Monographs

[Trifletraxor]

Hi! Is there anyone of you who know what the deal is when you write a monograph for Chaosium? Is there a standard contract of sorts?

SGL.

[cjbowser]

There is no formally drawn up and signed contract. You write the material, lay it out, and send it to Chaosium. They then send you $250, which gives them the right to print and sell 500 copies.

[Trifletraxor]

That sounds good. But are there any restrictions? Do Chaosium reserve the right to further sales after the first 500? Could you sell it to other people too later through Lulu or something while Chaosium was still selling it, or make it available for download at some site? Or is it just as easy as $250 for the right to sell 500 copies?

SGL.

[cjbowser]

That sounds good. But are there any restrictions?

None that are spelled out in writing.

Do Chaosium reserve the right to further sales after the first 500?

Chaosium reserves the right to pay you another $250 for another 500 when the first 500 sell, or they reserve the right to have you turn it into a proper work. Examples of that are Mysteries of Morocco, which is becoming Secrets of Morocco and Cthulhu Invictus, which is becoming Cthulhu Invictus.

Could you sell it to other people too later through Lulu or something while Chaosium was still selling it, or make it available for download at some site? Or is it just as easy as $250 for the right to sell 500 copies?

SGL.

Those are questions for Dustin. The last time I checked, it was not explicitly spelled out in the submission guidelines what else you could do with the work while it was a monograph. Even though it didn't say one way or another, I figure it's better to ask permission than beg forgivness.

Here is the link to the Monograph Guidelines

I've done one complete monograph and participated in others, and I will tell you that doing one monograph all by yourself is hard work. You not only write it, but you have to edit it, copy edit it, source artwork, and lay it out.

[rust]

Could you sell it to other people too later through Lulu or something while Chaosium was still selling it, or make it available for download at some site?

While I think that you should of course ask Chaosium, it may be interesting

for you that Cthulhu Rising is available both as a Chaosium monograph and

as a free PDF.

[Puck]

I've done one complete monograph and participated in others, and I will tell you that doing one monograph all by yourself is hard work. You not only write it, but you have to edit it, copy edit it, source artwork, and lay it out.

Ouch! This does not sound as fun as it once did. I hope my outside help holds up for the little Green project.

This may sound like a stupid question, but what do you mean by copy edit?

[Trifletraxor]

While I think that you should of course ask Chaosium, it may be interesting for you that Cthulhu Rising is available both as a Chaosium monograph and as a free PDF.

Yes, I was thinking about CR, since it's the setting I'm currently gaming. The downloads are actually much more detailed than the monograph.

SGl.

[cjbowser]

Ouch! This does not sound as fun as it once did. I hope my outside help holds up for the little Green project.

This may sound like a stupid question, but what do you mean by copy edit?

Copy editing is the same thing as proof reading. You're going through the work to look for typos and grammatical errors. It's probably the most tedious part of the process because you know in the back of your mind that no matter how many times you go over something, you won't catch everything.

Luckily, I have a wife who does writing and editing for a living, so she helps me catch most of them.

[Newt]

Cthulhu Rising the monograph has been updated by the author, and should be out in revised form by Continuum in August.

I can attest that Proof reading /Copy editing is the hardest part of doing a RPG project of any size. The author of the piece should never attempt to do this himself. I definitely find that I get to the stage were I can't see the Wood for the Trees and have to pass it over to my Proofreaders. Its also amazing to see how they improve the piece.

[cjbowser]

I'd also add that I use external play testers as copy editors. Even if the scenario's in a draft state when I send it to them, I encourage them to point out any typos they find. Even if they only find one or two, that's one or two that won't make it into the book (provided I remember to incorporate their change :ohwell:)

[Puck]

Copy editing is the same thing as proof reading.

Oh, I see. Thanks, Yep, there is no way I can ever do any kind of good editing with my own writing until it is at least a few months after It has been written and even then I cannot do a very good job. It sure makes life easier to have someone who is a really good proofreader on your side.

While I think that you should of course ask Chaosium, it may be interesting

for you that Cthulhu Rising is available both as a Chaosium monograph and

as a free PDF.

That is odd. In Chaosium's reply to my submission for the Green they required that I remove it from the wiki before they could accept the proposal.

Part of the reason may be that I clearly told them that I had placed it on this site and asked if there were any issues. I wanted to be up front about that rather than run into any problems later on.

[PK Games]

That is odd. In Chaosium's reply to my submission for the Green they required that I remove it from the wiki before they could accept the proposal.

Part of the reason may be that I clearly told them that I had placed it on this site and asked if there were any issues. I wanted to be up front about that rather than run into any problems later on.

Yeah I told Dustin I would remove the GORE version of B61 from Lulu after I submitted the material to him. He said that was ok.

Since I own the intellectual property for B61 itis mine to do with as I please. Same as it is their choice to make it a monograph or not. Legally there i no contract saying I cant also release it as a GORE supplement at the same time. I wil however not do that as Id rather not disrespect Chaosium.

It may return as a GORE supplement at a later date however.

[Lingering_Dark]

Also should be noted that you neither have to supply your own artwork nor do you have to lay the monograph out yourself - you can, but given they only pay $250US per entire monograph, I let them do the layout and supply art themselves, which Chaosium seems happy to do.

[Charles Green]

but given they only pay $250US per entire monograph, I let them do the layout and supply art themselves, which Chaosium seems happy to do.

Oh, be careful with this. They told me the same thing about a monograhp I did for them, and they did next to nothing other than put the chapter headings in a new font and stick a stock picture on the cover.

[PK Games]

Oh, be careful with this. They told me the same thing about a monograhp I did for them, and they did next to nothing other than put the chapter headings in a new font and stick a stock picture on the cover.

What monograph was that and how long ago?

From what I understand they are trying to use the newer monographs to help promote and keep BRP floating.

[NickMiddleton]

What monograph was that and how long ago?

From what I understand they are trying to use the newer monographs to help promote and keep BRP floating.

My guess is that Charles is referring to Gods of Chaos, one of the earliest monographs (and the first Stormbringer one), which was published in the old tape bound b&w card stock cover format and looks to be printed from a proofing copy of the manuscript set in two-column courier throughout. It's not, by any stretch of the imagination, pretty - but the content is first rate. Visually it does suffer from comparison with the other two Stormbringer monographs (Charles' excellent Gods of Law and Richard Watts superb Old Hrolmar Guidebook) which were both designed out by Marcus Bone and which look superb as well as having cracking content.

Cheers,

Nick

[Lingering_Dark]

They seem to have gotten their graphic design act together on monographs more recently - what I've seen in the last few years has looked pretty good.

[Chaot]

It's not, by any stretch of the imagination, pretty - but the content is first rate.

Agreed! It's a fantastic book, and had Chaosium held onto the RC line, I would have loved to see Gods of Law/Chaos integrated into the main book. My three books for a EC game are Elric! and Charle's books.

...which were both designed out by Marcus Bone and which look superb as well as having cracking content.

Was Loz's Hawkmoon done by Marcus? Regardless, it's a lovely book as well. It's a shame that these monographs can't be reprinted.

[NickMiddleton]

Was Loz's Hawkmoon done by Marcus? Regardless, it's a lovely book as well. It's a shame that these monographs can't be reprinted.

No, Loz did the layout himself in Word IIRC - which just goes to show that you don't need fancy software to do a decent page layout, as Hawkmoon is up there with Old Hrolmar and Gods of Law in terms of layout as well as content.

Cheers,

Nick

[Nightshade]

No, Loz did the layout himself in Word IIRC - which just goes to show that you don't need fancy software to do a decent page layout, as Hawkmoon is up there with Old Hrolmar and Gods of Law in terms of layout as well as content.

Cheers,

Nick

Well, given that most modern word processing programs (at least commercial ones) are as much desk top publishing software as word processors anymore, that's not really a surprise.