Why don't you post reviews?

[Mouseferatu]

There are writers who review things. Steve Creech who is a big time reviewer has written some, and Monte Cook has writen some reviews to name two.

Indeed. But I'm with Warlord. I won't do it, because I'm in the industry. And frankly, even if I think they deserve it, I really try not to badmouth fellow writers (or, for that matter, active publishers) in public. The fact that some others do it doesn't make me any more comfortable with it. Not saying they shouldn't, but it doesn't feel right to me.

The truth is, there are some writers--and one particular major publisher--who I feel have no right to be in this industry, who I feel are not only producing sub-par material, but are bringing down the quality of the field for the rest of us by wasting valuable shelf space on utter crap. But it does nobody any good for me to identify these people/companies/whatever for who they are. It won't change anyone's opinion of them, it'll make me enemies I don't need, and it'll ruin my reputation as a nice guy.

(Put another way, Monte Cook and Steve Creech can afford to piss people off. I can't. )

The above is just an example, but my point is this: I can't get into a review about a product I don't feel very strongly about. I can't write a review for a 3 or 4 product. I won't write a review for a 1 or 2 product, because I won't tone down a strong opinion if I feel it, and I don't think it's appropriate for me to express them in the field in which I work. And I don't want to be That Guy who gives everything he reviews 5 out of 5.

That, and writing reviews takes a lot of time and energy I just don't have.

 

[Crothian]

Indeed. But I'm with Warlord. .

First off I think your reasons are very sound and I totally understand. However, I'm not sure how you working for Warlord would be any different from another company. Do certain companies frown on their writers reviewing books?

 

[Eosin the Red]

I could see not reviewing something that you were in direct competition with [FREX Reviewing M&M when you co-wrote Silver Age Sentinals] but other than that I can not see how it hurts.

In fact, that reminds me of a nice way to say thanks for something. Need to check to see if it is OK though.

 

[Drifter Bob]

I've just started writing up reviews. I find that if it's a newer publisher they would give you a free copy of the work (especially if it's PDF), but I would like to do it more and more but I don't know how to contact publishers to get review material or whom to goto.

It boils down to 'lack of product' and not lack of time. I can hammer out a review in 3 days of reading your typical 96page product and posting it online.

You should email Pelgrane Press, I know they are interested in getting more reviews done for all their products.

JR

 

[Eosin the Red]

Arghhhh. I have to contradict myself.

The things that I want to review most (R&R Excalibur, Legends of Excalibur, Mideval Players Guide, and the PDFs, A Question of Honor and A Question of Loyalty) are similar to what I am writing. No shocker there that I write about what interests me.

 

[Drifter Bob]

There are writers who review things. Steve Creech who is a big time reviewer has written some, and Monte Cook has writen some reviews to name two.

I personally haven't done any reviews since I started writing in the industry, but I think it would be ok to do so if they were positive. I agree that posting a very negative review of someone elses work isn't a great idea. I generally try to define a product I review anyway, what it's features are. I think these days the way the market is, and the culture of rpg's, it's often kind of bogus to just give a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' on a book. Sure, there are some stand outs, utter trash and gleaming gems ... but those will be recoginzed as such.

More often though, I think you have products which have a lot of different kinds of material in them which are valuable to different types of consumers. For example, I don't like high - level games too much, I like historical realism. Does that mean I should automatically give an Avalanche Press book 5 stars and a book about god slaying planar travel 1 star? Nope... you should simply define it for what it is. The market is so broad now, and there are so many niches, people have so many pet peeves and little prejudices and preferences... I find that I get the most use from reivews which are descriptive in this way.... they let you know what you can find in the book and what you can't. I find that I'm often reading 'between the lines' to suss out this information and trying to figure out what the reviewers bias is.

As a writer, given that online reviews in particular as so important to the success or failure of a book, I definately feel that the more reviews you can get the better off you are. If you get only one or two reviews, you might only get the guy who happens to not like your sub-genre, or you might get a review that, even though positive, only portrays one aspect of the book. THe more reviews you get the more well ronuded of a picture of what your book is all about emerges.

DB

 

[Ghostwind]

(Put another way, Monte Cook and Steve Creech can afford to piss people off. I can't. )

Gee, I think I just got a compliment.

Seriously though, as someone who works in the industry full-time as a writer/developer, I very firmly believe that you can write product reviews as long as you do not review your own stuff or those books by the publisher you tend to do the most work with. For instance, I personally steer clear of reviewing any Bastion Press products since I am very closely tied to that company. That's why I let my staff handle them. There are also quite a few individuals other than myself who both freelance and write reviews in this industry. Andrew Hind, Jeff Ibach, Christina Stiles, Chris Sims, Megan Robertson, and Monte Cook all come to mind off the top of my head. And I am sure there are more that I can't think of at the moment.

The key to writing a review (no matter who you are or what your name might be) is professionalism. As long as present your review in a manner that shows your objectiveness and willingness to be fair, you will be more highly regarded than if you write a review that boils down to nothing more than a rant that sounds like you have a personal vendetta against the product. You can be critical without being condemning when writing a review. As I tell my review staff, if you find something good, point it out and tell why. If you find something bad or wrong, point it out too - but make sure you explain why. And therein lies one of the secrets to good review writing. Explaining why you don't like or do like the material. All too often I see reviews that boil down to a "I hate this and that, so the whole book must suck" without any explanation as to why the reviewer felt that way.

An example of this is the critcism of nonstandard class progressions. If the new class does not have the same progression rate as an existing class, then it must be broken because it is different. I see this time and time again out there, especially among certain reviewers who tend to view anything that deviates from the core rules as 'questionable'. These reviewers fail to go into why they believe the progression to be wrong. Criticisms are useless without sound and logical reasoning to back them.

With the exception of a very small handful of publishers, nearly every one I have ever dealt with in my three years of review writing has treated me with respect, professionalism, and a friendly attitude. That respect carries over into the freelancing and writing side of my career. If I have a reasonable request or favor I need from one of the many publishers, usually all I need do is ask and 9 times out of 10 I get it. Why? Because of the professionalism I maintain with them and the honesty in my dealings with them. Publishers know that everything they release will not be stellar Origins award winning material to every single reader. Nor do they expect that every review will be an A+. But they do expect fairness and honesty in the manner in which the review is written and how you deal with them.

Writing a review is more about providing good information than good 'copy' and I believe that most publishers fully understand that. So, if you feel like writing a review, then by all means do it. In the end, it shouldn't really matter who you work for in the industry as long as there is not a direct conflict of interest between your product(s) and the ones you review.

 

[Mouseferatu]

First off I think your reasons are very sound and I totally understand. However, I'm not sure how you working for Warlord would be any different from another company. Do certain companies frown on their writers reviewing books?

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't mean I work with him. That was an "I'm with him" as in "I agree with what he said."

Apologies for the confusion.

 

[Treebore]

I write very few reviews because I rarely read a book in its entirety. I often would call it only average, anyways. Or worse. When I think a book is good many won't, because their tastes/views as to what makes a book useful differ from mine.

I also write so few because it isn't worth it to me to write it to the level required without compensation. As a result I just want to say I like this book/module because:.... or i didn't like it because:.....

Those kind of reviews aren't good enough, so i only write them (the acceptable kind) when i really like a product.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Steve,

All very good points. And I'm indeed a huge proponent of explaining why I feel the way I do about something.

But the thing is, when it comes to reviews, I just don't know that I could maintain my professionalism.

Let me explain. That company I mentioned before, but refused to name? I can't judge their products fairly. See, in truth, they do have some good stuff, and they have some solid writers. They also have some bad stuff, and some poor writers. But I have such a huge problem with them for other, related-but-not-directly-relevant reasons, that I cannot assess my own objectivity. I want them to fail--I'm honest enough to admit that to myself--but that means I don't dare review their products.

Problem two, there are certain very specific types of products I like. These are the sorts I like to write, but they're also the type I like to read. Therefore, any product about which I feel strongly enough to write a review is likely to be something that either competes with something I've done, competes with something I'm doing, or competes with something I want to do. Again, cannot promise my own objectivity.

Third, my standards of actual writing quality are higher than most people's. I've heard lots of folks claim that it doesn't matter how good the writing of an RPG book is, so long as it gets the information across. I can't get behind that. To me, bad writing is bad writing. Problem is, I can't always point to why something is bad writing. Sure, sometimes a person clearly can't string sentences together, or doesn't seem to have gotten past 3rd-grade grammar, but at other times the word choice or structure or metaphor just sounds ugly. Because I'm very sensitive to that sort of thing, but can't always explain, I feel it would be unfair of me to come down on such products in public.

Now, I'm probably being way over-sensitive about all of this. I could probably write a fair and impartial review--even under one of the above circumstances--if I really tried. But "probably" isn't good enough for me, and anyway it would take far more energy than I have to spare.

So I leave the reviews to people--like, say, you --who are comfortable doing both, and I save my opinions on products for private conversations where I can rant and rave without being unprofessional about it in public.