How This Romance Novelist Connected Readers In All 50 States With A Galley Exchange Program

When romance novelist Abby Jimenez was looking for ideas to promote her latest novel, The Happy Ever After Playlist, she knew she wanted to send advance reader copies (ARCs) to some of her diehard fans. The problem? She received only 20 ARCs and had almost 3,000 readers in her Facebook discussion group who were clamoring for them. In an interview, she said she thought, “How about instead of doing giveaways with these books, why don’t I start a program where they share them?”

To do so, she set up a traveling galley program, where select readers would receive a galley, then send it to another reader within a week. To qualify, readers had to have rated Jimenez’s first novel, The Friend Zone, somewhere online, be willing to pay to ship the galley to the next reader, and agree to rate the new title.

Additionally, to encourage readers to branch out their social connections, Jimenez said, “The books had to travel to a new state that they’d never been to before with each new reader,” with the next recipient being someone the reader didn’t know. “This was to encourage group members to get to know each other and to keep the books from getting handed between friends,” said Jimenez, who noted that explained that most readers did a fun contest in the group to pick the new recipient.

Jimenez, alongside four administrators from her Facebook group, made sure the books reached all 116 participants, with four books sent within the United States and one in Canada, and were being sent in a timely manner. While Jimenez expected some of the copies to be lost or damaged, and set aside five of her stash for such eventualities, only one was needed. “The readers were incredibly grateful and respectful of the program and all five books, with the exception of one that I swapped out almost at the end because the spine was breaking, made it to the finish line,” she explained. The books made it 101,191 miles over the course of four months, with the program wrapping up two weeks prior to the novel’s publication date.

In addition to getting to read the book several months before its April 14 release, participants got to discuss the book with Jimenez in an exclusive discussion group. Jimenez said she “loved” the program, and that it had unexpected benefits for her readers. “It cultivated such an incredible comraderie within my fanbase. As the program progressed, people started including little gifts for the next reader. It became a traveling care package.”

She’s deemed the program a success, saying that “it created increased reader loyalty, and generated over 115 advanced reviews for The Happy Ever After Playlist from people who are already fans and enjoy my writing style, so the bulk of the reviews were positive.”

While the traveling galley program was arranged last fall before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic impact of the pandemic did affect many of Jimenez’s fans, who were eager to read The Happy Ever Playlist but couldn’t afford to purchase a new copy. An “Angel” program emerged, also from Jimenez’s Facebook group, in which group members offered to buy books for those who couldn’t afford them. “The admins of the group took over the program as the middle people so the exchange could be anonymous if the recipient or sender didn’t want their name shared,” said Jimenez.

Asked about the difference between her debut book launch in 2019 and her sophomore title in 2020, Jimenez said the latest was “weird.” She’d been set to go on her first book tour and have a book launch event at her local bookstore, Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis, with Red, White & Royal Blue author Casey McQuiston. Then the COVID-10 pandemic hit and her live events got cancelled, forcing Jimenez to switch to livestreamed events.

Of that transition, Jimenez says she’s not so sure that was a bad thing in terms of book promotion, given the greater reach. “Virtual events are accessible to larger audience, and for my launch, we funneled book sales to my indie bookstore – making the “ticket” for entry the purchase of the book. To make it extra special, I agreed to personalize all the books that were purchased through my indie for the launch,” explained Jimenez, who said the virtual launch party had 750 attendees, whereas 300 had purchased tickets to the previously scheduled in-person event. This opened up the possibilities for future book promotions, said Jimenez. “I liked this so much I have a feeling we’ll continue to do events like this even after the pandemic is over.”