The title sounds angry, but like. Readers, you know it’s time we had this conversation.
I talk to marginalized designers in games all the time, and to like just straight cis white guys like a lot, too. There’s a common theme of not being paid well – paid fairly even – that I’m seeing, I’ve been seeing, but like we don’t really write it down in a place and say it to the point sometimes. With the way social media has become our method of communicating, it’s rare that we put it down in a blog post or something linkable. SO I thought heyyy, why not Thoughty?
Note: A large number of the accounts in this article are anonymous. This is because the industry itself can be so vindictive and brutal that people don’t feel safe talking about pay and bad experiences, even if their complaints are fully justified. All of the quotes within are used with permission, and remained anonymous unless otherwise permitted.
ETA: I did reach out to some artists for their perspective, but wasn’t able to gather sufficient information. I intend to have a followup article by artists to address artist pay.
THANK YOU to all of my contributors for this article, named and anonymous.
Speaking of social media, there have been article-length Twitter threads about how to make your own rates for freelancing, including this one by @XCK3D which includes a lot of things we don’t typically think to calculate. Like having an asshole rate, for when you have to work for that person who is an asshole but you need the money.
One place it has been written down is in a specific call for fair pay for people of color in games, headed up by DungeonCommandr on Twitter and hosted here in a Google Doc. It is a really great document that shows a lot of valuable work! Here are the rates they request.
Base Rates Suggested
Consulting: $30.00 USD/hour.
Per-Word Work: $0.10 USD/word.
Player Streaming, 4-hours: $80.00 USD flat rate.
Facilitator Streaming, 4 hours: $160.00 USD flat rate.
Panels, Speaking, Facilitating Events: $200.00 USD flat rate, and the inclusion of room, board, and travel assistance.
We could also use rates for hourly design work that includes playtesting and for project management, something we don’t often address. My base suggestions are below, based on what I’ve been paid for design work with playtesting and prorated upwards for a fair wage and looking at some national salary data for project management.
Design Work: $40.00 USD/hour.
Project Management: $60.00 USD/hour.
The document didn’t mention editing, but as an editor I’ve done some research. The EFA rates are pretty fair, though, and are available here. The rates I suggest are:
Proofreading: $0.01 USD – $0.02 USD/word.
Basic Copyediting: $0.02 USD/word – $0.03 USD.
Heavy Copyediting/Line Editing: $0.04 USD/word – $0.05 USD.
Translated/Non-Native Language Charge: $0.01 USD/word.
When I read the document, my first thought was “hell yes!” My second thought: How do we make this the norm?
That’s a pretty hard question in the industry we have today. Every time I bring up fair pay for everybody, I run into the same brick wall: people not knowing why it matters to pay fairly, or not knowing why it matters to charge fairly. We all fear not being able to make our dream come true, and capitalism is a freaking stale bagel supreme. So where the hell do we even start?
Let’s dig in.
Why Does It Matter What We Pay OR What We Ask For?
I wanted to focus on the why first because there’s a lot of misconceptions about games pay rates. Like, the biggest one I’ve heard?
Well, most people who work on tabletop RPGs aren’t trying to do this full time, they have other jobs to make a living, so we shouldn’t be paying full rates.
those people on the internet (and in real life)
To which I say,
It absolutely DOES matter that we pay full rates for people regardless of whether they have a separate job, because it is the work of the people that has value. Here, I asked for some thoughts on this from someone in that kind of situation:
I am lucky enough to have a well-paying day job, but I still write for games sometimes because it is rewarding and valuable to me to do so. I want to be paid a fair rate for my writing because I think that if I under-charge, that makes a lower rate seem plausible and devalues the labor of everyone else who relies on this industry for their livelihood. I’m not gonna scab just because I have another source of income.
Anonymous
What Anonymous describes is actually something I experienced. I’m declining from naming names here, but I did discover during my research over the past year that some people – typically white, straight, cis men, but not always – take lower rates for work because they make money elsewise. This is super harmful to the way the rates pan out for people who are marginalized! Why hire marginalized people who do this for a living when we can hire white dudes for cheaper?
Almost every designer, artist, writer, layout person, or consultant has taken a loss, almost every one has lost to someone who could afford to charge less, and almost every one has been devalued by standards that are unquestionably inadequate for the work at hand. I wanted to know what people were experiencing, including how they were getting paid and by who.
Who Pays How Much and How Does It Compare?
I surveyed a number of professionals in the industry via email about their experiences in part because my experiences are only my experiences, and in part because the voice of marginalized creators matter. Here are what some had to say about the pay rates, who pays what kinds of rates, and similar information.
Generally speaking, smaller presses and independent creators and publishers have offered me living wage or better for my writing, development, and cultural consulting work. Medium-size to large companies usually try to pay me less, and have done so regardless of my experience level. Most creators of any size typically have zero cultural consulting budget and expect cultural consultants to work for free.
anonymous
When I started writing for pay in 2013, I had done my homework and found that at the time most game companies offered new writers rates of $0.01/word, and payment upon publication, neither of which were sustainable. The better companies offered new writers $0.03/word (and $0.05 or more for known authors) and payment upon acceptance. That year I started working freelance for two companies who offered this much.
anonymous
Since then I have worked for a few more and always refused lower rates. Thanks in large part to the efforts of people like DC (@DungeonCommandr), this year rates are going up with all the better publishers, trending towards $0.05-$0.06/word. That said, tiny companies (and there are a lot of them in the hobbizness) still offer $0.01/word, and payment upon publication. I encourage anyone not doing this purely as a hobby to decline such terms.
As a freelancer, getting paid per word is a losing proposition. The words aren’t the laborious part; the real work is developing and playtesting, which is hours and hours of what amounts to unpaid work. When I’ve done dev work I’ve charged per hour, which comes much closer to compensating me for me work. On my own projects, I have requested a quote from contributors and I value them at what they value themselves, or occasionally higher if I think they’ve undervalued their contribution. $100 a piece for 6×9 b/w art, $234 for editing [redacted] and $280 for layout (no character sheets)
anonymous
When I was doing freelance RPG writing for mostly trad game companies the pay rate was frankly abysmal and never prompt. Onyx Path Publishing pays its writers a starting rate of .03 a word with the around the water cooler promise that consistent work will be rewarded with pay rate hikes on future projects. It always seemed arbitrary when and who would manage to actually get a raise mostly due to being reliant on a developer putting in a good word for you. It took me several years to get a bump in rates that a friend received after their second project working for the company. On one project the entire team was promised .04 cents a word but when I got my first draft paycheck I had only been paid for the going rate of 3 cents until I sent an angry email out. I remember I was working with OPP when SFWA announced that game writing was going to start counting as a qualifying market for membership and that nobody was going to count as a qualifying market short of a miracle.
anonymous
Translation work…
2.50€ per 1,000 characters (since German words are on average 7 characters long translates ~ 1.5 $cent per word.)
anonymous
Everybody else pays LESS for translations afaik.
As someone who works in editing, I particularly wanted to query people about their editing pay. Editing pay for me has always been such a sticking point, because people don’t hire editors half the time, and the rest of the time they tend to pay minimal wages. I once tried to pick up an editing job for a multi-thousand, like tens of thousands of dollars Kickstarter project at 80,000 words that they were offering $0.02/word with a month-long turnaround. I wondered if others might have experiences like this!
I’ve been editing RPG and game products since 2012, when I landed my first gig through Google+ (I will miss the easy and easily-filtered access to other gamers). My editing rates have stayed fairly constant throughout – roughly $0.005 to $0.01 per word for editing services and a proofreading pass, if needed. I’ve done some pro bono work for friends, which I’ll ignore for this discussion. I tend to bill per project, so the hourly rate fluctuates wildly depending on how much work is involved. I think my lowest hourly rate ended up somewhere far less than $5/hr (I needed to redesign some content and had to make some additional changes after it went to press), but lately I’m budgeting projects based on $30/hr or better. I think the disparity between per-word and per-hour rates causes huge issues in keeping editors afloat, and I hope you can shed some light on those issues in this piece.
T.W.Wombat (aka Jim White)
I have performed editing services for a number of clients. As I mentioned earlier, I tried charging $0.02/word on my first paid project but it seemed like too much. I reduced my asking rate to $0.01/word, which I consider fair, reasonable, and attainable for most indie TRPG projects. Having worked on many projects and self-published some of my own, I know that profits are not great for most projects (Kickstarter notwithstanding) so I don’t feel like most indie TRPGs can support a much higher rate.
Craig Judd
I have looked into getting one of my own manuscripts edited, but despite Kickstarting the project I didn’t raise enough to be able to afford the professional editing fee. From memory, those rates were somewhat higher than mine, but I think they were a professional editor.
I have been a bit disappointed in the editing rates in TTRPGs, although I’ve been disappointed in overall pay rates in TTRPGs and other industries. (For a while, I looked into editing for self-pub fiction authors, and their per word rates are even worse, if they even hire an editor at all.)
anonymous
My editing experience in TTRPGs might be a little unusual in that I was working for a single, regular client who provided the bulk of my editing work, and so I was functioning as their primary copy editor for a year and a half. This year, I’ve had to lean on small, shorter projects with a less dependable schedule, so I’m much more cognizant of editing rates and how they impact my income.
I set a rate of $15/hr for projects for friends and family, and $20/hr for all others. So far nobody has objected to this.
anonymous
For editing, I booked a gig and had a contract, but the gig never materialized, so (naturally) no payment was received. This eventuality was also covered by client contract. I have also done line editing and proofreading for no pay.
Rob Abrazado
I’ve received and accepted offers (for writing) ranging from 5c/word at the lowest to 10c/word at the highest. I would prefer an industry standard at 10c/word or more, and generally I won’t consider a rate below 5c/word.
Speaking of negotiation…
What Happens When We Ask for More?
I was particularly interested in hearing about people’s experiences when they asked for increases in pay or a fairer rate. It was mixed, for sure.
Negotiation is not really given as an option. When you’re writing for a big company with an established line there is always the assumption that you’re really doing this because you’re passionate about the line and there are a lot of people passionate about the line willing to do your job for next to free. Everyone has a screenplay in Hollywood everyone is a game designer in RPG fandom. A few people I know have managed to negotiate higher rates for projects but the one time I brought up that I’d been contributing to the company for a while and never managed to get a pay raise I was told that it was because I didn’t lean in.
anonymous
Yes. Usually I’ve been successful in negotiating up to a fair rate or better (it usually only takes one very polite but nerve-wracking email), but [redacted] has refused to even negotiate with me and/or removed me from projects when I’ve asked to be paid a living wage.
anonymous
I haven’t had to negotiate on either end. When I have freelanced, people have just accepted my rates (10 cents/word for writing, $20 hour for dev work). When I’ve engaged people, I have just accept their rates, or realized they were out of my price range.
anonymous
We did negotiate, and where I considered it fair, I also had little guidance as to what was appropriate, so I don’t know if I paid too much or too little. What was important for me was that I got quality service and the person I hired was happy. If you take care of people, they take care of you.
anonymous (hiring)
The above quoted individual was hiring someone, and paid them fine for basic editing (~$0.02/word). But I wanted to note – I really like the attitude, and wish more people in the industry shared it, instead of burning through freelancers and consultants and contractors like so many home DJs making mix CDs in the ’00s.
I have been slowly negotiating my rate up, but since I deal with smaller, indie companies, I haven’t been quite successful getting my average rate increased. A fair rate is of course a struggle to conceptualize, since pay rates in TTRPGs are so low.
anonymous
Many clients are happy to accept my standard rate, but I have had to negotiate with some to settle on a fair rate. For gaming projects I’m reasonably okay with reducing my rate if it would otherwise mean missing out on a paying job. I understand that small press game producers may be working to a budget or have otherwise limited funds, and I’m willing to be extra-flexible (including offering free services) if it means helping out a disadvantaged designer or a worthy project.
For a simple proof-reading pass I can go as low as $0.005/word, but most game texts need more than that… and in any case, I find it hard to go past other issues if I come across them during proof-reading, so clients tend to get the benefit of a full editing pass whether they are paying for it or not.
Craig Judd
I’ve rarely needed to negotiate for longer than a single email exchange, and I’ve walked away from projects which seemed unreasonable. I’m interested in learning if the designer/publisher has money set aside for editing (and how much, as I don’t want to break the bank, especially with younger and/or smaller companies), and I know in some larger companies the editing fee is pre-established long before an editor gets hired. Kickstarter projects are great, because the editing fee rolls into the initial goal, which allows for more flexibility and less negotiation if you work out the numbers before the Kickstarter starts.
Editing is a part-time gig for me, so I’m happier about getting to work on making cool projects more accessible to more people than I am about getting paid. Yes, that’s a very privileged attitude – I realize I’m a dilettante.
T.W.Wombat (aka Jim White)
One of the biggest findings I’ve had is that the people who have had the most ease negotiating or started with a high rate and didn’t need to were people with various types of privilege – and so were the people who just didn’t even ask for higher rates, or took frankly intensely low rates because they could afford to. This is particularly hard to see for me as a marginalized person who tries to negotiate for fairer rates!
Why Does This Matter?
Back to my point earlier in the article where I note that it matters to pay everyone fair and equal rates, I asked my interviewees why it mattered to them that they get fair and equal rates. The answers didn’t surprise me, but maybe they’ll surprise or shock you – especially if you haven’t been working directly with the marginalized in the industry.
This is my only job. I’m already in poverty and I have no savings. If I don’t work for fair rates, I don’t survive.
anonymous
It is important to me personally so that I can justify the time I spend contributing to projects I’m excited about, as opposed to purely working to maximize revenue, probably on projects that I don’t like. I enjoy writing for RPGs and would rather write in that capacity than any other, but I have to be compensated for the time I spend doing so, or else I have to spend my time doing something else that will pay the bills.
Rob Abrazado
It is important to me as part of the hobby and industry to receive a fair rate in order to normalize the practice so that everyone is offered a fair rate. I also feel that it is important to compensate for valuable work. If forced to work for a subpar rate, I’m more likely to turn in subpar work, which I don’t think is good for anyone. I think it’s important for people to want to put forth their best efforts, and a good rate of compensation is motivation toward that end.
I’m a disabled trans person living in a region whose job market still never recovered from the 2008 recession. This is work that can get done in moments when other work isn’t getting done. It fits into an irregular schedule and helps pay for small expenses when everything else is going to covering surprise medical costs or feeding my household. I shouldn’t have to tell myself or other marginalized people that they need to choose between doing work in an industry that is interested in marginalized voices and an industry that pays them.
anonymous
It’s not important to me per se, as this is a hobby to me and not a job. I want a fair rate for me so as not to upset the market for folks who require a fair rate to pay their rent. If I’m out there doing stuff for cheap or free, it takes opportunity away from others and incorrectly calibrates expectations of compensation.
anonymous
If we want quality games of professional caliber, they must be created with professionalism. I want pros to be treated like pros and paid like pros; and when it’s my turn, I want the same.
When I do something just for fun, I post it free on my blog and you get what you get. When I help a small publisher out of friendship because they can’t afford to pay me, I offer limited help, clearly agreed in advance (courtesy review with annotations, playtesting, etc.) and I take no fee. But when work professionally I want to be paid appropriately.
anonymous
When is the Breaking Point?
What do we have to do to convince people to
- ask for fair pay rates?
- pay fair pay rates?
It feels like this battle has been fought for a long, long time already. Those of us wanting to see higher pay rates that account for the incredibly ridiculous modern world are in a lot of cases very tired of the fight. But what does it take to make people who take lower pay rates because it’s a hobby or it’s not important understand that it is important, and that their low rates devalue the work of people who do this stuff for a living? What do we need to do to convince larger businesses and small publishers that they need to pay people fairly or people just won’t work for them anymore?
My approach in the article has been to provide what fair rates are, why we should pay them, and examples of people’s experiences in games where they were affected by pay rates. I also want to point out the places where we can get the money to pay the rates!
How Do We Pay These Rates?
The first stop is Kickstarter. So many games are being produced though Kickstarter, including larger organizations’ games. The good thing about Kickstarter is you build a budget in advance. The thing that’s rough is when people don’t budget for things like additional writing, editing, sensitivity reads, and layout. It means those people end up getting screwed over with tiny paychecks to do the same amount of good work!
When you do a Kickstarter, you should always be setting aside like 15-20% for taxes, right? And even if you haven’t found an editor, layout artist, sensitivity reader, or stretch goals yet, you should start looking at your estimated word count, assessing potential lengths of stretch goals, and stuff like that – build up a hypothetical game “final product” and what actions will go into making that a reality.
From there, use the proposed rates to build a budget that pays fairly. It might sound like a much higher budget, but especially as you bring people on to fill those roles, you have more people to spread the word, people know you’re making a higher quality product, and you are not as far away from hitting that goal as you think.
Alongside that, some people are trying different methods. Doing games in development through sites like itch.io can also be a useful way to build up funds to afford editing, art, additional writing, and so on. Creators will release early versions of the games, and work to improve the game while using the funds to pay for other content, sensitivity consultants, editing, and art. This is a really intriguing model and it’s a good way to frame it!
But, you may note, Kickstarter and open development isn’t the only way to make games! And that’s true. Absolutely! We have people making games by themselves all over the place, plus companies that do the work, too. When we talk about the organizations that release games, it gets trickier. The reality is we have to expect the same kinds of standards from businesses in games that we would of businesses in any other industry.
If you’re going to make a game, know that you need to:
- write or hire writers or both
- design or hire designers or both
- do art or hire artists or both
- do layout or hire layout artists
- edit or hire an editor
- consult with sensitivity readers
- ship or hire shipping or both
- and potentially incur further costs!
As a business, if you aren’t thinking about ALL of these things, you’re shortchanging your audience, and your game will suffer for it, too. Budget for these things in advance, instead of cramming them in at the last minute. Plus, you should know what fair rates are before going into a project, so that you can offer them – so many creatives are insecure about requesting higher pay, and they should not be the only ones requesting it.
If you do a project and hire others, please also consider using the Keep the Lights On pay model I introduced in December of 2018. It helps people keep their internet on and stomachs full, among other things, and demonstrates a level of trust to guide the project.
How Do We Ask for Those Rates?
One of the useful links I shared to a Twitter thread covered some of the basics of building an hourly rate was super considerate of a lot of factors that go in. Another part of it is making sure your rates are readily available. I have my rates published on my website, and when people solicit me for work I refer to those for pay rates. They could do to be updated – which is another part of it!
You should review your rates regularly to ensure they’re accessible and accurate to what you need to be charging. When you reach out for a job, if it’s one that asks you to present your rates, it’s good to provide them with those pre-set rates and note whether you’re willing to negotiate or not. It’s okay to negotiate – and to not be willing to negotiate – sometimes we need to stick to our principles and ensure we are paid fairly!
Beyond this, it’s individual initiative and community encouragement to ensure that people are paying good rates when they hire people! I’m hoping that with this post, more people will share suggestions on how to seek out fair pay rates, and on negotiation! This is a difficult challenge, but it has to be addressed as a community, sharing knowledge and experience.
A Call to Action
With that said! I am giving a call to action to anyone who can “afford” to not charge fair rates:
Charge fair rates, or recommend a marginalized person to do the work. If you don’t need the money, don’t take the work. People with privilege taking jobs at a cut rate just screws over tons of marginalized people, so we need to either level out the playing field by demanding the same rates as marginalized people deserve, or we need to step off the fucking field. Your hobby doesn’t trump people’s lives.
We are in an industry where there are people who rely on this as their main job, so making pennies for hours of work is not excusable. In my example alone, it’s virtually impossible to survive on the pay rates I get when I work much of the time. People need to charge fairly, and people need to pay fairly.
I will say there have been a few exceptions to this – specifically, Glittercats Fine Amusements has paid me quite well, and High Level Games paid me fairly too. Some individuals paid me well too, like Thomas Novosel and Kit la Touche. But they’re just a few fish in a big sea full of cheap skates. We need to make things fairer – and it will take all of us.
It’s time for a reckoning. If you’re not with us, you’re against us, and those of us with the intent to change this industry will do it with you or without you. Do you want to make the world a better place?
If not, fuck you. If you do, pay us.