Portfolios

[CrazyIvan]

This question may belong in the freelancers forum, but I figured since this is where all the big fancy publishers who sit in big dark rooms smoking cigars and cutting checks (*cough*yeahright*cough*) lurk, I'll pitch the question here:

What are you looking for in a writing portfolio?

There you are, simple question that i've never gotten a straight answer to.

[Aries]

Originally posted by CrazyIvan
This question may belong in the freelancers forum, but I figured since this is where all the big fancy publishers who sit in big dark rooms smoking cigars and cutting checks (*cough*yeahright*cough*) lurk, I'll pitch the question here:

What are you looking for in a writing portfolio?

There you are, simple question that i've never gotten a straight answer to.

Most of the time they are looking for clips of your writing so they can see an example of your writing style, ability.

[CrazyIvan]

Well, I gathered that much. What I mean is:

Your RPG publishers, do you want to see predominantly RPG related material, such as character sketches, or overall writing, which could include things like short fiction and poetry.

Helpful responces would be something like "if you sent us everything you have that's any good, we could care less about X". Stating that you want to see writing is pretty self-explainatory.

[James Wallis]

Character sketches? No.

Don't send character sketches, unless you're asking for work in a book of character sketches. Don't send part of a dungeon with room descriptions, unless that's what you're trying to sell. Don't send new spells, magic items or monsters unless you know what's what the publisher is looking for. In my experience all of those things are pretty easy to create and write, and don't prove much about the author's ability.

At Hogshead, we ask for at least a thousand words of coherent text, either describing part of an adventure or an area of game-background. We're careful about what we ask for, and if people send us something else then we throw their submission away. Rule number one: read the writer's guidelines, and follow them. Rule two: obey rule one. Rule three: if rules one and two are unclear, contact the publisher and ask questions.