Want to request a galley of Chris Colfer's first book?

[meadowlion]

Today's "Shelf Awareness Pro: Enlightenment for the Book Trade" e-newsletter had this gif with the link to request a galley of Chris Colfer's upcoming The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell.

Comments

[verschreibsel]

So does that mean it doesn't matter what we write in the e-mail or should we write about wanting an ARC?

[meadowlion]

The original gif/link from the e-newsletter pops up with only the to and subject e-mail fields pre-filled. I went ahead and added a sentence of my own requesting a galley in the body of the e-mail, along with my full real name, just in case, and I would suggest not leaving the body totally blank, to keep your e-mail from getting rerouted as spam. But, as far as I know, nothing specific is required in the body.

[verschreibsel]

Yeah I just wanted to know if a passionate essay on how much I adore Chris would help my case haha 'Cause I could totally do that

[meadowlion]

Hee! I don't know if it would help, but I don't expect it would hurt. You could talk up how you'd post reviews of the book on LiveJournal, other social media, and/or other reading-related sites like Goodreads, so that the publisher would know you wanted to help get out the word about their product.

[1jennyfan]

The fact that Chris is writing a fiction novel still kind of baffles me every once it a while. It just blows my mind. :D

[meadowlion]

All his -- and Darren Criss' -- media work amazes me, but at the same time I'm not surprised because I can't help thinking, with talent and goals like theirs, of course they're going to work on dozens of different kinds of projects! =) I'm excited to see all the directions they'll explore throughout their careers.

[aquagirl77]

Thanks for letting us know! Fingers crossed that someone from here actually wins a copy.

[clau019]

At first I read that as "gallery" and I thought "how does one request a ~gallery of a book?" XD

Are galleys usually meant for the general public, or are they more for journalists, librarians and such?

[meadowlion]

The primary intended audience would be booksellers, librarians, critics, and others in related fields. However, as someone who works in the library field and has a pretty good understanding of the state of publishing, I can tell you that at this point most publishers just really want to spread the word about upcoming releases in as many ways as they can. If they think a reader will promote their book (and maybe even be devoted enough to buy it despite having got an advance proof), they're likely to want to get it into the reader's hands regardless of vocation.

[nyychick23513]

I love Shelf Awareness! [/publishing nerd]

I'm so behind on my newsletters though, so I didn't see this yet. Very cool! :D Good luck to all trying to win a galley!

[meadowlion]

I love it too! I especially appreciate how evenhanded they tend to be and the range of books and publishing-related topics they cover. Some other e-newsletters (not to name any names) tend to focus too much on certain genres or views.

Between the Pro, Readers, Maximum, and Dedicated issues of Shelf Awareness, along with a couple other subscriptions I have and my regular library work e-mail, it's definitely hard to keep up, though, and I wind up skimming a lot anymore. It's just fortunate that Chris Colfer's face is so eye-catching. ;-)