It's been really interesting seeing folks share numbers from #publishingpaidme and #TabletopPaidMe. I haven't been in the industry very long, but I've gotten to see a fair bit of the back-end and I wanted to share my experience.
First, a little background. I'm a 33yo white cis man. I've got a MA and PhD in English Lit with lots of experience in the digital humanities and graphic design and an additional BA in Journalism. I started working part time on design in graduate school about 6 years ago.
When I started off, I was supporting my wife and kids on about 20k a year (the grad stipend at the time). We usually used about 5k of credit card debt each year to stay above water which we zeroed out using our tax refund. Game design didn't pay much, but it really did help.
The first project I was on Eklund's Greenland, where I helped develop and did a lot of testing. Didn't get paid anything, though it did lead to some graphic design jobs where I made about 300 dollars.
For Pax Pamir 1e, I made a royalty paid at the moment of printing that amounted to 1,200 + 500 bucks as a flat fee for all of my graphic design. I did all of the design and graphic design for the game.
There was a similar arrangement for the game's expansion Khyber Knives, though I remember making a little less. Perhaps 600 dollars or so.
Then came Infamous Traffic. I got a great royalty from @tomandmary and I would guess that I made between 3-4k on the design over three years. Though the run wasn't huge, the royalty structure they use is very friendly for designers working in small print run games.
Again, these aren't huge amounts of money, but for a broke grad student, they really helped. With John Company, I renegotiated with Phil for a 10% royalty because (1) I had a little rep, (2) I would handle all development and editorial work, and (3) I would do the graphics.
There were no advances, but I got paid around 10k for the game, after the game arrived in the US and it was selling well. All told, I think it took about 10-20 hours of work weekly for a year to get it across the finish line.
Meanwhile, I got hired at Leder. My first salary was 40k, no benefits. We were a very small company then and there was a lot up in the air. @PatrickLeder was generous and helped me zero some credit card debt left over from the move and some grad school things.
With every project, there have been good raises and a very equitable bonus system. The bonuses were high enough that I was able to save up for a down payment for a house in a single year. My salary at Leder is now ~77k and includes benefits.
My role at Leder has grown quite a bit. I've moved into more of managerial/project manager role as the company is grown, but I still have space to do design and write about games.
The bonus structure at Leder is a little different than most companies. We don't do royalties for internal projects but instead have a kind of bonus pool so that everyone profits when we do well. It's incredibly gracious and forward-thinking and I'm proud to work here.
Lastly, my brother and I founded @wehrlegig a couple years back to handle the publication/republication of my historical games. If there's one thing I've learned from the industry, it's that the most money is made at the publisher level.
If you want to survive in this industry, my best advise is to develop and broaden your skill base, espeically the sorts of things that are "owned" by the publishers (graphic design, production management, sales, marketing, business strategy).
Drew and I built Wehrlegig to be a 2-person operation. This allows us capture a bigger chunk of the revenue which lets us pay our contractors more money and make sure that we have plenty of financial runway for risky projects.
It's a little hard to figure out exactly how much money Pamir has made for our company, because there are a lot of moving parts and it's too soon to tell, but I will say that it's enough for both of us to draw a salary (~30k) and allow for Drew to quit his day job to go full time
We also are using a portion of revenue to help with our 401ks and get our financial planning where it should be. Much of this cash is the result of about 3 years of unpaid work in getting things ready, but the company has allowed us to capitalize on that work.
Within a few years, I hope to have our company in a pretty safe space where we can sustain a game or two that doesn't do well. I would also love to have eliminated my student debt and have my house more-or-less paid for in a decade or so. Those are just far off goals for now.
I'll say finally too that I've been incredibly lucky. I've benefited in countless ways from good mentors, my education, and my privilege. It's also taken a lot of hustle and a lot of big risks. It's always easy to minimize those things when looking back.
But, I hope in a small way this is helpful. Don't let anyone tell you there isn't money to be made in this industry. Any industry that can support huge events like GenCon and multi-million dollar crowdfunding campaigns can afford to pay its workers equitably.
Correction: closer to 6k (kudos to @tomandmary ) Amazing how even when I'm trying to be transparent I still find my memory low-balling how much money was made.
Small evening addendum. First, I should clarify that I shared all of this in the hopes that it would encourage others in the industry to share their experiences and hopefully bring to bear some of the staggering pay discrepancies that exist in publishing.
For many years I taught at a small cram school. Each six months I would ask for a raise and it was almost always given. After working there for many years, I learned that several in my cohort had never had their pay increased simply because they didn't ask.
As freelance graphic designer, I charged far too little for years because I didn't value my own labor. I higher wages were for lawyers and doctors only. It took a university contract with fixed rates to make me realize that the $20 bucks I charged was almost criminally low.
I'll add too a clarification about Wehrlegig games and my income. Root was a massive hit, probably the best selling hobby game of it's year. And I think in the final calculus I will have probably made considerably more money from Pamir.
Why? Because owning your own publishing company is everything. Drew and I are both extremely cautious folks and so we haven't drawn much from the project, but seeing the numbers up close, it clear how much publishers take in, espeically in the world of Kickstarter.
Most companies (my own included) build their business model to heavily mitigate any kind of risk and to protect potential profits. If I'm being charitable, I'd say this is a good way to allow us to take other kinds of risks and to pay folks better for their contributions.
But, it's equally easy not to do that and to just take a big piece of the pie for yourself. So, when your talking with publishers, espeically if you are bringing your own team/audience to a project, understand that you have a huge amount of bargaining power.
I thought higher wages**
