From the listservs: ARCs

February 17, 2010

About a week and a half ago a member of the YALSA-bk mailing list said that she was new to receiving ARCs and asked what listserv members did with their copies. A discussion erupted that pulled in librarians, authors, and publishers alike and is still going on today.

For the uninitiated, ARCs are Advanced Reading Copies (or Advance Review Copies)–paperback copies of a book that a publisher distributes before a book is published to allow people to review them, to solicit feedback, and to create buzz around the book. Sometimes these books are uncorrected proofs with a plain cover, and the content of the story may change between the distribution of the ARC and the publication of the actual book. Publishers or authors will occasionally post to the listserv offering ARCs of an upcoming book, they’re sometimes sent to librarians, magazines or other reviewers, and booksellers, and they’re available from publishers at conferences.

(Not every book is distributed as an ARC beforehand: I was disappointed to learn from the dean of IUPUI’s SLIS program that Scholastic isn’t planning to give out ARCs of MOCKINGJAY, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy (read my post about the announcement of the cover of the book) at ALA’s Annual Conference this July because the series is so popular and well-known that they don’t think they need to build any buzz–or let the secrets out early.)

So once you’ve received an ARC, what do you do with it? The publisher would like you to read it and either publish or send in a review and, if you like it, spread the word about the upcoming book. But what do you do with the book afterward? Many librarians said that they distributed the ARCs to their teens to read and review and then they sent the reviews into the publisher and used them to decide whether or not to purchase the book when it comes out for the library’s collection. A few said they gave away ARCs as incentives for summer reading programs or other programs with teens. One librarian reported that the library’s Friends group was selling the books in their booksales, though, and a few librarians warned against adding the book to the collection.

While many copies of ARCs are marked on the cover with the instructions “NOT FOR SALE,” completionists and collectors seek them out and will pay not as much as they used to, but still a good price for the copies since they’re not widely available–and despite the printed instructions, selling ARCs isn’t illegal. Books may change between being given out as ARCs and being published based on feedback the publisher receives from ARC readers. If a library added an ARC to the collection, it’s not necessarily the same book that the publisher actually publishes. Giving ARCs to teens–or any patron–without letting them know that it’s a review copy and not the final version of the book is a misrepresentation. Furthermore, ARCs are flimsy paperbacks and in libraries, where books get lots of use and abuse, an ARC just can’t hold up to even a regular paperback, much less a hardback.

I was totally jazzed to receive a copy of CATCHING FIRE (the second Hunger Games book) at ALA this summer and read it the night I got home and emailed a few thoughts to the contact person listed in the front of the book. Since I wasn’t working with teens at the time, that was all I could do–that and continue to rhapsodize about how amazing the series was with friends and colleagues. But once I’m working in a library, I love the idea of distributing any ARCs I can get my hands on to teens to have them review them. Teens get sneak previews at upcoming books and can promote them to their friends and help the librarian (me!) decide what to collect, and writing reviews helps them develop their literacy skills and gives them a chance to feel like they matter to publishers. And as a bonus, you can use those reviews to promote the book within the library once you order it. As for what to do with an ARC once a teen has reviewed it–why not have another teen read it? And another and another until the book just falls apart. After that, recycle it and use all of those reviews for Great Library Justice.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Tags: commentary, library ethics, listservs, ya lit