Lessons in Communication – Tone Matters
I’m always learning from fellow creators and had some great examples of the past couple of weeks of creators nailing the tone of their posts, and how much of an impact it can have.
Those darned customs inspections
Last fall when Nut Hunt was on its way stateside our container was randomly inspected at customs. It cost us a few thousand dollars, and luckily only about 24 hours at the boarder facility (I’ve heard horror stories of containers detained for weeks or months).
It was a frustrating experience – not just because it was money out of our pocket, but also due to the uncertainty over how it would impact our timelines. My update to backers was a no-nonsense look at what was going on, and how it might (but ended up not) impact backers.
You can read the whole update here.
I pride our company on transparency and things like this blog as a behind the curtain look at publishing. And, that update did hit those marks in a pretty neutral tone.
Last week publisher Matthue Ryann had a similar problem with one of his shipments for his game Don’t Get Drunk, and I was impressed by the tack he took. Rather than be negative, or just neutral about the experience, he turned his misfortune into an upbeat and positive moment for his fans.
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At the end of the day publishing board games is about fun. I think Matt’s response is an important lesson to keep in mind, to look to create fun in our communities even around the mundane or negative events for us as publishers.
Mythic Missteps
There are a whole lot of cans of worms to unpack from the disaster that is the 6: Siege post campaign management. Here are some recaps:
There’s a lot that could be said about Mythic’s communication – lack of transparency, apparent dishonestly about why they need more funds (hint: it’s development cost overruns not manufacture overruns), and a Bond villain-esque setting for delivering the bad news to backers.
But, I want to focus on another publisher’s response to the Mythic news.
Namely, Jamey Stegmaier’s write up: 10 Ways for Creators to Prevent a Mythic Meltdown
Jamey is a master at turning things into teachable moments. While many content creators talked about what went wrong with Mythic’s campaign, or (maybe rightfully) denigrated the actions of the company, Jamey turned the negative moment into an opportunity to highlight how creators can do it right.
I always really appreciate that consistency of tone of his content.
When have you seen a publisher communicating a negative event well?
