So after a year of selling my various editions of Legends of Steel on my own, I'm persuaded by a friend to put them up on RPGNow. The move appears to have been a good one. Yes, I lose a percentage of each sale, but the supplements are now being seen by a much larger audience. As a result, sales have improved nicely.
I do have one gripe though.
When you post your book for sale, they ask if you would like to send a copy to the "staff reviewers" at RPGNow. I checked ok (a little added publicity never hurts right?).
So then I post the books and almost immediately a couple of dozen books fly out the door-but at $0.00. These are the review copies. Okay, so I wait. It's been about a month and so far I see one staff review of one of the LoS books.
Maybe I should give it a bit more time, but one review after a month seems a little sparse. I'm wondering if these "Staff Reviewers" really do all that much reviewing or are these guys just buddies of the owners who get treated to free copies of peoples stuff?
It reminds me of when I first came out with Broadsword and LoS. I sent out a bunch of review copies to friends, Blog owners and "message board royalty" in the hopes of getting some reviews back. A few solid guys reciprocated with reviews, but most just put me off with excuses. Needless to say I don't send out review copies anymore, and next time around I dont think I'll be checking that box on RPGNow.
