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Thursday 16 November 2017

NOW is a Great Moment to Send me Your Review Copies!

So, at this time I've actually managed to get to the end of my queue for review copies.

First of all, that means that if you have sent me something to review, and I have NOT reviewed it, that would mean I did not get it. I don't think that there is anything I was expecting to get that has not arrived, but if there's someone I forgot or you sent me something without checking first, please get in touch with me ASAP, since I have not yet received it.

Second, if you have an RPG product, be it an OSR book or any other kind of RPG at all, and you would like to get a review done for it, now would be the time to send it my way!

If you check out theRPGsite's Reviews Subforum, you will find that I have a ridiculously large number of reviews under my belt. And it will give you an idea, if you did not know already, of the kind of thing you could expect.

If you're wondering why you should send me a review copy, here is reason #1: I review EVERYTHING I receive.  Those of you who are experienced publishers will know just how important that is, because I have heard time and time again from publishers countless horror stories about how they've sent 5 or 7 or a dozen review copies to all kinds of people and don't get even one review back. Knowing that there's someone you can send your review copy to that has a 100% track record of providing a review in return is, in and of itself, a huge deal. One might wish it wasn't, one would expect that this should just be normal, but sadly, that's just not the case in our hobby/industry. There's only a couple of reviewers who have a consistent record of producing reviews when they get review copies, and I'm the most prolific of these.

Reason #2: a lot of people who send review copies, after paying for the copy and the shipping, and even if they do get a review out of it, will get a pathetic review of a couple of paragraphs.
My reviews, on the other hand, are always very thorough, detailed, and insightful.

Reason #3: The reviews get coverage. Even if you did send a review copy and got a review out of it and that review was more than two or three paragraphs long, it doesn't do you much good if no one reads it.  My reviews are always posted at multiple locations: they get posted here on my blog of course, they get linked on my G+ account and posted through that to a number of G+ gaming 'communities' relevant to whatever the book being reviewed is about. They also get posted, in full, in the RPGsite Reviews subforum, linked to above. Furthermore, these reviews are often reposted as "classic posts" here several years after the initial review was posted.  That's a lot of coverage!

Reason #4: I'm FAIR. Yes, I know, that might be something you might doubt if you know my reputation. But I'm not saying I'm unbiased. I make my biases in terms of what I like or don't like in RPGs, and I don't try to put on a veneer of neutrality. But I certainly DO make an effort, even while I talk about what I personally like and dislike about a game, to differentiate that from what I think is objectively good or bad about a game from a design point of view. And I ALWAYS make an effort, whenever possible, to conclude a review by assessing just what type of gamers would like a given gaming product, and what kind might not.  In that way, the review allows people to get an idea of whether the game will be for them or not, regardless of whether it's for me or not.
I won't ever promise you a favorable review. But I do promise it will be thorough and every effort will be made to look at it fairly.

Finally, IT WORKS.  There's a reason why people send me games they know I'll hate. There's a reason why people who clearly can't stand me, either my type of gaming or my politics or my personality or whatever, still send me games to review. Because if you have a gaming product and you send me a review copy, when my review comes out, in the vast majority of cases that translates into sales. The "pundit bump" is real and even people who have no reason to like me have admitted it.


So, if you have a game you want me to review, please get in touch with me!
All reviews will be done in the order I receive them, so it's first-come first-serve; and often that means long waiting periods from the time that your book arrives until the review comes in, because I'll have a big backlog, but right now, I have none, so whoever gets a book to me first will get a review fairly quickly from when I receive it.  Note that Uruguayan mail is notoriously slow, so assume that whatever you might have been told is the estimated delivery time will possibly be double that or more, though sometimes it surprises you (there's no way to guess at this, I've had books that arrive to my door a week after they were sent, and in some very few extreme cases, books that took six months to get here!).

So, RPG designers, writers and publishers, take advantage of this moment. I'm betting it won't last long, and new books will be getting to me shortly, so strike while the iron is hot!


RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Raleigh Hawkbill + Image Virginia


3 comments:

  1. You write good reviews. Lengthy, usually.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Where do I send a copy of my RPG for your review?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you on G+ or theRPGsite? If so, contact me at either. If not, give me your email.

      Delete