Erik Does an Interview
Last week I received an email from a reader in high school. A class assignment asked him to interview someone he admired, and for reasons I can't fully explain he chose me. My answers to his questions ended up giving a pretty solid snapshot of my approach and feelings about my job and my life (or are those different things after all?), so I thought I'd share them here for the edification of all.
Thank you very much for your fast response, and thanks especially for agreeing to answer my questions! I know you have a busy schedule, so I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. Please send me a response to these questions whenever you get a chance!
No problem. As you can probably tell by how long it's taken me to get back to you, the most important element of the magazine production business is that it works at a furious pace, and there's not often a lot of time for answering personal emails and the like. The deadline is like a constantly ravenous beast, and it must be fed regularly to the exclusion of almost anything else. I hope this reaches you in time for your assignment.
What first interested you in game design?
I was in second grade when my cousin introduced me to an unusual game played with unusual dice. He and his friends (all of them about five years older than me) sat around a table for hours laughing, rolling dice, and exploring a fantastic world that really existed only in their imagination. I was already completely obsessed with my Star Wars action figures at the time, and I think the idea of codified rules for imagination appealed to me, as did the fact that multiple kids were engaged in the same fantasy for a long period of time, and no one seemed bored.
The adventure they were playing that day remains one of my favorites even decades later--the infamous "Village of Hommlet." The cover image of a group of worried adventurers being attacked by a pack of ghouls in a dark room filled with pillars still stays with me. The evocative cover and interior art of those early Dungeons & Dragons books are probably responsible for my life-long interest in book production and graphic design, as well.
How did you get into the game design business?
In 1995, I attended my first roleplaying convention, Twin Con, in Minneapolis, Minnesota (where I grew up). Honestly, it was a mixed bag, since many of the D&D tournaments I played there seemed to have been created in a haphazard fashion with little attention to what makes a fun RPG experience. I remember leaving the convention in a cloud of frustration, and I even scribbled some not-so-nice comments about one of the adventures in the scoring paperwork required by the convention organizer. I hadn't intended to ever attend a convention again after that experience, but I soon received a call from the event organizer telling me that I'd won a special raffle for a free dagger designed by a local artisan. In addition to the real weapon, my character was to receive a special certificate for a magic item I could use in future convention tournaments. To make matters worse, the event organizer who had arranged the special raffle and set up the D&D part of the convention actually wrote the adventure I'd savaged in my review, which made things extra embarrassing.
To smooth over my social faux pas and because I wanted a chance to use this special item, I decided to go to another convention, where I had a great time and met a number of folks who would go on to become close friends. Eventually, I decided to write a few tournaments of my own, and from there I applied for a job to edit Polyhedron, the official magazine of the RPGA (Role-Playing Game Association), in the summer of 1999. I got the job and flew out to Seattle, where I still live.
Was editing a magazine your first choice of career?
Yes. I've edited magazines continuously since 11th grade and went to college specifically to study the magazine business, so yeah, I'd say magazine editing was my first career choice. It seems to have worked out well so far.
What would your ideal job be?
The one I have now with fewer financial restraints, more staff, and a better salary. A personal masseuse would be much appreciated. Actually, the truth of the matter is that the monthly grind of the magazine business can be invigorating, but eventually something's got to give. You know how presidents seem to age 5 years for every 1 year they spend in the Oval Office? The magazine business is kind of like that, but instead of gray hair you just gain a couple of pant sizes and high blood pressure. While I really love what I'm doing right this minute, it will get old eventually. I'm very interested in moving into full-time writing eventually, either as a novelist or a graphic novelist.
How did you go from playing D&D as a hobby to becoming editor-in-chief of two magazines at Paizo? What was the progression from game design to editing, and how did you achieve it?
I had the Polyhedron job for about two years before Wizards of the Coast sold itself to Hasbro and business life changed from endless joy about how cool your job was to endless horror about who was going to get laid off next or when the company was going to get moved to a different state. With the hindsight of a few years a lot of those fears were unfounded (Wizards is still in the same building where I worked in 1999), but the constant layoffs really drained the fun out of that place for a couple of solid years. During that time, the RPGA's budget was gutted, the long-standing Polyhedron subscription member benefit was stripped so that they could offer RPGA memberships for free (and so there would be less expectation on behalf of the members, who up until then had paid $20 for membership and rightfully expected good service in return), and Polyhedron was eventually kicked upstairs to Wizards of the Coast's periodicals department, which was at the time busy with Dragon and Dungeon magazines, the official mass market magazines of the D&D hobby. Polyhedron became a section of Dungeon, and shortly thereafter Wizards of the Coast decided it didn't want to be in the magazine business, and spun off the periodicals group into its own publishing concern, Paizo Publishing, LLC.
About a year after that, the editor-in-chief of Dungeon left the company to pursue other opportunities, and I assumed the helm. About a year after that, I took over Dragon as well, and I'm now running both magazines with a staff of five editors and three graphic designers.
What's the best way to break into the industry?
Write articles for Dragon and Dungeon. Three or four times a year, the design managers over at Wizards of the Coast call me up and say "who's working out? Who seems right for a Wizards product?" They don't always go with my suggestions, but it's no surprise that most of the freelancers working at Wizards (and a lot of the full-timers over there, for that matter) got their start in Dragon or Dungeon.
Also, and this should go without saying, you've got to play the game regularly to really know what you're talking about. Understand the rules, but also understand what makes a compelling story within the context of D&D (whether it be a character option, a plot point, or whatever) and think about how to translate those concepts to rules that will work well with the existing body of material already written for the game.
Lastly, there's almost no money to be made in this tiny and increasingly shrinking industry, so get used to the taste of ramen and generic soda. Especially for the first few years of your game industry "career," these things will be your dietary staples.
What kind of education do you have? What kind of education would you suggest for someone going into freelance writing or game design? What about for working in publishing?
I have a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, in Boston. I strongly suggest an education that focuses on the English language and literature. The school you choose should offer classes on publishing and editing as well as the standard literature courses (which are also important). Look for a school that will help you become a better writer, but don't neglect the other liberal arts or even scientific courses. You'd be surprised what a wide body of knowledge can contribute to a game or magazine article, and people who only study how to write often have nothing interesting to say. Don't be one of those people.
What experience is needed for a job like yours?
Several years of editorial experience with a professional publication plus at least a couple of years in the trenches on these magazines specifically would be helpful. College is a must unless you're a brilliant self-taught prodigy, which I suppose is possible. Published credits in our magazines or similar venues would be a huge plus. Obviously, fluency with the Dungeons & Dragons rules and a deep, almost obsessive command of the English language are necessities.
Exactly what do you do at Paizo right now? What is a typical day like in your job?
Today I made sure that all of the finished files for Dungeon #129 went to our prepress manager so that she can package them and send them to the printer on Monday. I then had a lunch meeting with a prominent game designer to discuss an upcoming project that will adapt the novels and a furiously popular modern fantasy novelist to the D&D game. I'm aiming for a 20,000-word feature to be published some time late next year, so a lot of planning is going into it. I then came back to the office, and a business team meeting where we discussed circulation trends and general Paizo business, and I spent the rest of the day reading emails and line editing printouts of articles for the next issue of Dragon.
What would you say are the pros and cons of your job?
There's not enough time in the day to make things perfect. That's the con, and is basically the worst thing about the magazine business. No matter how many times you edit something, it could always be better with one more editorial pass. But there just isn't always time, which can be very frustrating.
The best part of the job is that two times a month I receive a nice, shiny 100-page bit of proof that I existed. Whenever I wonder what it is I've been doing with myself over the last couple years, I can glance at my bookshelf and say "oh, yeah. That's what I was doing."
How do you decide what content makes it into the magazines and what must be left out?
We're looking for new ideas presented in a compelling manner. It sounds easy, but you'd be surprised. The "new" element is probably the most important, because it's the easiest for us to spot. If we've just run an article on pole arms, we're not in the market for another one. A lot of authors have no idea what articles we've accepted but not yet printed, so we get a surprising number of "double" submissions from authors positioned all over the world.
We've posted extensive submission guidelines on our website (paizo.com), so anyone seriously considering writing for the magazine would do well to read them, learn them, and very possibly love them.
In your time working in this industry, and especially as editor, what qualities do you see in those authors that not only make it into the magazines, but also move on to working in the gaming business?
The ability to write to a specific word count and the ability to hit deadlines is critical, but the authors who end up moving on into the professional game industry are often the ones who are willing to give up the hope of a good, lucrative career for the opportunity to play with numbers and goblins and stuff. It also helps if you have a wife or a husband with a good job. I only wish I were kidding.
There's a huge variety of articles in both Dungeon and Dragon. What's the most interesting article you've ever featured?
I love all my children equally. Honestly, I'm very proud of the twelve-installment "Age of Worms Adventure Path," which we're currently running in Dungeon magazine. I contributed the first adventure, as well as the 10,000-word outline we provided to all of the authors currently working on the series. It's been a tremendous amount of work, but thus far reader response has been very encouraging.
What inspires your work?
I read nonfiction voraciously, and I love to riff off of real world "weird history," like ancient mysteries and unusual crimes. The world is full of inspiration, from the people you pass on the street to obscure facts and names tucked into forgotten history books to the latest cutting-edge fiction. Soak it all in, mix it up in your head, and spit it out on paper.
What kinds of things do you do in your free time? What kinds of books do you read?
I don't honestly have a lot of free time, but when I do get some time away from work or freelance writing I like to explore the beautiful city of Seattle, go to concerts, drink myself silly, and all the other things boys do.
As for reading, I have a wide interest in history, politics, art, the occult, and circus freaks. I've read extensively on those subjects, and I tend to buy books like a lot of women buy shoes. I don't read as much fiction as I should, but my favorite authors right now are China Mieville and Grant Morrison.
Authors are always saying to just keep on submitting articles and stories if you want to become a professional writer. Do you have any other advice for aspiring writers?
Be very familiar with the magazines you're pitching. Know what sorts of articles the editor seems to be looking for, and most importantly know what regular features (or "departments") appear every issue. These items are often the easiest door to getting into the magazine.
Write every day. Keep your mind open to good ideas, and keep a notebook nearby at all times. Keep it close to your bed, so that when you have a great idea in the middle of the night or just before you go to sleep you can capture it before sleep overtakes you.
Listen. Take notes. Be remembered.
Thank you very much for your fast response, and thanks especially for agreeing to answer my questions! I know you have a busy schedule, so I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. Please send me a response to these questions whenever you get a chance!
No problem. As you can probably tell by how long it's taken me to get back to you, the most important element of the magazine production business is that it works at a furious pace, and there's not often a lot of time for answering personal emails and the like. The deadline is like a constantly ravenous beast, and it must be fed regularly to the exclusion of almost anything else. I hope this reaches you in time for your assignment.
What first interested you in game design?
I was in second grade when my cousin introduced me to an unusual game played with unusual dice. He and his friends (all of them about five years older than me) sat around a table for hours laughing, rolling dice, and exploring a fantastic world that really existed only in their imagination. I was already completely obsessed with my Star Wars action figures at the time, and I think the idea of codified rules for imagination appealed to me, as did the fact that multiple kids were engaged in the same fantasy for a long period of time, and no one seemed bored.
The adventure they were playing that day remains one of my favorites even decades later--the infamous "Village of Hommlet." The cover image of a group of worried adventurers being attacked by a pack of ghouls in a dark room filled with pillars still stays with me. The evocative cover and interior art of those early Dungeons & Dragons books are probably responsible for my life-long interest in book production and graphic design, as well.
How did you get into the game design business?
In 1995, I attended my first roleplaying convention, Twin Con, in Minneapolis, Minnesota (where I grew up). Honestly, it was a mixed bag, since many of the D&D tournaments I played there seemed to have been created in a haphazard fashion with little attention to what makes a fun RPG experience. I remember leaving the convention in a cloud of frustration, and I even scribbled some not-so-nice comments about one of the adventures in the scoring paperwork required by the convention organizer. I hadn't intended to ever attend a convention again after that experience, but I soon received a call from the event organizer telling me that I'd won a special raffle for a free dagger designed by a local artisan. In addition to the real weapon, my character was to receive a special certificate for a magic item I could use in future convention tournaments. To make matters worse, the event organizer who had arranged the special raffle and set up the D&D part of the convention actually wrote the adventure I'd savaged in my review, which made things extra embarrassing.
To smooth over my social faux pas and because I wanted a chance to use this special item, I decided to go to another convention, where I had a great time and met a number of folks who would go on to become close friends. Eventually, I decided to write a few tournaments of my own, and from there I applied for a job to edit Polyhedron, the official magazine of the RPGA (Role-Playing Game Association), in the summer of 1999. I got the job and flew out to Seattle, where I still live.
Was editing a magazine your first choice of career?
Yes. I've edited magazines continuously since 11th grade and went to college specifically to study the magazine business, so yeah, I'd say magazine editing was my first career choice. It seems to have worked out well so far.
What would your ideal job be?
The one I have now with fewer financial restraints, more staff, and a better salary. A personal masseuse would be much appreciated. Actually, the truth of the matter is that the monthly grind of the magazine business can be invigorating, but eventually something's got to give. You know how presidents seem to age 5 years for every 1 year they spend in the Oval Office? The magazine business is kind of like that, but instead of gray hair you just gain a couple of pant sizes and high blood pressure. While I really love what I'm doing right this minute, it will get old eventually. I'm very interested in moving into full-time writing eventually, either as a novelist or a graphic novelist.
How did you go from playing D&D as a hobby to becoming editor-in-chief of two magazines at Paizo? What was the progression from game design to editing, and how did you achieve it?
I had the Polyhedron job for about two years before Wizards of the Coast sold itself to Hasbro and business life changed from endless joy about how cool your job was to endless horror about who was going to get laid off next or when the company was going to get moved to a different state. With the hindsight of a few years a lot of those fears were unfounded (Wizards is still in the same building where I worked in 1999), but the constant layoffs really drained the fun out of that place for a couple of solid years. During that time, the RPGA's budget was gutted, the long-standing Polyhedron subscription member benefit was stripped so that they could offer RPGA memberships for free (and so there would be less expectation on behalf of the members, who up until then had paid $20 for membership and rightfully expected good service in return), and Polyhedron was eventually kicked upstairs to Wizards of the Coast's periodicals department, which was at the time busy with Dragon and Dungeon magazines, the official mass market magazines of the D&D hobby. Polyhedron became a section of Dungeon, and shortly thereafter Wizards of the Coast decided it didn't want to be in the magazine business, and spun off the periodicals group into its own publishing concern, Paizo Publishing, LLC.
About a year after that, the editor-in-chief of Dungeon left the company to pursue other opportunities, and I assumed the helm. About a year after that, I took over Dragon as well, and I'm now running both magazines with a staff of five editors and three graphic designers.
What's the best way to break into the industry?
Write articles for Dragon and Dungeon. Three or four times a year, the design managers over at Wizards of the Coast call me up and say "who's working out? Who seems right for a Wizards product?" They don't always go with my suggestions, but it's no surprise that most of the freelancers working at Wizards (and a lot of the full-timers over there, for that matter) got their start in Dragon or Dungeon.
Also, and this should go without saying, you've got to play the game regularly to really know what you're talking about. Understand the rules, but also understand what makes a compelling story within the context of D&D (whether it be a character option, a plot point, or whatever) and think about how to translate those concepts to rules that will work well with the existing body of material already written for the game.
Lastly, there's almost no money to be made in this tiny and increasingly shrinking industry, so get used to the taste of ramen and generic soda. Especially for the first few years of your game industry "career," these things will be your dietary staples.
What kind of education do you have? What kind of education would you suggest for someone going into freelance writing or game design? What about for working in publishing?
I have a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, in Boston. I strongly suggest an education that focuses on the English language and literature. The school you choose should offer classes on publishing and editing as well as the standard literature courses (which are also important). Look for a school that will help you become a better writer, but don't neglect the other liberal arts or even scientific courses. You'd be surprised what a wide body of knowledge can contribute to a game or magazine article, and people who only study how to write often have nothing interesting to say. Don't be one of those people.
What experience is needed for a job like yours?
Several years of editorial experience with a professional publication plus at least a couple of years in the trenches on these magazines specifically would be helpful. College is a must unless you're a brilliant self-taught prodigy, which I suppose is possible. Published credits in our magazines or similar venues would be a huge plus. Obviously, fluency with the Dungeons & Dragons rules and a deep, almost obsessive command of the English language are necessities.
Exactly what do you do at Paizo right now? What is a typical day like in your job?
Today I made sure that all of the finished files for Dungeon #129 went to our prepress manager so that she can package them and send them to the printer on Monday. I then had a lunch meeting with a prominent game designer to discuss an upcoming project that will adapt the novels and a furiously popular modern fantasy novelist to the D&D game. I'm aiming for a 20,000-word feature to be published some time late next year, so a lot of planning is going into it. I then came back to the office, and a business team meeting where we discussed circulation trends and general Paizo business, and I spent the rest of the day reading emails and line editing printouts of articles for the next issue of Dragon.
What would you say are the pros and cons of your job?
There's not enough time in the day to make things perfect. That's the con, and is basically the worst thing about the magazine business. No matter how many times you edit something, it could always be better with one more editorial pass. But there just isn't always time, which can be very frustrating.
The best part of the job is that two times a month I receive a nice, shiny 100-page bit of proof that I existed. Whenever I wonder what it is I've been doing with myself over the last couple years, I can glance at my bookshelf and say "oh, yeah. That's what I was doing."
How do you decide what content makes it into the magazines and what must be left out?
We're looking for new ideas presented in a compelling manner. It sounds easy, but you'd be surprised. The "new" element is probably the most important, because it's the easiest for us to spot. If we've just run an article on pole arms, we're not in the market for another one. A lot of authors have no idea what articles we've accepted but not yet printed, so we get a surprising number of "double" submissions from authors positioned all over the world.
We've posted extensive submission guidelines on our website (paizo.com), so anyone seriously considering writing for the magazine would do well to read them, learn them, and very possibly love them.
In your time working in this industry, and especially as editor, what qualities do you see in those authors that not only make it into the magazines, but also move on to working in the gaming business?
The ability to write to a specific word count and the ability to hit deadlines is critical, but the authors who end up moving on into the professional game industry are often the ones who are willing to give up the hope of a good, lucrative career for the opportunity to play with numbers and goblins and stuff. It also helps if you have a wife or a husband with a good job. I only wish I were kidding.
There's a huge variety of articles in both Dungeon and Dragon. What's the most interesting article you've ever featured?
I love all my children equally. Honestly, I'm very proud of the twelve-installment "Age of Worms Adventure Path," which we're currently running in Dungeon magazine. I contributed the first adventure, as well as the 10,000-word outline we provided to all of the authors currently working on the series. It's been a tremendous amount of work, but thus far reader response has been very encouraging.
What inspires your work?
I read nonfiction voraciously, and I love to riff off of real world "weird history," like ancient mysteries and unusual crimes. The world is full of inspiration, from the people you pass on the street to obscure facts and names tucked into forgotten history books to the latest cutting-edge fiction. Soak it all in, mix it up in your head, and spit it out on paper.
What kinds of things do you do in your free time? What kinds of books do you read?
I don't honestly have a lot of free time, but when I do get some time away from work or freelance writing I like to explore the beautiful city of Seattle, go to concerts, drink myself silly, and all the other things boys do.
As for reading, I have a wide interest in history, politics, art, the occult, and circus freaks. I've read extensively on those subjects, and I tend to buy books like a lot of women buy shoes. I don't read as much fiction as I should, but my favorite authors right now are China Mieville and Grant Morrison.
Authors are always saying to just keep on submitting articles and stories if you want to become a professional writer. Do you have any other advice for aspiring writers?
Be very familiar with the magazines you're pitching. Know what sorts of articles the editor seems to be looking for, and most importantly know what regular features (or "departments") appear every issue. These items are often the easiest door to getting into the magazine.
Write every day. Keep your mind open to good ideas, and keep a notebook nearby at all times. Keep it close to your bed, so that when you have a great idea in the middle of the night or just before you go to sleep you can capture it before sleep overtakes you.
Listen. Take notes. Be remembered.
