[The Rustbelt] trepidations about illustrations
JoyWriter:
Something occurs to me; when writing this book you expect to do all the work for free and be repayed by a percentage of the sales cost. Is there a way to do the same for an artist?
In terms of practically doing that, anyone know if it is possible to set up a mini bank account that automatically redirects it's current contents to two different sources? If such a thing exists, then you could just set the income share agreement and then have the publishers or pdf buyers send the money in to that account, splitting the money appropriately.
Now the result of this would be an effect on pricing, as if you go full colour with loads of art, then you'll be pushing up the price and then moving that extra money streight over to the artist. I've no idea where to set that price increase! Also, you'd probably have to agree with the person that you get to choose where it's distributed and when people get discounts, despite them having a financial interest in the product, which should be ok, given that you'll be largely in the same boat anyway.
Jasper Flick:
Josh, while that could work, it really only does if you're an actual team. As a freelancer, you want to be payed for what you deliver, without delay. Not eventually, based on the success of some product out of your control, with no way of knowing whether you'll be ripped off.
Marshall, you make it sound like what you have right now is good enough. If things go well and you earn some money, then you can always make a revision that does include nice illustrations.
JoyWriter:
I can understand that, that's partly why I was wondering about the direct debit thing; it allows you to make the relationship more mechanical, more predictable. I wonder whether many people operate on similar principles anyway "I can pay you, but not right away", just obscured. At least they would be having the entrepeneur's reward for that risk...
Charlie Gilb:
Quote from: Marshall Burns on January 13, 2010, 11:11:50 AM
(The idea of doing pre-orders to offset production costs scares me. But besides that, I don't have any liquid capital in the first place to handle the production costs until money from pre-orders came in.)
I think you should do pre-orders. You know the product will get done, right? Personally, it sounds to me like a lot of the trepidations you are having are related to the fact that this is the first thing you are actually publishing, which is a huge step. I, for one, do think that having your book be completely absent of people might detract from the character-centric priority that the Rustbelt has. If you look hard enough, I think you could find someone willing to help you out. Maybe you can trade some art for some editing for someone around here or something like that.
As an aside:
How many pictures do you have? How many do you want to have?
Marshall Burns:
I've got about a dozen pictures that I think are good enough to use. I don't want a lot of pictures, though. I think many RPG texts have too-freakin'-many illustrations.
I'm not so worried about the "what does this say to the reader" issue any more. The photos say a lot about Setting but nothing about Character, but the actual text goes on and on and on about Character while only glossing over Setting. I think it's a good balance.
Which isn't to say that I won't one day do a second edition with some new graphics. Didn't Vincent do that with DitV? The original had no illustrations at all aside from the cover, yes?
-Marshall
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