ARCs and Everything After

One of the things I’ve learned on this crazy road to publication is that ARCs (Advance Reader Copies, galleys, uncorrected proofs, review copies, etc.) are like gold.  Because they have a small print run, each bound copy is expensive.  Publishers dole them out carefully – some authors only get two copies for their own marketing purposes.

This makes them very important.  And the choices we make with them as authors have to be equally important.  I don’t have extras.  Every single one is dedicated and for a purpose. It’s not easy to choose when you want everyone to be able to read your book.  When you want bloggers to shout about it.  When you want to be accommodating.  But choices must be made.

And then, yesterday, one went up for sale on eBay. (cue Psycho-esque slasher music).

This just kills me.  I know it happens.  It’s immoral, it’s wrong, it’s ridiculous.  It is, in theory, stealing money from me because I don’t get the royalties from the sale. But, you say, maybe this shouldn’t bother me so much because at least someone is eager to read my book.  I don’t get money from used book sales or from the 101^st library reader, either.  It’s the readers that matter, right?  Well, yes and no.

What matters is one word.  “Uncorrected.”

ARCs are uncorrected proofs.  They contain mistakes.  Some are just typos, some are word choice.  In my case, there is a scene that I altered after the ARCs came out that makes the book better, makes the characters more clear.  It’s not a huge change, just word order and scene structure.  But to me it’s important.

I don’t want anyone to have to pay good money for my mistakes.  I want my readers to get the best story I can possibly give them.  That will be in the final copy.

There’s not a lot I can do about eBay sellers or used bookstore sales of ARCs.  There is no ARC police.  I can alert the seller.  I can tell my friends who do the same (thank you, Class of 2k12!).  And I can let you, my readers, know how I feel.  So that when you see an ARC for sale – mine or anyone else’s – you can make your own choice.

Update:  The lovely Kelly Jensen over at Stacked has blogged about this very same issue -- with much more depth and a little more perspective.  If you're interested, please see what she has to say here.