YA author Elizabeth Fama just raised an important question with her “Kill My ARC” blog post: What should we do with advance reader copies (ARCs) of a book?
Fama hoped that every ARC of her new novel (Monstrous Beauty) would be pulped, and shared the reasons why in her post. We’ve collected some of her thoughts below–what do you think? Follow this link to read the whole post:
1. I don’t want my ARC to go to a small used bookstore in your neighborhood.
2. I don’t want my ARC to go to a struggling public library for anything but collection development purposes.
And here’s the kicker that may make me seem like a horrible beast:
3. I don’t want a deserving teenager—even one who is underprivileged, owns no other books, and who devotedly helped with his library’s collection development—to be given my ARC as a gift.
This GalleyCat editor regularly receives stacks of ARCs that he never requested, and struggles with this problem on a regular basis. ARCs are an expensive part of this industry. If you are an author or publisher who worries about the fate of your ARC, we urge you to switch to digital galleys and only send your book to readers you know are interested in your book. (Via Jane Litte)