Monday, March 22, 2010

for those of you who receive ARCs from the publisher, PLEASE READ

I just saw something that really torqued me, and I think that if you are someone who receives or asks for ARCs when they come out, this article on the blog called "Lori's Reading Corner" will be of interest to you. It's about ARCs being sold on Ebay, some for ridiculously high amounts of money.

Now, I know that someone somewhere is going to come up with the statement that the people who sell ARCs on line have a right to make money however they choose, but that's crap. Sheer and simple crap. When a book's cover says "Not for resale" it means that no one, absolutely no one should profit from it. Plain and simple.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am seeing more and more people taking the attitude of "the rules are not for me" and doing what they want, not realizing that their actions have consequences that branch out past themselves. In this case, if people are making money from selling ARCs, the flow of advanced reader copies is going to stop. Period. I'll be sad when that happens. There goes Librarything early reviewers. There goes first reads on Goodreads.  There go the Booktrib book giveaways.  There goes Amazon Vine.  And who knows what else. My advice to the blogger who wrote this: contact the publisher and author when she sees blatant ARC selling on Ebay or anywhere else. I even offered to help her out. I like getting these free books and guess what? Sometimes after I get an ARC, I like the book so much that I buy it when it's released!

Please read the article. It's important.

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree with what you are saying here. I look at receiving an ARC as a change to review the book early and I take that job seriously. As a reviewer I am tasked, and trusted, to review the books I am given.

    I think selling ARC's is wrong, and I think it should be illegal on the sites like EBay, etc, to do so. I also think once a person does something like this they should not be allowed to receive any more ARCS from the companies they are abusing.

    You have me all worked up now on this issue as you are so right, these people will hurt programs such as you mention above.

    I too many times buy the books I have reviewed as well as purchase copies for friends and family.

    Thank you for a passionate post :)

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  2. No thanks necessary at all, Sheila. I hate when people limit their thinking to "what's in it for me," and thereby quite possibly ruin it for other people who are more honest. And thank you for your comment.

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Say what you will, but at least try to be nice about it.