Over at Walker’s Study, Bradford Walker informs authors about the pros and cons of work for hire projects. Here’s Bradford:
I’m talking about this because, if you are at all serious about paying bills by writing fiction, then you’re going to consider taking Work For Hire contracts. That’s you as a hired gun, and you’re not only following the orders of the paymaster, you’re also using their material to do your work. You are using your skills as a creator to produce product that the paymaster owns, and (by default) get no residuals after the fact; if you do your part, you get paid and have something to point to for future Work For Hire contracts.
Yet you are on the hook, so far as the audience cares, for anything in that book. Just as R.A. Salvatore about having a moon dropped on Chewbacca in Vector Prime. It’s one thing to get flak over something that is utterly yours. It’s something else to get it when all you did was follow another’s orders, which is what you’re doing when you’re writing Darth Vader.
The other problem comes from your hired gun status also. Be it writing a novel, a script, or whatever you’re not the shot-caller; you have some wigging room, but you’re still just someone else’s tool used to make their vision happen. Sometimes that means you get stuck facilitating something that doesn’t make narrative sense because it’s good for business (such as all the Vader and Fett stuff), and it becomes your job to make it work as they intend- to use your creative skills to trouble-shoot their problem.
If you get a reasonable liason representing the property owner, this can be mostly painless; by all accounts, Christie Golden’s relationship with Blizzard Entertainment was fantastic (she’s now on the payroll as an employee) and Timothy Zahn continues to have a good one with Lucasfilm. Likewise, poor ones can be disastrous; bail as soon as you can and never go back.
So, if you get an opportunity to get hired to write sanctioned fan-fic for a property, don’t turn it down out of hand; it worked well for Jon del Arroz, Jeff Grubb, Timothy Zahn, Richard Knack, R.A. Salvatore, and many others- Walter B. Gibson being the most successful example. Take the bad experiences as the cautions that they are, and watch for the red flags. Writer Beware, but Fortune Favors The Bold.
Bradford’s take is right on the money in my experience. Whether it’s Superman or the Thrawn Trilogy, some of the greatest pieces of popular entertainment have been produced on a work for hire basis.
Authors who have thus far written only original content–especially indies–are well advised to understand that accepting a job as the writer of a work made for hire differs considerably from the more free-form approach they’re used to.
I use the word “writer” on purpose. An author is by definition the ultimate authority over a given work. The writer of a work made for hire answers to the parties that commissioned the work. You may have more or less creative leeway depending on the original IP holder, but if creative differences arise, it’s the writer who must make compromises, period.
Bradford is also correct that work for hire jobs can be lucrative. But there’s always a price; in this case, reduced creative control and often reduced author brand-building value. Time spent working on a project for someone else is time not spent working on your own IPs.
If you’re approached with a work for hire offer, consider the terms carefully, weigh the potential monetary benefits against the cost in time that won’t be spent working on your brand, and make the best choice for your current situation.
My original, award-winning Soul Cycle series is available now for Kindle and in paperback. Read the first three exciting books in time for the final installment’s release later this fall!
