Request for Electronic Reviews?

[cfbrunner]

Bruno Games (www.brunogames.com) will finally be releasing their first product, The Sorcerer's Grimoire, within the next few days through RPG Now. Now that the bloody, painful writing and editing part is done, we want to make sure the release gets as much visibility as possible, such as with pre-release reviews.

Considering this is our first time at this, I'd love to get some input from the more experienced types:

Is there a standard list of websites/contacts that you use to send your items for review? We're familiar with the ENWorld staff (of course), GameWyrd and Mortality. Any that we're missing?

What's the usual turn around time between when something is sent out for review and when the review gets posted?

Is there a law of diminishing returns on how many 'free' copies of the pdf are sent out for review?

Anything necessary to include in the submission to make sure the reviewers don't just mass mail it out to everyone they know?

We'll be release a 4-page preview shortly, to try and get interest started as well, but reviews seem to be the best way to get out to a large audience (good or bad).

Thanks in advance.

 

[DSC-EricPrice]

Well, not that I know beans about it yet (our first pdf comes out this fall) but my suggestions would be

Ask the reviewers from the major boards before you just mail them something huge to read. They may not a) be interested b) have time or c) have a mailbox that can accept huge attachments.

I think, given the limited quantity of pdf sales anyway (from what is said) you should limit the freebies to highly qualified reviewers. I hope you would not have to worry about them in turn pushing them out to the internet or to their friends but I suppose it is always a possibility. If you are that concerned you could place some little identifier in a piece of art or something (something that no one would normally notice) and then just watch the pirate channels to see if it shows up. Then you'll know and you can avoid those people in the future.

Its inevitable that your pdf product will show up on the pirate channels. People who want to steal are going to and people who arent wont.

Good luck in your publishing efforts

 

[Voadam]

Hi,

I have started doing reviews on enworld's board and I would be interested in a review copy. You can e-mail it to me at voadam@hotmail.com Please note I am not an official staff reviewer I just post reviews on these boards. You can check my past reviews to see if my style of reviews are the type you wish to solicit.

It is implicit that a free review copy is subject to the same copying restrictions as one that has been paid for. I assume you are releasing under the OGL and that it is clear what is OGC and Non-OGC in your product and therefore made explicit what can be copied or shared and under what conditions.