Chapter 23: Publishing
23.8. Making an announcement

If promoting a new work is all about recruiting players, the most direct way is simply to tell IF regulars about it.

So supposing it isn't a competition entry, the traditional coming-out event for a new work of IF is an announcement posted on rec.games.int-fiction, available for instance at:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/topics

The announcement should include information about where players can play or download the game, and about any technical information we think players should have -- but it should do more than that: it should offer the reader a reason to play. While some of us are more comfortable writing advertisements or press releases than others, this is an unavoidable piece of the process, even if we aren't planning to sell our games commercially. We may not be competing for players' money, but we are competing for their time and attention -- not only with the other IF games already available, but also with television, other kinds of video games, and the demands of daily life. So it's worth telling the player why this game is going to be awesome, by letting him know about the unusual setting, the compelling plot hook, the nifty feature that is going to get him engaged. An attractive website that communicates the flavor of the game is also a good marketing tool.

One format might be to start with the title and author, and then the "story description" text discussed earlier in this chapter - which is like the back cover blurb on a book. It might also be worth asking the beta-testers to suggest some promotional prose: they're usually fans by the time they're done testing, but they have a little more distance from it, and don't suffer the same self-consciousness.


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