I’ve worked with various content creators over the years and I have learned a ton about what kind of expectations to have and how to treat people. A very important part of all of this is knowing that there’s very few people in this industry that make a living off of board games. I would say that most people in the industry, whether they are designers, publishers, reviewers, or podcasters do not make a living off of the work that they do. This is certainly a hobby industry, where the majority of us are here to create something because we love the hobby and the people in it.

Why is this fact important when interacting with content creators? Well, your game is not in their top 10 priorities, most likely. They might have a significant other, family members, a job, and themselves to think about before you and your game and this is perfectly normal and logical.

These are some of the things that have prevented reviewers from posting content on my games on the agreed upon date:

• Losing power due to a hurricane
• Getting the Flu (or their partner, children, etc. getting some illness)
• Getting Laid Off
• Unexpected Overtime at Work
• Game never arrived and was lost in the mail
• Their computer was stolen
• Their camera broke

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but things happen and it’s no one’s fault. If you’re putting a game on Kickstarter and send out 5 reviewer copies, you should expect at least one of those reviewers to not be able to review on time for one reason or another. Sometimes lightning strikes and all 5 of those reviewers have something happen in their lives and that’s terrible, for both you and them.

How Many Reviewer Copies

Now that you know that life can hit you and content creators in a variety of ways, the best way to start avoiding being disappointed on the KS launch day is to send out more reviewer copies of your game than you want reviews done. How many more reviewer copies depends on several things:

• How well do you know the reviewers you’ve chosen?
• How early before your launch date is it?
• How easy have you made it for the reviewers?

Knowing Reviewers

At this point, I think I’ve sent Eric from What’s Eric Playing? seven games to review and he’s published content on all of them on the dates we talked about. I can pretty much assume that if the game gets to him, he’ll have the content out when I expect it and I’ll get a quote before the content goes live. I’ve also met him in person and know all of his policies, so I understand what he needs and what to provide him with to make this happen.

If you haven’t worked with a particular reviewer before but have worked with other reviewers successfully, I’d say there’s a better chance of things working out than if you’ve never worked successfully with any reviewer. There’s certain things you can learn how to do to make things easy on all parties involved and I’ll talk more about that later on in this post.

Timing

The more lead time you give a content creator, the more likely they can have content made on your time table. I have had success with sending out games and getting content two weeks later, but this is rare and also understood from all parties involved. Instead, giving content creators at least a month, if not two months, with the game gives a great chance at getting the content out on a time table.

Written reviews tend to have pictures that need to be taken, maybe they need to be edited to look good, then the text has to be put together, proofread, and laid out. This isn’t something that can happen in an hour, even if the content creator has played the game enough to know all about it. Videos take even longer; a script has to be written, a recording area has to be set up, recording and editing have to happen. Sometimes you record voice and video separately and they have to be overlaid. Generally, this takes a certain number of hours, on top of the hours it takes to learn and play the game a few times.

If you think about the fact that content creators tend to have families, jobs, and they need to do basic tasks like eating, it makes sense that dedicating 5-20+ hours to your game (a lot more for heavier games) is more likely to happen if you give them a month or two to put that time in.

How to make things Easy

One way to make things super easy is to have a dropbox folder of information. I usually have the following avaliable in the folder:

• PDF of the Rules
• PDF of the print and play
• Media Kit for the Game; this should include the game box image, game logo, game icons (player count, ages, time), images of the game that could be used in a blog post, company logo. There’s also an article on Meeple Mountain that gives a very thorough suggested list of images for a media kit that can be found here: https://www.meeplemountain.com/articles/how-to-create-a-killer-board-game-media-kit/
• Reviewer Letter (this is the letter I send with the prototype game that says the planned differences between prototype and final game)

I also send out regular emails (weekly, if possible) that have the following information:

• Link to the Dropbox Folder
• KS or Retail Launch Date
• When I’d like them to post the review, if possible
• Any questions and answers that other reviewers have asked
• A question asking them if they have questions. This is important as you asking might remind them that they do have questions. (Remember, content creators are people with lives and things on their mind that aren’t your game.)

Back to the Question; How Many?

If you know the reviewers you’re working with a lot, have made it really easy for them, you’ve worked with reviewers in the past successfully, and have given them two months with the game, I’d suggest to send out 30% more copies than you’d like to get reviews. So, if you want to get 5 reviews out on a date, send out 7 copies.

Increase this percentage for any factor that you’re not sure about and also increase this percentage if there’s anything going on in the world, like a pandemic. Pandemics make for more chaos, in your life, the mail, and each content creator’s life. If their job changes at a moment’s notice, they’ll need to deal with that instead of your game.

If you’re brand new to working with reviewers, but have a lot of time, I’d suggest sending out 100% – 200% more copies than you want reviews. One reason for this is that at this time, in addition to not knowing how to work with content creators, you also probably don’t know much about the content creators themselves and their taste in games. You’ll most likely send your game to a content creator that won’t enjoy it. Some content creators will tell you and send the game back, some will make content that isn’t something you’re excited to share with the world. So, if you want to get 5 great reviews to share around, you should send out 10 – 15 copies of your game.

Now, say you’re also launching your KS in a month AND you’re brand new to all this. I’d recommend sending out even more reviewer copies of your game. This can come with a great cost, with the amount of shipping and cost of the games, but it can definitely be a learning experience. You’ll learn which content creators like games like the ones you create, you’ll get skills on how to interact with content creators, and you hopefully won’t be disappointed on your launch date.

Passing Along the Prototype

One thing you can also do is to ask a content creator to pass along your game to another content creator. This can mean multiple pieces of content for one game, which is fantastic! Here’s some things to keep in mind with this:

• You should offer up front to pay for the shipping, whatever it is. This is much cheaper than ordering another copy AND paying for shipping, plus the content creator is taking time out of their day to help you. It’s the least you can do to pay for the shipping.
• Not everyone can ship out games, especially in a pandemic.
• I always make mention of this when I first contact the content creator, so it’s not a surprise later on. I also never assume that ANYONE will be able to pass on the prototype copy. If they can, that’s great! If they can’t, that’s fine, too. Make this fact clear with the content creator and that you’re super thankful that they’re willing to ship out the game.
• It’s always great to offer a copy of the final game to reviewers, if they want it, but ESPECIALLY if they ship the prototype out to someone else.
• Make sure to send all information on the game to the second content creator, especially any end dates. With getting a second piece of content from one prototype, unless you sent it out incredibly early, the second content creator is probably not going to have time to post their content until the middle of the KS campaign. This is great for your KS, though, as it should help the mid-campaign slump.
• This isn’t really recommended for anything other than KS campaigns, as you should have plenty of games for reviewers once you manufacture.

Other Tips

• Be very explicit and clear with what you expect. Content creators aren’t mind readers and they probably don’t read every one of your tweets.

For example, I always ask that content creator’s don’t post until a certain day, but when that date passes, I usually ask that they post before the end date of the Kickstarter if they can AND I tell them that date. If you ask someone to not post until September 3rd, but don’t say anything else, they might think you’re perfectly alright with them posting their content on September 23rd or in October.

• Read through the Content Creator’s website to find any of their expectations. You can learn a lot by just searching a little bit!

For example, here’s the guidelines from Eric of What’s Eric Playing: https://whatsericplaying.com/contact/

• Keep communication with content creators professional. If you’re not paying them, they’re doing this out of love for the hobby. You should not call anyone out on social media as it reflects more poorly on you than anything else.
• Going further with the previous point, be grateful for the help the content creator’s are providing. Saying this both publicly and privately is a great way to to show your appreciation.
• Share the content that creators make. I have a set list of quotes and links that go out from my social media on a schedule. It helps people know that the content creator exists and if people read about your games, that’s great, too! So, it’s a win-win to share content that others have made about your games.
• It’s always great to send games to new content creators, if you can. Once a game is manufactured and I have extra copies to send, I try to send to at least 3-5 new reviewers. This helps me get to know more content creators as you never know when a content creator will be busy in their life or if they’ll continue making content for the rest of their life.
• Reaching out in the Board Game Reviewers Facebook group is great when you’re new or if you want to meet more content creators. There’s also Punchboard Media, which has a large number of amazing content creators.
• Don’t be discouraged! If someone doesn’t want to review your game, it could be for a variety of reasons.
• Don’t send your game out to someone without communicating and making sure that they want your game first. You might think your game is amazing, but everyone’s tastes are different and you don’t know what their schedule is like. You can at least make sure that you’re both on the same page with expectations about the game and timing if you talk to them!
• Giving games out at conventions can save you SO MUCH on shipping. However, you should talk to the content creators first, as they might need to pack an extra luggage to take all their games home or they might already have a full luggage.
• Apologize and say sorry for the things that go wrong. If you’re sending out Kickstarter copies of your game and a reviewer is asking questions, it takes so little effort to say, “Sorry that wasn’t clear.” If you don’t respond to an email as fast as you wanted to, you can say, “Thanks for being so patient, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.” Remember, they’re helping you out, so being a little human back to them can go a long way.
• Asking for a quote from a content creator is a great way to prepare for a Kickstarter, as you can share the quote and add it to your KS page before the launch. You want things to be as easy as possible for you, too and making it so you simply input a link when you get the content is much faster than having to make a graphic and upload it.

TLDR;

Content creators are people and your game isn’t in their first 10 priorities and also shouldn’t be, as they could have any (and maybe all) of these people and things in their lives; a spouse or person they’re dating, kids, parents, a job, a vehicle, a computer, pets, etc. Plus, they need to do basic things, like cooking and cleaning.

Be nice and honest with them and hopefully they’ll be nice and honest with you and you’ll all be happy with the interaction, but sometimes even then lightning can strike (literally!) and the content won’t go out as planned, so prepare for this by sending out more reviewer copies.

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