Also, from one of his linked articles:
"As of the close of the Kickstarter we raised $6,291. Kickstarter fees and transaction fees left us with $5,692. Art cost about $3,000, advertising was $215, production was $1,347.14, and shipping was $1,054.27. This left us with a profit of ~$75. We have since made a few more sales on itch.io and DriveThruRPG, putting us currently at a profit of $275. This project took a little less than 400 hours of work, making our current pay
$0.68 per hour.
Even if the project raised the amount of money we estimated before running the Kickstarter we would only have made $785, or
$1.96 per hour. In the future, we need to more carefully examine the scope of a project vs the amount of money we could reasonably make off of it. We hope that it continues selling, as we are getting ready to sell it via print on demand... at this point all sales are just profit so the amount we made per hour could go up
but for now we will not be making supplements for games unless we believe we can complete them in less than 20hrs."
On one hand.....
There's the reality. Now throw on people griping because someone didn't use an editor or used stock art...effectively eliminating that $.68 an hour very quickly to nothing or those precious cents are used to work them out of the financial hole they created for themselves, maybe never breaking even. I understand people want good, usable stuff--I'm with you, BUT on the other hand, it makes complainers sound like entitled assholes. No?
The artist gets paid
The editor gets paid
The layout person gets paid
The cartographer gets paid
The distributor gets paid
Kickstarter gets paid (if you use them)
The author/organizer/project manager of the whole thing, who takes on ALL the stress and puts in the most time--does NOT get paid and may go in the financial hole (and some people think authors should be fine with that--hi squeen
) and takes all the criticism...awesome model....lol. What sane person wants to do that?
Now look at their last sentence that I bolded. You get what you pay for...right? Is this why there is so much crap out there? Is the OSR now the cesspool of 0 effort publishers who don't get points?
On the other hand....
Unfortunately, I think the people quoted above may be writing these things for the wrong reasons if they only want to go to 20 hour projects due to lost profits. Perhaps they wrote it that way as it compares to their Kickstarter--so no judgements from me, I'm happy they shared their info to help others.
But that sentence doesn't cover that hidden value in putting these things together..it's called enjoyment. Does that make $0.68/hour worth it? It must...because people continue to make stuff....right? For them to even consider 20 hour projects after their Kickstarter suggests they do get some enjoyment out of doing it.
Another hidden value is publishing something so its out there...that feeling of goodness you get, knowing you contributed to society or that your product is out in the world, or that someone used it and found value in it. A hidden value that squeen talks about and I think he has a valid point.
Another reason...is maybe you just want your stuff in a POD form so you can use it at your table. I bring this up because Jon and I are working on a house rule book....I told Jon no one is going to care about another house rule book....except us....we care because we want some hard covers of our house rules at our table for our players so we are going to do it anyway.
So not sure if the needle will move, but it just goes to show that if you aren't doing this for fun, or some other reason minus financials, you may be disappointed. It's clear that if you are just doing it for money, working at a minimum wage job will make you more profit than writing OSR adventures (and probably less stress).
docs.google.com
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com