This is the same proposal I've e-mailed you, preserved here for reference.

RPGevolution: A Proposal

I, Clinton R. Nixon, am interested in restarting the web-based independent magazine I started in 2000, RPGevolution. After two issues, publication of the magazine stopped because of time constraints and a lack of articles. Here is my proposal to make it work this time.

Changes
In order to get content, pay hosting fees, and generate interest, I’m planning on changing the model for the magazine significantly. Here’s the main points of what the magazine will be:

The magazine will be hosted on the Forge at http://www.indie-rpgs.com/rpge/. It will be very loosely associated with the Forge – it will have a forum there for article discussion.



• The magazine will support independent games. Articles will either introduce a new independent game, support an independent game (rules add-ons, adventures, etc), talk about roleplaying theory, or review an independent game.
• Note that when I say independent game, I mean “a game that is owned by its author.” That’s the very loose definition of the term which will apply to the magazine. (Note that it does not have to be published by its author, just owned by its author. Because of this, games like Underworld (1st edition) and Unknown Armies count as indie games under this definition.) In addition, articles may be published about open systems, like d20 or Fudge.
• All articles will be owned solely by their authors. Contributors will – if they decide to – get paid for their articles.
• The magazine will come out every two months.
• Articles will be published as PDF documents, available to view for free. The documents can not be cut and pasted from, changed, or printed without payment.
• The presentation will be quite different than any current model. Each article is in its own separate PDF document. Every article can be viewed in its entirety for free. If a customer wants to print the article, they will have to pay a small fee for it, which will go directly to the author. When the article is bought, the customer will immediately receive a way to print the article.



Article Content
Like I said above, all articles will be:
- Independent game support (to include d20 or Fudge support)
- A new independent game
- Talk about roleplaying theory
- Independent game reviews

Independent game support is a bit tricky, in that we will not publish an article based off a game unless we have permission from the game’s author. We will be contacting authors of some independent games to get blanket permission. If we do not have permission, contributors must obtain permission before submitting the article.

Submissions and Ownership
Anyone can submit content. I, as editor, will read all submissions and decide which ones to accept. These will then be sent back to their authors with editing notes and will be published on final submission.

The authors will own their articles at all times, giving RPGevolution the one time right to publish them online as a PDF. If the author ever needs the article taken down (if, for example, they sell their article to a game company that wants the online version removed), I will work with the author to do that.

If you want art with your article, provide it. I will be working to get a few “staff artists” – people you can contact to make art for you for cheap or for free.

You get to choose at submission time whether you want your article to be free or paid. If you choose to get paid, you will receive a set amount of money per article sold, as detailed below.

Pay Structure
Paid articles will cost the customer an amount depending on their page count.

The minimum cost will be $1.00, and the maximum cost $4.00. Articles cost $0.25/page, rounded to the half-dollar.

Examples:
A two-page article would be $1.00. (2 x 0.25 = 0.50, but the minimum is 1.00.)
A seven-page article would be $2.00. (7 x 0.25 = 1.75, but we round to the half-dollar, so 2.00.)
A 20-page article would be $4.00 (20 x 0.25 = 5.00, but the maximum is 4.00.)

We will be using PayPal to sell articles, so a fee will be deducted of $0.30 + 2.9% per article sold. (There is an additional 1% for international buyers.) I have precalculated your actual income for each price range below:

$1.00 -> $0.67
$1.50 -> $1.15
$2.00 -> $1.64
$2.50 -> $2.12
$3.00 -> $2.61
$3.50 -> $3.09
$4.00 -> $3.58

It’s not a lot, but it’s something. I will send out checks detailing sales to all contributors at the end of each month. I will also provide a way to see your sales online.

Buying the whole magazine
I’m thinking of including an option for customers to buy an entire issue. In that case, the price will be $0.12/page. This will be split among all contributors based on the percentage of pages they contributed.

Example:
A 60-page magazine costs $7.20. The profit is $6.69 after PayPal fees.

If Writer A contributed 5 pages, Writer B contributed 10, Writer C contributed 15, and Writer D contributed 30, they would get:

A -> $0.55
B -> $1.11
C -> $1.67
D -> $3.34

Again, it’s not a lot. I think this option should be given to customers, but since it means cutting contributors’ profits, I want your opinions on this.

Free vs. Print version
I am a bit torn on how to distribute the paid versions of articles that customers are allowed to print. I have two options:
a) allow them to download a separate version of the PDF that is printable.
b) give them a password to unlock the free version of the PDF.

The pros of (a) are that piracy will be harder in that PDF’s are slightly bulky, so people may be loathe to just e-mail them around. The con is that it will equal double the downloads, increasing bandwidth.

With (b), piracy may be slightly higher because of the ease of sharing a password with someone. However, bandwidth will be lower.

I really want people’s opinions on how this will work. My present feelings are that bandwidth has gotten cheap and CD burners are everywhere, so whoever’s going to pirate is going to no matter what. We might as well save the time and just send them passwords. If anyone has thoughts on this, please let me know.

Hosting Fees and Such
As with the Forge, I will be paying hosting fees for the site. Downloading PDF’s will take a lot of bandwidth, and probably increase fees. I’ve thought of three ways to cover hosting fees:
a) I take 10% of sales. I don’t really like this option.
b) I take first sale. That is – if you sell 2, 10, or 100 copies of your article, I get the profit from the very first sale. I like this – it’s fair to everyone, and has this whole Old Testament feel.
c) I sale ads. This, I think, won’t work and sucks. Still, I may sell “text ads” (see Google for good examples.) These don’t bug anyone, and I would only sell them to independent game companies.

Provide opinions on what you’d like to see done here. I realize the most popular opinion will be “send me, the contributor, all my cash.”

Publication schedule
Like I said before, once every two months. Here’s what a schedule might look like:

January 1 – Issue 1
February 1 – Deadline for issue 2 submissions
March 1 – Issue 2
April 1 – Deadline for issue 3 submissions
May 1 – Issue 3
etc.

I may, if things get hectic, farm out some editing/submission reading.

Endnote
I really think this will work – RPGevolution was extremely popular, and I was sad to see it go. The independent game scene could really profit from having this sort of support, and I think the model I propose has a real punk-rock ethos – you write it, you get paid, I help you publish it. It’s meant to be a meritocracy – the more people use your content, the more money you make.

I need to say that I doubt any of us will make much money, and to be honest, that’s not the point. I’m only doing it this way because I’m aware that contributors will quit after a few months if they don’t get anything, and because I do feel that independent games deserve respect, especially in terms of payment.

If you read this proposal and like it, and want to be involved, e-mail me at crnixon@anvilwerks.com. I will be setting up a private forum at the Forge to discuss it further.

Clinton R Nixon wrote:
Note that when I say independent game, I mean “a game that is owned by its author.” That’s the very loose definition of the term which will apply to the magazine. (Note that it does not have to be published by its author, just owned by its author. Because of this, games like Underworld (1st edition) and Unknown Armies count as indie games under this definition.) In addition, articles may be published about open systems, like d20 or Fudge.