Payment?

[Obbligato]

Does Paizo pay for Pathfinder Society scenarios? If so, how much?
(Forgive me if this is answered somewhere else on the site, but I can't find it if it is...)

[Shivok]

That's not public information.

If your submission is accepted you will get a contract from them explaining the details.

[Obbligato]

June Soler wrote:

That's not public information.

If your submission is accepted you will get a contract from them explaining the details.

Odd policy. Why the secrecy?

[Matt Thomason]

Obbligato wrote:

June Soler wrote:

That's not public information.

If your submission is accepted you will get a contract from them explaining the details.

Odd policy. Why the secrecy?

While I can't answer specifically for Paizo, in general writing contracts tend to be individual between author and publisher. I've not known many publishers that will tell you up front what they're going to offer until they're ready to make you that offer.

[Red-Assassin]

I would like to think the payment is based on the expected kill rate ...

Likely it is based on quality or the lack of needed editing spelling and such. Cartography and in house interest.

[Kyle Baird]

Chris Bonnet wrote:

I would like to think the payment is based on the expected kill rate

This is true. That's why Hitchcock, Vaughn, Thursty and myself have all been able to retire to the Caribbean.

[Talon89]

I knew the five star island was in the Caribbean!

[John Compton]

Paizo does send a contract that compensates the author for his or her work. As others have noted, we don't make public the word rate or payment-by-project numbers, similar to how I don't answer pointed questions about my salary--it's a matter of professional courtesy and respect for the contributor's privacy.

I will say that I have few authors turn down the opportunity to write a scenario for financial reasons. In addition to receiving a welcome check, an author also gets a big boost in his or her name recognition, which often helps to springboard an ongoing freelance relationship with Paizo Publishing. In fact, Pathfinder Society is one of Paizo's favorite ways to find and test new authors; campaign leadership over the years has regularly given passionate volunteers, promising 3rd-party freelancers, and other talent opportunities to show off what they can do (it's how I got my job, in fact). If someone impresses me, I share that person's name with other developers, and they in turn offer that person follow-up assignments. I also tend to offer these freelancers more work.

Things the impress me:

Including but not limited to (in no particular order):

Good grammar, avoidance of passive voice, and close attention to style

Creative encounter design

Plausible encounters that have a good reason for existing

Pleasant, professional, and prompt communication with the developer

Turning in an assignment on time

Clever incorporation of social, puzzle, and riddle encounter elements, if any

Visually and mechanically interesting cartography

Demonstration of rules knowledge as expressed in stat blocks, rules-related sentences, and the like

Ability to learn from mistakes and take feedback well