What are galleys for, anyway?: seanan

What are galleys for, anyway?

People have been asking me what galleys are for. Why do I have them, why would I need them, what am I planning to do with them, and—most commonly asked of all—why can't they have one. (Seriously.) So:

Galleys, ARCs (Advance Reader/Reviewer Copies), and other pre-release forms of a book have exactly one purpose: to drive up the book's visibility, and hence, sales. They're primarily given to bookstores, especially independent bookstores (where a good-looking ARC can potentially increase their order by quite a lot), reviewers (both print and online; the blogging community has been getting an increasing number of pre-release review copies over the past few years), and authors, who are a little crazy at the best of times, and are likely to get crazier as our book releases approach.

As authors, we're expected to distribute our ARCs and galleys in whatever way will do this most good. Also to our mothers. So we send them to smaller bookstores that our publisher may not know about, we give them to bloggers we know well enough to ask for reviews, and we hand them to other authors in hopes that they'll find our work appealing. And we try to keep the cats from using them as furniture (although this is basically a lost cause). ARCs are interesting, because they have—simultaneously—a very high importance and a very short shelf-life. Once the mass market edition hits shelves, dude, it's better-printed, better-designed, better-able to stand up to stress, and best of all, it's better-edited, because ARCs are printed before page proofs are returned. Once the mass market edition exists, the ARC is an interesting curiosity, and you'd better pray you found them all good homes. Or that the cats really, really like them.

Right now, I'm in the "reviewers I know personally" and "setting up competitions and give-aways" stage of our program. I'll have a few copies with me at BayCon and DucKon, naturally, and much like the art cards at Wondercon, there will be a Secret Password that gets me to give you a book (if I have one on me). I'm also questing for places where books need to go, and have found some fun promotional channels that I'm testing out.

Galleys. They're not just to keep the cats entertained while I'm at work.

fionn320

May 2 2009, 22:21:55 UTC 8 years ago

New comment

You, and by "you" I mean you, your agent, and your publisher should knkow about the Sacramento Book Review. It is less than a year old, but the reviews seem to be pretty solid. http://sacramentobookreview.com/submission-guidelines/

spectralbovine

May 3 2009, 00:36:21 UTC 8 years ago

My friend

actoplasm writes for the SBR! Put him on a tier, Seanan.

seanan_mcguire

8 years ago

ladyqkat

May 2 2009, 22:31:34 UTC 8 years ago

Thank you for this information.

sordak has some ARC's from when he worked as a bookseller at a fairly well-known chain. Some of them are interesting curiosities and a couple are from authors whose later works made more impact.

I just wish he had been encouraged more, at the time, to follow up with reviews and/or notes to the author or publisher. Ah, well. Wishes and horses.

May 3 2009, 03:45:22 UTC 8 years ago

A lot of ARCs are just sort of sent out blind. Sort of like a standard droplet-based transmission, or an octopus spawning—countless viral microns and baby octopi are squirted out into the world, and the species just prays for survival.

My book is going for the Black Death tour. DEATH TO ALL MANKIND! Or, y'know, just sales.

mariadkins

May 2 2009, 23:19:35 UTC 8 years ago

I love the ARCs I get from my pals for review. I have a shelf full. The ones that didn't come directly from a publicist are all personalized. Extra fun! :)

May 2 2009, 23:20:57 UTC 8 years ago

Hey if you want to shoot me one, feel free. I post up reviews on my blog, at Amazon, and a few other places around the net. ;)

oneminutemonkey

May 2 2009, 23:26:45 UTC 8 years ago

Got your call this morning, but the phone died in mid-ring. :>

May 3 2009, 03:46:32 UTC 8 years ago

Called you back, for I am cunning like that! Muahaahaha.

archangelbeth

May 2 2009, 23:54:58 UTC 8 years ago

If you make a note of how many ARCs you received, any left over can be numbered #/### (where ### is either the total ARCs in the wild, or only the ones you were left with), signed, and raffled away as Limited Edition ARC Signed By Author, to get them out from under the cat, and/or for charity auctions at conventions.

May 3 2009, 03:46:44 UTC 8 years ago

Oh, very good idea! I applaud your cunning.

figmo

May 3 2009, 01:10:25 UTC 8 years ago

How do I get onto the galley review list?

May 3 2009, 01:34:25 UTC 8 years ago

To get onto a publisher's galley review list, it's a good idea to become affiliated with a print publication which regularly runs genre reviews appropriate to the publisher in question. Internet sites which regularly run reviews may also wind up on galley review lists, as these have an average traffic high enough to justify sending an ARC or galley to their editors (Green Man Review or Aphelion, for example).

If looking to get on an individual author's galley review lists, it will depend entirely on your established reputation as a reviewer of, again, appropriate genre material. So if you review a great many horror novels, it might be worth a horror author's consideration. But it's a very individual thing.

snowishness

May 3 2009, 01:32:38 UTC 8 years ago

Ooh, cool.

Thanks for the explanation, and the image of them as cat-toys. Awesomesauce.

May 3 2009, 03:47:12 UTC 8 years ago

Everything is a cat-toy. EVERYTHING. I've given up fighting it.

janetmiles

May 3 2009, 01:55:37 UTC 8 years ago

ysabetwordsmith does a lot of book reviews, and is herself a published author, if you wanted to contact her about a possible review.

May 3 2009, 03:47:36 UTC 8 years ago

Thanks for the pointer!

Deleted comment

May 3 2009, 03:48:43 UTC 8 years ago

I don't mind the asking, especially when it's in a private forum—you want to email me, where it's not a public thing, I can tell you "no" without feeling a bit bad, and you're thus more likely to get a "yes" (I'm weird). It's the expecting that's getting to me.

antigoneschase

May 3 2009, 03:17:03 UTC 8 years ago

I've already talked about you like crazy at my new-and-used bookstore that's local. And I'm trying to convince them to buy copies when the time comes. However, I'm sure if the resident!BookLady could read it in advance, she'd be way more likely to see that it fits in their weird little selection.

So, I guess the real question: is there a way to get her on the magical list? Because I would like to pet her hair and ask her how wonderful it is a thousand times until I can buy a copy for everyone in my little circle of friends. (And I've just realized how scary that sounds. Poor BookLady. I promise I don't actually act that creepy with her. Often.)

May 3 2009, 03:49:28 UTC 8 years ago

...yes, that definitely sounds scary. But also amusing! Email me—this journal is paid, and there's also a "contact" link through my website—and we'll see what can be done!

tibicina

May 3 2009, 06:55:27 UTC 8 years ago

I suspect your publishers have sent one to Vroman's in Pasadena, but if they haven't, I know the owners and could get them a copy. (And if they have sent them a copy, let me know, so I can go 'no... seriously, look at this one.')

May 3 2009, 20:26:12 UTC 8 years ago

I'll let you know if/when I get a list of where my publicist has sent them, and if they're not on the list, we'll hook them up.

rrie_selavy

May 3 2009, 07:59:07 UTC 8 years ago

Sort of an odd question: being a library student whose advisor is a Grand High Poobah of the YA lit world, I have access to galley copies. If I read it and absolutely must do a review ahead of schedule, would you like me to email you for permission first before posting it?

May 3 2009, 20:27:11 UTC 8 years ago

I'd love to be pointed at any review you do, but please, feel free to review whenever you like! Wherever you like! Although if you do a review in magnetic poetry on the side of a moving van, I demand photos.

keristor

May 3 2009, 09:35:21 UTC 8 years ago

What are galleys for? In the order I thought of them:

Cooking in a ship.

Fighting other ships (as long as you have enough slaves for the oars).

Rowing ashore from a ship.

Oh, you mean galley proofs (over this side more often referred to just as 'proofs' in my experience) *g*...