The PDF Review Project

[Crothian]

I'm looking for people to write PDF reviews. I've lined about a dozen PDF companies that will let me distrubte their PDFs for reviews. I've got about a hlaf dozen people already doing this (you may have seen an increase in PDFs reviews thanks to them) and I'm looking for more people to participate in this.

It works very simply,m you contact me. Include books types you'd like to review or if you have a specific book from on of the publishers invbolved go ahead and name it. I'll e-mail you the PDF or in case of big PDFs contact the publisher to send you a download link. Get that PDF revierwed and you want to do another one, contact me like before and we start the process again.

I'm doing this because publishers at times find it hard to get trustworthy reviewers. It is practically an epidemic and some publishers have stopped sending out review copies of anything all together. To help publishers out and to hopefully build back some confidence in reviewers I'm taking it upon myself to get something started. PDF reviews are always the hardioest to get people to do since most people are glamored only by the lastest print release. But PDFs are easy to get to people and really make the process swift and easy.

For people looking for a challenge, once you do areview or two and you find you like it I've got some big PDFs that can use reviewed. I try to start people out on the smaller stuff, but if you feel you can handle something big mention it when you contact me.

Publishers, if you want to be involved also contact me or post here. I'm trying to generate more PDFs reviews for everyone that wants to be involved. I try to hand out an even number of PDFs from all involved to spread out the reviews as much as possible.

My e-mail is cgath@insight.rr.com

If you have limit of how big of files you can take, please mention that. Some of the PDFs can get big so a 5 meg e-mail limit will make a difference. Also, if you want to do non d20 reviews, I have a few options. So far no one has expressed interest in them, so I'm looking for people to review them.

EDIT: Also, reviews should be of a good length. 500 words is the bare minimium but people should really be shooting for 750 or higher.

Post here with this sounds cool or this suck or any other comment or question....

 

[Alzrius]

Do you have a cut-off time for how long someone has to review a product once you send it? I know this is a fairy loose process, but there should be, IMHO, a certain amount of time a person has to review a product before they've just waited too long and it goes to someone else.

Also, just an elementary outline of what makes a good review good would be helpful, I'm sure. Things like, "note the page length, ease of printing, quality of artwork, grammar, rules editing, etc." are, at the very least, a handy checklist on things to look for.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Checklist?

Art
Layout
Editing
Organization
Extras (index, good table of contents, use of PDF medium as opposed to just being an electronic file of a print copy, etc ...)
Rules

 

[Crothian]

Do you have a cut-off time for how long someone has to review a product once you send it? I know this is a fairy loose process, but there should be, IMHO, a certain amount of time a person has to review a product before they've just waited too long and it goes to someone else.

No there is no cut off time. But I'm not handing one book out to only one reviewer. Even if a review gets done on a book havign a second or third or tenth review of the same book is benificial. But the only way a person is going to get a second PDF to review is to review the first one.

Also, just an elementary outline of what makes a good review good would be helpful, I'm sure. Things like, "note the page length, ease of printing, quality of artwork, grammar, rules editing, etc." are, at the very least, a handy checklist on things to look for.

People should read through a few revciews and see how people like Psion, Joe Kushner, and John Cooper do them. Reviews have to be at least 500 words and frankly 800 is really easy even with the 10 page and smaller PDFs I do.

 

[Rasyr]

Crothian - I sent you an email.

 

[philreed]

I'll send some PDFs over and give this a try. I have to admit, though, that sending copies out for review hasn't been all that useful in terms of actually generating reviews or sales.

 

[Crothian]

I'll send some PDFs over and give this a try. I have to admit, though, that sending copies out for review hasn't been all that useful in terms of actually generating reviews or sales.

I understand, hopefully with a little organization we can truely see if this is worth while, thanks.

 

[Alzrius]

A follow-up question: When we do post a new review, should we post a new thread here (or in another forum) about it? It would certainly draw attention to the review, which could otherwise be quietly posted and missed, but on the other than, this might spam the forums here with notices that new reviews are up.

 

[pogre]

Thanks for the opportunity Crothian. I just posted my first playtest review of a really cool little product called Powers That Be. I do not know if every product I do will be a playtest review, but I really like the idea. This first one was a lot of fun!

 

[Yair]

Get pdfs for free? :drools:
If only I had more time...

My time is limited, but I think I can squeeze in a few reviews. I'll send you an email.

Yair

Edit: On second thought, I don't have the time and do have lots of products I can review anyways lying around (well, mostly virutally). So I'll just settle down to my regularly purchased reviews.