Question for the Freelancers

[Bill]

How much of your book was finished when you first reached out to Palladium Books with your idea?

[Fell]

That's a good question. I'd like to know too.

[Reagren Wright]

I never told anyone about Bizantium. Back in May 2014, I simply submitted it. However, I did let
Chuck now about the Iceborn by sending him some ideas. And after I submitted Bizantium, I did
let Kevin know what I had submitted. So think of it as covering all of your bases. I do the same
with Rifter articles as well.

[glitterboy2098]

actually i had very little done when i was approached about Rifts:Scandinavia. i'd posted a few threads with some basic ideas, and another Freelancer liked them so much that he went and convinced kevin.

this is partly why the book has been taking so long to write. at first i had to develop my ideas (and many underwent a fair bit of evolution), and every so often i find myself a bit mentally drained while writing, and have to take time to work on other projects to recover.

[The Galactus Kid]

None. I have never worked on anything for palladium that I didn't run by them. I had done numerous things for my own games but none of them were ever fleshed out enough for publication.

[rosco60559]

so pb doesn't just call one of you guys up and say that they're looking for ideas and let you loose to do your thing very often? sounds like a waste of talent and ideas not assigning ideas and letting you guys go nuts. not to mention it could put a huge dent in that huge list of books they keep listing every year that they want to put out.

[Shark_Force]

so pb doesn't just call one of you guys up and say that they're looking for ideas and let you loose to do your thing very often? sounds like a waste of talent and ideas not assigning ideas and letting you guys go nuts. not to mention it could put a huge dent in that huge list of books they keep listing every year that they want to put out.

it wouldn't put a dent in any list. those books are largely written already. they're not waiting on a writer, they're waiting on an editor.

[glitterboy2098]

Keep in mind palladium doesn't accept unsolicited submissions except for the rifter. if you have an idea for a book, you send in a summary, an outline, and a sampler of writing for the different aspects of the book (setting, gear, OCC's, etc) and if they like what they see, they'll let you know if they are interested enough in the idea to take a full manuscript.

[Reagren Wright]

so pb doesn't just call one of you guys up and say that they're looking for ideas and let you loose to do your thing very often? sounds like a waste of talent and ideas not assigning ideas and letting you guys go nuts. not to mention it could put a huge dent in that huge list of books they keep listing every year that they want to put out.

First of all we are freelancers, we're not staff writers who get assigned specific material.
Palladium Books is not Time Magazine nor is it Wizard of the Coast in which a dozen writers
get together and get told what to do and how to do it. Each one of us came up with an idea,
wrote it down, submitted it, Kevin like it, saw it went with HIS vision of that particular game
system, and made it cannon. That's what happen and will continue to happen. Kevin is never
going to say hey Taylor write me a zombie book. That not how it work around here. Now what
does happen (not in my case) is we sometimes sit around and bounce ideas across. Out of
curiosity, at Gen Con 2015, I asked Kevin, the three headed dragon that was on the cover of
Palladium Fantasy 1st edition and appears now on some T-shirts, I asked if that dragon was a
real creation that the Defilers fought or something he just drew up. He told me something he
drew up. Around Christmas time, I said that dragon is a symbol of Palladium Fantasy and it
should be something real in the game. Not just cool art work. So Kevin gave me some
parameters. I spent a week came up with an idea and submitted it. He LOVED it so much he
expanded upon the idea and now the dragon is cannon and will appear in the upcoming Rifter.
This is how Palladium book operates. All current freelancers both writers and artists will tell
you the same thing. What you're asking for would exist if we all sat in cubicles in the Palladium
office and Kevin called a meeting and assigned worked for us to do as staff writer. Yeah that
would be kind of cool if it happened that way, but you loose some of the magic and creativity
in the process. That why Kevin will write some book in the way he wants them to appear
because only he knows what should be there. And other time he gives me the freedom to see
PF in my own unique way that will fit into his vision. And he let guys like Taylor White come up
with a fascinating and cool concept like Chaos Earth Resurrection. He tells Chuck we need
some artwork for Northern Gun and he draws these amazing images that just blows your mind
away. That is the freedom we freelancers enjoy. And me personally, I wouldn't have it any
other way . And yes sometimes a cool idea will bump out another cool idea. I feel bad new
material keeps bumping poor Jason Richards Chaos Earth: First Responders. But at the same
time Palladium Fantasy has a Bizantium. Rifts will have some cool new books coming out as
well. And one day Jason's book and some of the other books in the back log will see print. A
new idea has be put out right away because well...it's a cool and neat idea that will sell. That's
the name of the business game. The best part being a freelancer, it means our lives don't
depend upon Palladium books. We all have real lives outside of Palladium and we write/draw
on the side. Many of us wish what we love we did full time. I'd rather spend my whole days
writing away then cleaning the bathrooms of a casino, but Palladium books is not that kind of a
company, and unless something phenomenal brings in a ton of cash, that will never happen.
I'm not talking about a book that sells 15,000 copies or 50,000 copies either. I'm talking about
a book would have to sell like a Harry Potter novel. The RPG universe doesn't exists like that
anymore, and hasn't been that way since the 1980s and early 90s. The point is we work for
Palladium because we love the Palladium system and enjoy the opportunity Kevin gives us.
Where else could I sit around with a group of people and debate whether or not you could
teleport into pool of water without any adverse side effects?

[glitterboy2098]

it is also worth noting that Palladium is, despite its role and place in the RPG market, actually a rather small operation. aside from kevin they only have maybe half a dozen permanent staff. about half of them doing writing and editing jobs, and all of them working in the warehouse and doing the various jobs a company needs (like answering phones, paperwork, managing the finances, handling contracts, etc.)

Palladium used to be a bit bigger, but i don't think they ever had more than about a dozen people on payroll. they have always relied on freelancers heavily. and ever since the crisis of treachery, they have had less time and resources to devote to stuff written in house.

a Freelancer is an independent contractor. in the writing world, this usually means working on Speculation. the freelancer writes what they think will sell, and offers it to the company. no contract is exchanged or agreed on prior to the final submission, although the freelancer generally will solicit feedback from the company to ensure that their product will meet the standards.

this i pretty much how most publishing companies work, with a few exceptions, mostly in the biggest companies. Palladium's situation is unique mainly in that they are rather larger in sales than many other RPG companies, while having staff numbers similar to many of the smaller companies.

[MADMANMIKE]

aside from kevin they only have maybe half a dozen permanent staff.

Half a dozen is the number if you include Kevin.

[Forar]

According to this page, it's 6, though I believe Henry has sadly passed away, which would bring them down to 5, but isn't Chuck now counted fully as staff? So yeah, back up to 6, if that list is (mostly) accurate.

Edit: the profile for Henry does indeed note his passing.

[Shark_Force]

don't think chuck is actually an employee in that sense. he's at the office a lot, but i think that's mostly just as a friend. as i understand it, he's a freelancer that happens to live in the area, drops in regularly, and does a lot of work for them.

[Carl Gleba]

Three Galaxies was about 40% complete when I approached Maryann. Back then PB was still accepting unsolicited submissions. She graciously accepted my proposal at a convention in Rochester NY. I was later contacted to ask when I could finish and the rest is history.

Kevin is great to work with, and he tells all his freelancers to cut loose and write. Most of us give Kevin a pitch for an idea. He might want to see some of it written first, but usually tells us to go for it. I was already writing Hades when I pitched him the Minion War. Kevin wanted an outline of each book and a rough time line.

Established freelancers sometimes get called to help with a project. I've been asked to help with a variety of books and loved being included in each.

[Warwolf]

In answer to the original question: None of it. We usually pitch our idea to Kev and he tells us whether we should proceed with development or not. Depending on the project he may or may not even assign us a deadline. Instead, he prefers us to take our time and produce the best quality manuscript we can manage. Once it's been submitted we don't usually see it again until publication. On some occasions we might be called on to expand, re-write, or revise a particular section of material but that's usually handled by the staff during editing.

don't think chuck is actually an employee in that sense. he's at the office a lot, but i think that's mostly just as a friend. as i understand it, he's a freelancer that happens to live in the area, drops in regularly, and does a lot of work for them.

Chuck was brought on as a full-fledged staffer last year if I'm not mistaken. Before that it was much as you describe, though.