Games Workshop looking for Freelance Writers

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**NewTruthNeomaxim**

Dentry wrote:
This wouldn't be a bad gig at all, really. I've never written professionally but wouldn't mind doing short fluff blurbs in periodicals, maybe short stories, too.

Might send them something wrought with horrible grammatical errors.

Lockark wrote:
I just got inprised to try and write a gakky space marine romance story as a joke. Realy this was probly only funny to me since I know i'm not a writer and no one on hand to proof read it for me.

Hah! Kudos.

As a "working" writer, let me just say that it is a harder life than you could ever imagine. It is also a profession which shocking numbers of people go, "well I could do that," without realizing what doing so entails.

Worst of all is being a family man on a writer and amateur game-designer's income. I've had years where I made six figures and paid off my morgage to years where I am functionally unemployed and make virtually nothing (and resort to copy-editing to scrape by).

If it wasn't a passion and true calling, no one sane would do this. :-p

**Th3 Gh0st**

DarkHound wrote:
I've got few couple suspicions. We have to take the two tests anyway, and a stock letter is appropriate for any reasonable submission. I suspect this is the best version of the letter and merely prepares us for rejection during the tests. They gave the replies in waves, so they'll probably give the tests in waves, and this letter gives them an intermediate period to prepare.

If there is a better version of the letter, I imagine it went to people who didn't want to push the boundaries and just gushed about Space Marines. Then again, I could see that getting the 'different topic' letter too.

Nope, when you don't receive an email basically telling you to change your topic of interest it looks like this:
Thank you for your interest in writing for Games Workshop.
Here is your test brief. You will have 7 days from today to complete both parts and submit them by replying to this email. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

I didn't gush about how uber cool spess mehreens were either though that probably would have saved me the half hour I spent writing the damned email of interest for the job

IDK if it would help, but if anyone wants I can PM them what I wrote.

**DarkHound**

Interesting. Definitely PM me your application. I'll send you mine as well.

**gorgon**

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Dentry wrote:
This wouldn't be a bad gig at all, really. I've never written professionally but wouldn't mind doing short fluff blurbs in periodicals, maybe short stories, too.

Might send them something wrought with horrible grammatical errors.

Lockark wrote:
I just got inprised to try and write a gakky space marine romance story as a joke. Realy this was probly only funny to me since I know i'm not a writer and no one on hand to proof read it for me.

Hah! Kudos.

As a "working" writer, let me just say that it is a harder life than you could ever imagine. It is also a profession which shocking numbers of people go, "well I could do that," without realizing what doing so entails.

Worst of all is being a family man on a writer and amateur game-designer's income. I've had years where I made six figures and paid off my morgage to years where I am functionally unemployed and make virtually nothing (and resort to copy-editing to scrape by).

If it wasn't a passion and true calling, no one sane would do this. :-p

I completely agree with the underlined, but I haven't found it to be nearly as unstable or difficult as you describe. Maybe it's the type of writing.

I'm an advertising copywriter, and I've had steady employment for many years. Of course, I've been working in internal agencies on the client side, and haven't been trying to make it on my own freelancing. The agency side can be more unstable, but my friends who do that seem to land on their feet. *shrug* I'd say that it's hard to break in and get taken seriously, but once you are, things change for you. The money can even be pretty good if you get experience in a specialized field like finance or pharma.

Anyway, I'll have to give this a look. Fiction writing isn't my regular thing, but working to a brief, to a specific word count, etc. is definitely in my wheelhouse.

**Jehan-reznor**

Would sending in some lyrics from gwar be ok?

Spoiler:

How about a story about a popular show on digi tv in 40K
12 people in the house and they have to find out who is the cultist, every week one gets voted off and executed
if the survivor is not the cultist, he/her may thank the emperor for his leniency, if the survivor is the cultist he will be send
to "the island" a luscious low security prison planet where he may reflect for the rest of his life. (off course when the camera goes off
the chaos cultist will be immolated in holy fire as thanks for his/her participation)

**H.B.M.C.**

gorgon wrote:
I completely agree with the underlined, but I haven't found it to be nearly as unstable or difficult as you describe. Maybe it's the type of writing.

It's the type of writing.

I've been working with FFG for the better part of 4 years now, but it's not something I can make a living off of. I still have a day job.

Wouldn't give it up for the world though. All the deadlines and word limits can't dull my interest.

**SpookyBoogie**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
gorgon wrote:
I completely agree with the underlined, but I haven't found it to be nearly as unstable or difficult as you describe. Maybe it's the type of writing.

It's the type of writing.

I've been working with FFG for the better part of 4 years now, but it's not something I can make a living off of. I still have a day job.

Wouldn't give it up for the world though. All the deadlines and word limits can't dull my interest.

That's it really if you really want to do it then you will regardless of if you are making a real living off of it. Most people just won't make anything at all and still need to keep a steady job. I've hardly had any writing jobs that paid. A lot of what i did was just helping friends out with their projects for the fun of it. If you want to write to make a ton of money you're going to be in for a shock.

**Dentry**

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
As a "working" writer, let me just say that it is a harder life than you could ever imagine. It is also a profession which shocking numbers of people go, "well I could do that," without realizing what doing so entails.

Worst of all is being a family man on a writer and amateur game-designer's income. I've had years where I made six figures and paid off my morgage to years where I am functionally unemployed and make virtually nothing (and resort to copy-editing to scrape by).

If it wasn't a passion and true calling, no one sane would do this. :-p

I wouldn't write to win any awards.

You make a wonderful point and I appreciate the reminder that what I might consider leisurely on-the-side writing is actually more demanding and involved than I'd like it to be. It sounds like you hit the jackpot with your love and game design and writing, nothing more stable than that, am I right?

**DarkHound**

I'd like to speculate about two things at this point: what our writing (assuming any of us make it) will be used for, and consequently what our prompts would be like. Those with freelance writing experience likely have a clearer picture than the rest of us.

**AnomanderRake**

DarkHound wrote:
I'd like to speculate about two things at this point: what our writing (assuming any of us make it) will be used for, and consequently what our prompts would be like. Those with freelance writing experience likely have a clearer picture than the rest of us.

Unit entry anecdotes in future Codexes? "Write me something about a Howling Banshee unit doing something awesome."

**H.B.M.C.**

That's the way I read it - the little bits between bigger bits of fluff, out boxes, call-outs, little blurbs, that kinda thing.

**hungryp**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
That's the way I read it - the little bits between bigger bits of fluff, out boxes, call-outs, little blurbs, that kinda thing.

Same here. Black Library does their own calls for submissions so I'd see this as being more about finding people to do the little bits of flavour text that go along with articles and codex entries and such.

**SpookyBoogie**

AnomanderRake wrote:
DarkHound wrote:
I'd like to speculate about two things at this point: what our writing (assuming any of us make it) will be used for, and consequently what our prompts would be like. Those with freelance writing experience likely have a clearer picture than the rest of us.

Unit entry anecdotes in future Codexes? "Write me something about a Howling Banshee unit doing something awesome."

Good chance it'd be something along those lines. Codices.Rulebooks,boxed set campaign books and those kind of things. They use short stories and timelines etc in those things. The brief will be something like explaining an event that happened in the history of the race and you need to flesh it out and turn it into a story that grips the reader and gives them a taste of the army.

They do just say that you will be added to a pool of writers though so really it could be anything that you can be called up for. Short stories in a Codex or Anthology to a full on Novel. Just best to be ready for anything they could throw at you and be able to turn that into something good quickly.

**Squidmanlolz**

Well, I haven't gotten a rejection email yet, so I'm holding on to hope.

**SpookyBoogie**

Not had an email yet I'd take a "thanks but you are not what we are looking for" the silence just makes it more depressing like they thought I was so bad it's not even worth replying to me

**Dicrel Seijin**

I've had this in the back of my mind for a few days now.

Last night I finally began drafting my 250 words. After the fourth revision, I really couldn't think of anything else to change, so I sent it in.

The waiting is kind of like waiting on submissions, so hopefully I'll forget about it in a few days and not stress in the mean time.

**Avatar 720**

Has anyone sent in the joke about the Black and White Space Marine on the Black and White Bike yet? I wouldn't mind seeing it in print--or rather, black and white.

**H.B.M.C.**

I was thinking about that joke the other day. That'd be pretty epic if they accepted that.

**DarkHound**

SpookyBoogie wrote:Not had an email yet I'd take a "thanks but you are not what we are looking for" the silence just makes it more depressing like they thought I was so bad it's not even worth replying to me

Squidmanlolz wrote:Well, I haven't gotten a rejection email yet, so I'm holding on to hope.

I've been waiting for a second email from them for a few days. They seem to be pretty busy, so I wouldn't worry about it.

**timetowaste85**

Morathi let her metal bikini slip to the floor with a clang as Malekith entered the room. He was her son, but she didn't let that deter her carnal needs.

...wait, that's not the kind of writing they want, is it?

**Runic**

That's actually pretty nice. Giving basically anyone an opportunity to write themselves into official stories.

**Slayer-Fan123**

I might submit something. I've been thinking about exploring the Mortifactors and Carcharodons in little short stories just for myself, BUT if GW wants to actually look at me.

**Squidmanlolz**

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
I might submit something. I've been thinking about exploring the Mortifactors and Carcharodons in little short stories just for myself, BUT if GW wants to actually look at me.

I'd avoid suggesting that you write on such a specific subject as two space marine chapters. This is probably not what GW is looking for. They'd probably be more pleased with an application that said you were looking to write about Space Marines in general than if you told them that you wanted to explore two chapters that aren't very well known.

**Lone Cat**

ClockworkZion wrote:
Thought some people might find this interesting.

http://jobs.games-workshop.com/2015/03/06/freelance-authors/

Freelance Authors
Posted on Friday 6 March, 2015

About the Job
Do you want to write fantastic fiction of the highest quality for Games Workshop products to tight deadlines?

Are you excited by describing the unique worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 through gripping stories with evocative battle scenes that are full of character, whilst adhering strictly to Games Workshop’s intellectual property?

You will be able to provide written fiction that will be used in Games Workshop products. This will be on a freelance basis, to agreed deadlines. You will need basic knowledge of Games Workshop’s intellectual property and a desire to learn more.

Other Essential Information
Closing date: We are always looking for new people who can do this job. Because of this, there is no closing date for this advert.

How to Apply
If you wish to apply you must send us an email telling us what you want to write about the worlds Games Workshop has created and why (no more than 250 words please). This is a great opportunity for you to let us know that you understand what we are looking for.

We don’t need to know how long you have been in the hobby (if you are enthusiastic about writing fiction we’ll take that as a given) or your writing credentials (complete novices or Pulitzer prize winners are equally welcome). We want to know which part of the IP you are going to explore and why.

We will then ask you to complete two tests for us and, if successful, you will join our freelance author pool. All our correspondence will be via email. Because of the potential volume of responses, we cannot guarantee to respond to every application. However, we will endeavour to respond to successful applicants within 30 days of your application.

Please send your application letter to [EMAIL="freelanceauthorsubmissions@gwplc.com"]freelanceauthorsubmissions@gwplc.com[/EMAIL].

Is another prerequisite includes that an applicant is able to visit GW HQ in a regular basis? and is this the job position for WD magazine?
And what should I put into a resume' ?

**H.B.M.C.**

Lone Cat wrote:
Is another prerequisite includes that an applicant is able to visit GW HQ in a regular basis? and is this the job position for WD magazine?
And what should I put into a resume' ?

Read the post you quoted. Literally every question you have is answered.

**Smellingsalts**

They have plenty of people who want to write about 40K. No, if you really want to write for GW then you should come up with a story that details how the Warhammer Fantasy world can still exist after the Chaos Gods broke it down on a molecular level and undid space and time.

**ClockworkZion**

Smellingsalts wrote:
They have plenty of people who want to write about 40K. No, if you really want to write for GW then you should come up with a story that details how the Warhammer Fantasy world can still exist after the Chaos Gods broke it down on a molecular level and undid space and time.

They already have that hook and likely the story too.

Or something to that sort.

Fantasy would be a hard one to jump in on right now, be better to apply after 9th drops if you want to write about WFB.

**Smellingsalts**

Actually, the sarcasm of my first post aside, I think if you told them that you enjoy writing about swords and sorcery as opposed to bolt guns, you might have a better chance at getting hired. They are going to need story tellers to create and populate a whole new world. If they were to hire writers, I am sure that they would give them an outline of the new Warhammer, as well as ironclad nondisclosure forms.

**Inevitable_Faith**

This is actually pretty exciting, I think I'll throw my name in the bin and see what happens. Hell even if I get to write a few of the "Thought for the day, Imperial mind control verses" they have at the bottom of almost ever BRB page I'd be pretty stoked.

**Sidstyler**

Smellingsalts wrote:
Actually, the sarcasm of my first post aside, I think if you told them that you enjoy writing about swords and sorcery as opposed to bolt guns, you might have a better chance at getting hired. They are going to need story tellers to create and populate a whole new world. If they were to hire writers, I am sure that they would give them an outline of the new Warhammer, as well as ironclad nondisclosure forms.

That's a good point, in my opinion. Everyone's talking about writing 40k fiction but I think maybe the reason GW is doing this is because they need help rebuilding WHF.