions and inquiries should go to the submissions editor, at editor@sjgames.com.
I will almost certainly take a hard look at my own pay structure come finishing off the TFT More Perilous Journeys Kickstarter work I’m grinding through right now. My strategy is usually to offer a modest per-word rate, but one that scales with the number of backers in a Kickstarter, so as the product does well, the author does well too…but as a small publisher, it also lets me control my risk without creating a backlog of silly bookkeeping since most products these days have no “tail” to speak of.
I must admit to mixed feelings here. On one hand, I’m happy to see SJ Games’s pay scale moving into a “professional” range. On the other, I’m kinda sorry to see royalty-based arrangements being deemphasized. I like writing for royalties rather than a flat fee. I like knowing that a sale of one of my books means I’m getting paid for it. I’m sure this is something which will make more economic sense in the long run, but I really like getting those royalty statements.
A quick analysis with my own costs suggests the author “wins” at less than close to 1,000 sales. At a thousand or so the same pay is about 23% of profits.
My own experience would say that I can’t afford to pay that much until I double my usual backer count on projects.
That’s sad but that’s what the data suggests to me.
https://thefantasytrip.game/ has the new TFT rates, slightly different from the GURPS ones.
The change from royalties to a flat rate is probably going to kill my interest in writing some books. I am demonstrably more internally motivated to write when I get royalties than for a flat fee. I just know when it’s “paid and done” I just don’t really feel motivated to write it as much as when it is a % of the cover price. It’s too damn easy to compare the pay per word to my pay per hour at my main job and determine it’s not worth it. With royalties, it’s more like an investment – it could grow, and pay off later, and often has for me.
The math might say it’s not worth it for them, and that it’s likely better for me, but the combination of factors above make a change like this a bit demotivating at first look.