A Great Galley Mailing


Josie Leavitt - May 6, 2013

One of the things I like best about owning a bookstore is getting galleys in the mail. I never know what lovely discoveries await in the boxes. Sometimes, galleys come with things. Once books were wrapped in feathers (not my favorite galley mailing, as they seem to have disintegrated during shipping). Sometimes galleys come with chocolate, always a staff favorite. Usually though, the mailings shadeare not useful, until the galley for Susan Beth Pfeffer’s The Shade of the Moon came last week from HMH.

I have to confess that the arrival of this galley actually caused me to do a little Snoopy dance. I just love this series, it started with one of my favorite books, Life As We Knew It. The concept is so simple: what would happen if the moon were struck by a meteor with such force it knocked it off its orbit? Lots of things happen. Things that make the reader want to stock a survival kit in the basement and ensure they have lots of firewood for the weather-related almost-nuclear winter that ensues.  All the books in the series are just as compelling as the first, and if the first 100 pages of the new book are any indication, this is going to be another winning entry.
The galley came in a small box with the book and a survival kit. At first I thought, really, a kit? And survivialthen I opened it. How practical is all of this stuff? I live alone in the country, and this is all very useful. The Clif bar is always helpful when I forget to get food, or eat breakfast. The whistle, well, that can scare bears, right? Matches are always helpful kitcontentswhen the power goes out. The first aid kit is fabulous and chock full of things to help me when I do something silly, like burn myself with the matches during the blackout. Then there’s hand sanitizer which is also useful when there’s no power and there’s no water.
And the best part about this kit is the book, which I cannot put down.

4 thoughts on “A Great Galley Mailing

  1. Tim tocher

    Susan sat on a YA panel I was lucky enough to moderate at the Millbrook (NY) Literary Festival a couple of years ago. In preparation, I read a book by each of the authors. Once I read LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, I had to read the other two books in the series. I still can’ t venture outdoors at night without checking to see that the moon is where it belongs. The simplicity of the premise belies the drastic consequences such a relatively minor cosmic mishap would cause. Can’t wait to read the new one.
    Tim Tocher, author of ODD BALL: HILARIOUS! BIZARRE! AND UNUSUAL BASEBALL MOMENTS

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  2. Joanne Fritz

    Oh how I miss galleys! Since the bookstore closed, I’ve been going to the library. I didn’t even realize Susan Pfeffer had written a fourth book in this series, but I devoured the first three. Thanks for the heads-up.

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  3. Carol Chittenden

    Cranky Carol here. Much as I admire clever marketing efforts, receiving a fancy package of book plus stuff always underlines, in my mind, the question or what’s NOT getting done for that book: expeditious shipping? Another buck of coop? Study guide? A point of discount? Holding out against a cut-rate book club edition before the trade paper edition?
    That said, I love Susan Beth Pfeffer, and will always stock and recommend her books. Good writing and smart, funny, cooperative authors are the best survival kit of all.

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