S&S Canada readies for Galley Grab debut this week

Simon & Schuster U.S. became the first major North American publisher to offer advance digital galleys of all its titles with the launch late last week of Galley Grab. Though the website isn’t available in Canada yet, Simon & Schuster Canada director of marketing Felicia Quon says it will be soon.

“We’ll be implementing the program hopefully this week,” Quon says, adding that some minor tweaks still have to be made to the site to allow Canadian participation. “We don’t expect to replace hard copies anytime soon,” she adds, “but having electronic galleys will greatly expand our pre-publication reach.”

Galley Grab will be accessible only by invitation, and reviewers will have to register to become authorized users. Registered users will be able to download galleys through Adobe Digital Editions and read them on personal computers and e-readers, excluding the Amazon Kindle. The e-galley will expire on the book’s publication date.

Other multinational publishers may be following in Simon & Schuster’s footsteps soon. “We’ve definitely had discussions [about e-galleys],” says Rob Firing, director of publicity and communications at HarperCollins Canada. Firing adds that he hopes to announce a new initiative sometime soon. Meanwhile, at Penguin Canada, director of marketing and publicity Yvonne Hunter says there have been ongoing conversations within the company about e-galleys, but that no decisions have been made.

Meanwhile, at least one Canadian-owned house has already joined the e-galley revolution: ECW Press has been offering reviewers either a hard copy galley or a digital galley via Net Galley for some time, according to company publicity director Simon Ware.