http://alphastream.org/index.php/2016/02/15/what-is-an-adventure-worth/
A very interesting article that examines the costs of adventure creation and the returns based on online sales.
That was so interesting I downloaded it into a word document. I plan to study it later.
My (very quick) take on the article fits most of what I see about writing in other places.
1] To write a quality product takes a lot of time.
2] It is hard to make minimum wage at your writing, much less make any serious money.
3] Lots of people write stuff because they enjoy it.
It took me a ton of time to write the US Marines Order of Battle AAR through the dozen plus scenarios. It took me around 40 hours to write my Call of Cthulhu scenario I've run at several cons.
Chaosium has a publish option now like Wizards of the Coast - but I'm not sure it is worth putting my scenario together for publication. I took multiple images of people in the 1920s off the internet and I don't have copyright to them. I'm not worried about the images of weapons and whatnot, but the people images could come back to haunt me.
I've written a bunch of Sales Management Cases, quite a few have been published. I might put them out there for publication in a case depository before I retire, but that would be just to make them available for educators and not to make any real money.
I "guess" I could write and publish game stuff when I retire to write off some of my travel to Con expenses, but I doubt it would be worth it. According to the IRS, you cannot deduct more than your revenue made on stuff and they have strict rules on what is spending on a "hobby" versus a "business." Even if I pulled in say $1,000 a year, this is far less than I spend going to the 4+ Cons I'm attending annually. And the bookkeeping headaches if you get audited are severe.
I read the entire thing (17 pages in word but large numbers of graphs and illustrations).
The guy treats writing D&D stuff as a job and works out his hourly wage. He then gets disappointed that he does not make very much per hour.
Over a two year period I read a bunch of blogs and material on publishing Science Fiction & Fantasy. They have the exact same arguments:
a] Hard to get recognized.
b] Hard to get paid.
c] Even harder to get paid a living wage.
d] Writing is hard work!
All of this is true, but when people write and work on hobby stuff for fun it is very hard to get paid a living wage. Lots of people want to sing for their supper but few people will pay for a singer.
I'm glad people can self-publish stuff. I'm glad people can get paid something for it. But very, very few people can make a comfortable living at it.
Saturation should also be taken into account.
While D&D supplements are the lion's share of the demand, there has also been an absolutely massive inundation of them hitting the market. Can't open an rpg sales page without them tumbling out and burying you.
The over-saturation surely retards sales in that rather specific market. Supply appears to outweigh demand after the indie publishing glut.
Its interesting considering where D&D or tabletop RPG actually began; in a private setting just for people by a guy who did it to enjoy himself.
I often brainstorm about my own adventures and I am constantly working on my homebrew world. But I would never expect it to make me money. Its a hobby.
Its the same amazement I have with these streamers. Young people who game their days away and aparently there is a system in place where they can make decent money doing it.
Its something that just doesn't click with me at all.