Friday, March 6, 2015

Raven Warren - A Caution

Do you ever read market guidelines that set off warning bells in your head?  Over at Duotrope I found a listing for Raven Warren.  They're putting together an anthology called "Winning! A Guide to Games That Never Were".  Sounded like fun but the pay is only $5.  What bothered me is that on their about page they say that they specialize in game development.  The bells?  There's no listing of what rights they're buying.  I worry that since they're game developers that they might decide to develop one of the "imaginary" games into the real thing and if your rights aren't stated you might lose control of what happens to your story after publication.  If you decide to submit to this market be very sure of what rights you're granting this company.

4 comments:

G. B. Miller said...

I think anything posted in Duotrope should be taken with a grain of salt.

A couple of years ago, I complained about a dubious posting from a company called "Magic Cat Press", which ultimately seemed to be a front for collecting/stealing horror stories.

Got no response, not even a "Thank you".

I guess if you need money bad enough, you don't care who you accept it from.

sandra seamans said...

I always double check markets posted by Duotrope. As you said, they will post any available market without checking them out. Ralan.com has stopped posting non-paying markets and they seem to check out markets before posting.

But no matter who is doing the market posting every writer should check and double check the market they're submitting to.

Carolyn said...

I researched them and they seem to develop comic books and table top games, rather than video games, which bodes a bit better than being a video game developer. Still not sure about the rights, though.

sandra seamans said...

Yes, most publisher list the rights they're buying, which wasn't done in this case. Always best to be sure of what you're selling.