Hiring a writer

[~nail in the coffin~]

I recently contacted a local writer to write up a story for my new haunt. Our haunt will be an old school theme and I need a back story, obviously. I know nothing about hiring a writer and no idea how much I would pay him. Any thoughts or advice?

[RJ Productions]

Here's a link about freelance pricing: http://freelancewrite.about.com/od/f...Rates-List.htm

Important thing is that you retain rights to the story, characters, ect. You don't want to publicize a new storyline and then find out you have to pay royalities to use your own characters.

Here's links to our sites where there are some examples of the back stories we utilize for our haunts and our pirate festival:

www.LasVegasHaunts.com
www.PirateFestLV.com

The haunt has tabs to actually hear a voice actor read the stories.
The Pirate Fest has a tab the goes to a written "legend".

Any back story should be way more detailed than you will ever use. For the haunt I even created a time line between the two families so that dates corresponded. If you go into the Asylum even the dates on the diplomas for the Dr. hanging in the office coorespond to the dates in the story.

You can NEVER have enough details.

[Jim Warfield]

Ravens Grin "Back Story"

built to be an Inn and a Tavern, it has also been a few other things along the way. It has been a schoolhouse(For wayward girls?) an oldsmobile dealership (For wayward car salesmen?) and a bordello.. So if allof these things were here right now, you would be in the middle of a "Mini-Mall!"
Come here to get your Diploma, be driving home drunk in your new car, with your "Fllozie" girlfriend,(That you barely know) and "Life" doesn't get any better than that!
As i was signing the papers to buy this house, my mother informed me that my Great Grandfather had been a bar tender in this house between the years of about 1890 to 1900, so I Do have a family-connection to this house.
The city graveyard is on the next hill behind the trees, 6.500 , cold hard stones up there and a whole lot of dead-people, most of my relatives are buried there, and most of them.. are.. DEAD!
The tallest stone in that graveyard is 16 to 18 feet high,it just So happens to have MY last name on it... Bealzabubb!... Er I MEAN WARFIELD!"
I wanted to buy this house for many years, it was never for sale. when it came on the market, I had No money, whatsoever!
So, i am asking local people for financial backiing, most of the people who live here are rather elderly, that is who has the money if anybody does, and they all said The Same Thing!
"You shouldn't buy that house."
"Why Not?"
"Because it is HAUNTED!"

This my friends, is the beginning of what i usualy have to say in my front room to begin the house tour. I may spend quite an amount of time in this room depending upon a few different other things.
I tell them about the actual "Hauntings " here over the years, some are just interesting, some others rather frightening, ask my exs about this.
I do numerous routines in the first room , but if a few in the room are not seeming to be that interested I shorten it up, we start through the house.
I don't ever have to "Make Up" a single word of this house's history, I just have to decide whether or not how much of it I am going to be telling So many odd, strange, supernatural and highly coincidental things have happend here I that I could talk in this first room for a long, long time.. sometimes this is what happens. i just have a compulsion i guess to tell everyone all about these things that all have happened here.
I will be doing the "Telling" in various moods and voices, depending upon other factors too.
i can make it fun, funny, wierd, scary. Make it more for adults or aim it towards small children.
This all really keeps my mind "figuring", as i talk and activate a few props around the room.
Over 27 years,being OPEN almost every night , I have heard So Many people tell me.. "You have too much FUN here, Jim!"
"I have begun telling some customers that i figured out several years ago that I must be sort of a "Simpleton'... because... i .. NEVER GET TIRED OF DOING THIS!
Right now, tonight ,January 5th, 2015, it's 8:18 PM, I have my light on, doorbell on, it's a 25 degree windchill outside with more snow forecast, and I never know, people have come here before on a night just like this one! REALLY!
My compressor is warm, in a small shed and ready to go!

[~nail in the coffin~]

Thanks for your responses. Writer is now hired and I should have my story in about a month. I'm so excited about this project and I just want to put all of my time and energy into it that I can!!! Unfortunately there's this thing called my full-time job that gets in the way😜

[TheDarkestHour]

Jim, do you actually live in the house or something? How many people do you have come through on a night, not during season?