I recently had my second experience in non-RPG Work Made for Hire writing. My first experience, Transformers, didn’t prepare me for stepping full-scale into the industry. For those who are interested, I thought I’d share my experience.
The licensor put the word out through a writer’s organization that he was looking for short fiction writers. The requirements were stated up front. Stories would be fantasy genre and approximately 5000 words in length. Interested writers needed to submit 2-3 "audition" pieces to the licensor, along with a bio or shortened CV, for more information.
So I auditioned with published original pieces and received a fast response. The licensor was interested in having a story from me. He gave me an offer, a copy of the contract for review, a 50 page world-bible, and more detailed expectations for the story.
Lesson 1: Work Made For Hire isn’t mine.
Actually, I already knew this. I don’t own the characters, the world, or my story (once it’s accepted). In fact any characters or settings I create for my story belongs to the licensor for the rest of the copyright term. I can’t self-publish the story or submit it to another market.
The contract had terms I hadn’t seen before, though, which makes this worth mentioning. Mainly that I’m allowed to put my name on the work and let people know I wrote it. There are several licensed properties, like the Castle or Eureka novels, which require writers to use a house name. And in the case of the Hardy Boys, authors can’t even tell anyone they’ve written the book in order to preserve the "mystique" of the line.
Lesson 2: Know the story.
I’ve had to submit proposals before, but in this case, I had to submit a full outline with an ending by a specific deadline. Meaning I had two weeks to figure out what story I wanted to tell and how it would resolve itself. Also, the contract forbade writing the story before the outline was approved. Well, that makes sense. I’d hate to put in the effort for a 5k story only to have the basic premise rejected and have to start again.
Lesson 3: When in doubt, ask.
Just because it’s not in the bible doesn’t mean it’s forbidden or acceptable. If you’re not sure, or if the definition of something isn’t clear, ask. I wasted a good two weeks trying to work around a problem that didn’t exist (how magic worked) because I focused on one paragraph of the bible and believed it to be the One Statement of Truth. If I’d just asked the editor to clarify the issue, then I could have spent those two weeks writing instead of tearing my hair out.
…Continued tomorrow. I can promise this because I’ve already written it. @=)
