The Wind Up and the Pitch

A person receives an advanced reader's copy of a book in the mail. They remove the book from its package, take a gander at it, and lo and behold there sits a letter inside the front cover. It's a pitch letter, explaining why you should read this book and how this magnificent title fits in to the general scheme of the universe. I never really thought much about these letters before, but a recent Galleycat piece asks Do Reviewers Care About the Pitch Letter? Well, do they? Punk?

This particular reviewer who sits before you doesn't really care one way or another about the letters. Galleycat points out that the pitch may give you some idea of how important the publishing house finds this particular title, but should that matter in the end? It's worth considering in any case. If the pitch letter disappeared tomorrow, I suspect that few reviewers would even notice.