Publisher, Raging Swan Press
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| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Here at Raging Swan Press, we are only $30 away from something amazing.
We launched our Patreon campaign back in April and since then 40 of you have joined us raising almost $170 for every book we release. These guaranteed sales have in turn allowed us to triple the word rate we pay our designers. We’ve gone from paying one cent a word to paying three cents a word.
But I want to do more. I’ve taken another look at the numbers and our release schedule and it looks like if we hit $200 a release we can raise our pay rate again to five cents a word! That’s huge—and something I really want to do. It would put us almost on parity with publishers like Paizo and Wizards of the Coast and ensure our designers are getting a fair wage for their efforts. It will also mean that (hopefully) I’ll be able to secure even more releases from such awesome designers as Alexander Augunas, John Bennett, Richard Green, Jacob Trier, Josh Vogt, Mike Welham and more! Who knows—I might even be able to hire myself more often!
So I need your help. We are only $30 away from hitting that milestone. With $2 and $5 pledge levels we only need somewhere between 6 and 15 people to sign up. In return, you get:
A weekly dose of high quality GM focused material designed to make your campaign prep easier.
A warm fuzzy feeling that you are helping designers earn a proper wage for their efforts.
Every book before it goes on general release.
Every book cheaper than normal (if you pledge at the $2 level).
So if you’ve got a couple of spare dollars please consider joining us. Thanks very much in advance (hopefully) for your support!
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Already there. :)
Slightly off-topic. Are there any plans regarding another round of open calls?
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Publisher, Raging Swan Press
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Dotting for another look when I'm in a more convenient setting. I love that you made writer pay the priority.
Out of curiosity, would you happen to have any figures on the average number of products released each month? The website says 2-5, which is kind of broad, and while I'm certainly interested either way, I'd like to know a bit more about what I (or my wallet rather) am in for.
Thanks for taking a look! I'm very keen to raise my freelancer rates. I think it's the decent thing to do and I hope you can help out.
We release one PDF or print product a week. Every month, one of those is a free GM's Monthly Miscellany which I don't charge patrons for. So I think 3 or 4 paid products a month is about right. Of course, you can always set a cap for your pledge so no matter how many I release you won't pay more than $X.
(I'll make this clearer on our page so thanks for bringing it up).
I didn't until now, but that's a great idea. Now all I have to do is think of a topic.
Glad to hear it's a possibility. For various reasons I missed out on the previous open calls.
Anyway, yeah I'm stoked to see that better payment for the freelancers is a top priority. That's one hell of a classy move. :)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Here at Raging Swan Press, we are only $30 away from something amazing.
We launched our Patreon campaign back in April and since then 40 of you have joined us raising almost $170 for every book we release. These guaranteed sales have in turn allowed us to triple the word rate we pay our designers. We’ve gone from paying one cent a word to paying three cents a word.
But I want to do more. I’ve taken another look at the numbers and our release schedule and it looks like if we hit $200 a release we can raise our pay rate again to five cents a word! That’s huge—and something I really want to do. It would put us almost on parity with publishers like Paizo and Wizards of the Coast and ensure our designers are getting a fair wage for their efforts. It will also mean that (hopefully) I’ll be able to secure even more releases from such awesome designers as Alexander Augunas, John Bennett, Richard Green, Jacob Trier, Josh Vogt, Mike Welham and more! Who knows—I might even be able to hire myself more often!
So I need your help. We are only $30 away from hitting that milestone. With $2 and $5 pledge levels we only need somewhere between 6 and 15 people to sign up. In return, you get:
A weekly dose of high quality GM focused material designed to make your campaign prep easier.
A warm fuzzy feeling that you are helping designers earn a proper wage for their efforts.
Every book before it goes on general release.
Every book cheaper than normal (if you pledge at the $2 level).So if you’ve got a couple of spare dollars please consider joining us. Thanks very much in advance (hopefully) for your support!
I feel my will already binding itself to your evil plans...I tweeted the Patreon campaign in the Twittersphere.
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Thank you, Francois Michel, Barney Connell and Jared Strickland for joining up! It's much appreciated.
Your welcome, Creighton!
For those of you out there who are potentially interested, this Patreon project is a rather unconventional approach for a PF 3PP indie publisher. But one that I think is tremendously ingenious and has an alternate-path approach to ultimately bringing a significant uptick to joy and satisfaction in the PF GM & Player community.
As you know, and as a preface, Raging Swan Press products are amongst the most highly ranked/rated in the 3PP publishing community. The majority of the reviews I've seen at places like RPGNow, Paizo, etc. are 5 stars ... and a few sprinklings of 4 stars. I can't recall seeing anything lower. The community consensus has spoken loud & clear. And for further emphasis of Raging Swan's consistent top-tier quality, all one has to do is read the honest & nuanced analysis from reviewer superstar Endzeitgiest on nearly every single RSP product (of which I'm inclined to mirror his observations). That's so impressive and so rare to see.
That all said, Creighton's objective to improved freelance writer wages seems to be a call to help inspire & evolve the creative writing process while also opening the floodgates to additional products of high-firepower writing talent. And while RSP's publishing is already quite prolific, I get giddy thinking that it could improve even further!
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Personal Note - I'm not being compensated for this gushing diatribe. Lol. I'm just a recent new fan of Raging Swan Press who has had his GM'ing schtick hugely improved from a vast array of recently purchased RSP goodies. In fact, I barely know Creighton - but I'm now working overtime to purchase as many of his books as possible. As an ardent indie label 3PP fan - I love Dreamscarred Press, Rogue Genius Games, Kobold Press - Raging Swan Press has now been elevated to the top of that bunch. I'm so impressed with the way every one of their books has helped rekindle my GMing *Fire* and raison d'être.
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Publisher, Raging Swan Press
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Thanks so very much of the kind words and support. I'm delighted you enjoy our products so much and your words couldn't have come at a better time! I'm always open to suggestions about how to make our products even better--at the end of the day it's all about making the GM's job easier and more enjoyable. A big part of that is hiring better freelancers--hence our Patreon!
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Ok, I bit the bullet and pledged for $5. My gaming budget says I should be able to handle this, but lately RL has seemed to have other plans.
My question is how are the products we've pledged for, delivered. That part was just a bit fuzzy for me.
Thanks.
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Publisher, Raging Swan Press
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ok, I bit the bullet and pledged for $5. My gaming budget says I should be able to handle this, but lately RL has seemed to have other plans.
My question is how are the products we've pledged for, delivered. That part was just a bit fuzzy for me.
Thanks.
First off, thanks so much for pledging! We are now only $10 away from being able to pay our designers 5 cents a word! That's awesome!
In answer to your question, every time RSP releases a product you get an email via Patreon. Follow the links in the email and land at a web page with all the relevant files ready to download. It's that simple!
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I'm in for $5. Almost there!!!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Congrats on achieving the milestone! :)
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Publisher, Raging Swan Press
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Congratulations!
In tangentially related news, my first print editions of Raging Swan books came in the mail a few days ago and I wanna applaud you on that sweet, sweet matte finish.
I really could not say enough good things about the content of your product line, either! I'm glad you've got incentive to keep up the great work.
Thanks so much for the congratulations and the kind words. Both are much appreciated. I'm delighted you enjoyed the books so much that you've picked up. I hope they give you many happy hours of gaming!
Congratulations!
In tangentially related news, my first print editions of Raging Swan books came in the mail a few days ago and I wanna applaud you on that sweet, sweet matte finish.
I really could not say enough good things about the content of your product line, either! I'm glad you've got incentive to keep up the great work.
Yeah, after reading your comment and having just seen that YouTube video by Riotous DM ... I'm now convinced that I need to also obtain all the Raging Swan Press softcover books. No disrespect intended for my beloved PDFs. It's just that sometimes your eyes and hands just want a tactile experience with a really nice paper book.
***
As for the Patreon Project, I'm glad the next phase objective was met! That's fantastic! This Patreon has a been joy to be part of ... and I have really enjoyed the benefits that come with the investment.
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Publisher, Raging Swan Press
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Congratulations!
In tangentially related news, my first print editions of Raging Swan books came in the mail a few days ago and I wanna applaud you on that sweet, sweet matte finish.
I really could not say enough good things about the content of your product line, either! I'm glad you've got incentive to keep up the great work.
Yeah, after reading your comment and having just seen that YouTube video by Riotous DM ... I'm now convinced that I need to also obtain all the Raging Swan Press softcover books. No disrespect intended for my beloved PDFs. It's just that sometimes your eyes and hands just want a tactile experience with a really nice paper book.
***
As for the Patreon Project, I'm glad the next phase objective was met! That's fantastic! This Patreon has a been joy to be part of ... and I have really enjoyed the benefits that come with the investment.
Thanks for your support, Crai. I can't wait until we hit our next goal. It's only $90 away or so!
I know what you mean about physical books. I much prefer them for game prep and suchlike. While I'm a huge fan of using technology at the gaming table, sometimes you just need a decent book!