Seeking reviewers for game-related fiction

[M. J. Young]

For some reason, several of the reviewers who have in the past reviewed Multiverser game products have not responded to an offer to review the latest publication. It may be because it's not a game product; whatever, the reason, we're looking for people willing to review it.

The product is a novel, http://www.multiverser.com/novel.html">Verse Three, Chapter One, which creates a story from the Multiverser concepts.

We've got a stack of copies we can give away. They're "defectives", but minimally so. The spines were misprinted such that text overlapped (it's been corrected on the distribution copies), and we had to return the (very nice) dust jackets to get a refund. We'll gladly send copies to anyone, provided they agree to these terms:

[*]Will read the book.[*]Will produce a review and publish somewhere accessible to at least some of the public beyond your personal friends and family (we'll be glad to link such a review, or report where it is published).[*]Will make available a copy of the review for us to distribute freely (we can get it from the web, if it's e-published and we know where it is, and it's not in a members-only site).[*]Will not pass the book on to others (it would be unethical for us to allow these copies to fall into the marketplace, as the printer was not paid for them).[/list:u]
Anyone interested should contact me.

It's a good book, and well worth reading. One reviewer has already praised it (on RPGnet). We'd just like to get more exposure, and more quotes.

Thanks.

--M. J. Young

[clehrich]

M.J.,

I have written quite a number of reviews over the last few years, but I have never had someone suggest that I should find the journal and place a review in it.  In my experience, what happens is that the publisher (you) asks to send review copies to journals, forums (fora), and so forth; they then solicit reviews to be published there.

I sort of wonder whether this is part of your difficulty.  Here at the Forge, you could presumably solicit a review for the Forge (Ron, do we run reviews of game fiction?).  But I wouldn't know what to do with the review once written, if not put it up on the Forge.  Sorry, but I think you're asking your reviewers to do quite a lot of work that ought to be your job.

Please -- if I'm totally wrong about how reviews work in 'zines and so forth, say so.

[M. J. Young]

In my experience, what happens is that the publisher (you) asks to send review copies to journals, forums (fora), and so forth; they then solicit reviews to be published there.....I wouldn't know what to do with the review once written, if not put it up on the Forge.  Sorry, but I think you're asking your reviewers to do quite a lot of work that ought to be your job.

Please -- if I'm totally wrong about how reviews work in 'zines and so forth, say so.

Well, it's true that some sites solicit copies of game materials and forward these to reviewers who have agreed to review them; RPGnet does this. More on that in a moment.

What is more common, at least in the game industry (and in my experience), is that magazines, e-zines, and web sites generally have "staff reviewers", whether in-house or freelance (and since most are unpaid, the distinction is not terribly significant to this discussion). The reviewer finds materials in which he has some interest, reads them, writes the review, and submits it for publication. Since particularly with most RPG e-publishers they are desperate for material, the site publishes everything submitted by their recognized reviewers. RPGnet has well over a hundred such reviewers, from what I've seen, who can and do submit reviews whenever they have something to submit. We have in the past sent copies of our game materials directly to the reviewers, bypassing the middleman.

There are a couple of good reasons for this. One is that the material gets to the reviewer more quickly. There isn't this waiting in a stack of materials in someone's office until someone agrees to look at it. The other is that we have a bit more control over reviews. There are a couple of reviewers at RPGnet who specifically dislike us--one of them because we declined to send him a free copy of our first printing (when they cost us almost $40 each to print and $3.50 to mail and we sold them for $50), so he wrote a scathing review of a game he'd never seen based solely on excerpts on our website. By sending directly to reviewers, we avoid the possibility that someone with an axe to grind would get hold of it.

Of course, it's more complicated than that; there's also a matter of understanding what the reviewer likes. We were subjected to a scathing review from a particular reviewer whose only real point was that our rules book was over five hundred pages in length and he thought all RPGs should be shorter than fifty pages.

Decades ago, when I was in contemporary Christian radio, we were on the list of stations whose playlists were solicited by Christian Contemporary Music Magazine (later Christian Contemporary Magazine) as statistics for determining the most popular Christian songs in the country (the Christian equivalent of the Billboard charts). We also got the magazine. It included reviews of albums. At one point the editor published a statement admitting that to a significant degree whether an album got a positive or negative review in the 'zine had more to do with whether he managed to land it on the right person's desk than with the merits of the album itself--just about every record produced by the major Christian labels of the day was going to be liked by someone and disliked by someone else. Thus, getting your record--or in our case, our book--in the hands of someone who likes "this sort of thing" is in some ways an essential part of the process. Someone who only likes realism in fiction is going to hate this book. Someone who thinks that to be good a book has to come to a terribly depressing end is not going to like this. Someone who wants everything to fit into what is currently known about science will choke on some of the fantasy here. Now, I'm always ready to take a chance on a new reviewer, and I can take some criticism--but I am going to try to find people who tend to like the sort of things we're doing, for at least some of the reviews, and to avoid those who clearly aren't going to like it from the outset.

Maybe that skews the approach. I don't know that it does--I have very little control over who actually reviews the books, as evidenced by some of the reviews which have appeared in odd places. All I'm doing is making sure that there are reviews out there, and that at least some of them are by people who haven't dismissed us out of hand.

Which brings me back to, if you'd like a copy and have some place that would publish a review, let me know--or if there's some place that might ask you to review such a book about which I should know, send me the info and I'll get a copy to them.

Thanks

--M. J. Young

[talysman]

What is more common, at least in the game industry (and in my experience), is that magazines, e-zines, and web sites generally have "staff reviewers", whether in-house or freelance (and since most are unpaid, the distinction is not terribly significant to this discussion). The reviewer finds materials in which he has some interest, reads them, writes the review, and submits it for publication. Since particularly with most RPG e-publishers they are desperate for material, the site publishes everything submitted by their recognized reviewers. RPGnet has well over a hundred such reviewers, from what I've seen, who can and do submit reviews whenever they have something to submit. We have in the past sent copies of our game materials directly to the reviewers, bypassing the middleman.

this may be an aside, but I'm not sure that RPGnet reviews work that way. there may be a handful of permanent reviewers who actually select games from review copies sent to RPGnet, but just about all the game reviews I have seen are submitted by the community. heck, I have a review on RPGnet. as far as I know, I'm not an RPGnet employee. =}

unless it's changed recently, there's a web-based form you fill out. the review appears within about a week, unless there's something really really wrong with it. and I don't mean spelling errors, suspected shilling, or mock reviews, because I've seen all of those.

[Sylus Thane]

I would be interested but would like to ask a couple questions first.

1. Are you looking for a review of the book and how it relates to Multiverser the game or purely on the stories own merit?

2. Would I have to return the book afterward?

3. Do you have a timeframe in mind of when it should be done? I only ask this one because being a stay at home dad sometimes greatly cuts into my reading and work time that is free.

4. Will it help me get a copy of Multiverser? :) Just kidding.

I'd be more than willing to help out.

Sylus

[M. J. Young]

I'm not sure that RPGnet reviews work that way. there may be a handful of permanent reviewers who actually select games from review copies sent to RPGnet, but just about all the game reviews I have seen are submitted by the community.

I know someone who reviews for RPGnet (and because I know him I don't ask him to review my stuff directly). He does receive stuff directly from publishers, and does reviews of stuff he likes. However, when you fill out that form to become a reviewer, you have the option to accept materials from RPGnet conditioned on you actually writing a review.

Also, Sandy tells publishers specifically that they can send copies of their materials directly to RPGnet, and he will find reviewers willing to do them. Every product is thus guaranteed at least one review on RPGnet, if the company is willing to send Sandy one copy. He does not guarantee more than one review, but whatever he gets he distributes to people like you who registered, but who also said they would review stuff he sends them. (You don't have to accept whatever; there's some system in place for choosing what you want to review from what he's got. I'm not a reviewer and don't know exactly how it works, or how he gets people to review whatever products nobody's taking, unless perhaps he reviews these himself.)

I would be interested but would like to ask a couple questions first.

They're good questions, so I'll answer them publicly instead of privately in case someone else has the same questions.

1. Are you looking for a review of the book and how it relates to Multiverser the game or purely on the stories own merit?

If you mean do you have to be familiar with Multiverser to review the book, no you don't--we hope the book will reach beyond the Multiverser core audience and even beyond the gaming audience to the fantasy/sci-fi audience generally. A review that says it's a good story and well worth reading from someone who knows absolutely nothing about Multiverser would be a great thing; a review that says the book got across the concepts on which it was based without knowledge of the game or its ideas is also good.

If you mean do we specifically want you not to mention a connection with the game, that's also no. If you feel that there are aspects of the book that reflect the game which should be brought forward, that's good, too.

2. Would I have to return the book afterward?

No. You would have to promise not to sell it or give it to someone else who might sell it, because we didn't pay for these copies (due to the aforementioned misprinted spines) and it would be unethical for us to release them to the market, or even the aftermarket, because of the loss to the printer. Once you accept it, it's yours. If you don't want it, burn it or trash it or shred it. Please don't take it to a second-hand shop or give it to someone else who might do so.

3. Do you have a timeframe in mind of when it should be done? I only ask this one because being a stay at home dad sometimes greatly cuts into my reading and work time that is free.

Eh. I hope you'll read the book at a rate comfortable for you, and not rush through it. There's an attitude I have that says however long it takes for you to do it right is fine with me. Granted, I'd rather see them sooner rather than later, and there are a couple of reviewers who got copies of The Second Book of Worlds over a year ago who haven't quite gotten to it yet, which I think is extreme. I would be very happy to see a review within the month, but not unhappy if it came up later in the quarter. I'll start getting antsy after that, and after about six months or so my boss and I will probably exchange comments about our annoyance on how long it's taking--but if it takes you that long to read and review a 120,000 word novel, you probably don't have time to do it.

4. Will it help me get a copy of Multiverser? :) Just kidding.

Well, no--but I understand that the artist is giving poster copies of the cover (I haven't seen them and don't know how big they are), and probably would send one if you asked, if you're doing the review. Also, he's not beyond giving discounts to people who are connected to the company somehow--not so long ago he had me write to a batch people who had been involved in our online games and otherwise active to offer them a significant deal on books ordered within a short period, so he could drop inventory and build up capital. He could easily be persuaded to discount copies to people who had a connection to us somehow. Also, I don't know what he's thinking on this, but he'd certainly discount a copy of the rules if someone wanted to review them--and probably would send a free copy of The Second Book of Worlds to someone seriously going to review it, as we have not gotten so many reviews on that as we had hoped.

Let me know.

--M. J. Young

[Sylus Thane]

Hey M.J.
Thanks for considering my questions worthy of a public reply. At least I did someting right the other day. :) Considering your answers I would be more than happy to help you out and if Ron and Clinton are willing, post my review here on Forge and wherever else I can come up with. Just let me know what you need from me to get things started either in this thread, a private message, or in an e-mail. My address should be available in my profile. Glad I can be of help.

Sylus

[dragongrace]

Hmmm.. I wished I had checked out the conenctions board eariler in the week.  Sylus beat me to it.  I'd also be happy to read and review, MJ, BUT the forge is the only place I would know to place a review(if regular book reviews are acceptable here), unless you wanted to just accept a review and place it on your multiverser website or on the publishers website.  Maybe drop it on Amazon (shrug).

Otherwise, I hate to say it, I may not be worth your time :)

JOE--

[M. J. Young]

Joe Dragongrace--

No one willing to write a review and post it somewhere is "not worth the time". RPGnet accepts reviews; Gaming Outpost accepts reviews as article contributions. I don't know whether The Forge accepts reviews of fiction, but I'm not too worried about where the reviews appear, as long as they do appear somewhere--so we can quote, "Joe Dragongrace, Gaming Outpost" or "Sylus Thane, RPGnet" or something like that.

Let me know. Best to write to me at mjyoung@valdron.com with your mailing address so we can get a copy to you. (Best to e-mail the address, because then I can forward it to the guy who actually ships the books.)

Thanks for your interest.

--M. J. Young

[Sylus Thane]

Hey MJ,
I was wondering if something had stalled out on this as I haven't heard anything else since our intial e-mails. Is there something wrong that your man with the books can't get a hold of me or did I miss something. Just thought I would check so that I can get reading as soon as possible. Lemmee know so I can get this review done for you, I'm looking forward to reading it.

Sylus

[M. J. Young]

Sylus Thane--I'm checking now, should be able to tell you something tomorrow, depending on things outside my knowledge or control. I suspect it's shipped; although most books go out one day a week it should have gone by now. But I've forwarded the info again, in case it slipped through the cracks.

It's the Lazarus site, right? Or am I confusing names and handles again?

--M. J. Young

[Sylus Thane]

I think you may be confusing handles MJ. I never even got the e-mail to know who to give my address to so it could be shipped. More than likely I just slipped through the cracks. My e-mail address is moonandKassia@juno.com and i can PM you my address if needed.

Sylus