Comments on: Dear person who sells ARCs of upcoming books on eBay…

By: Librarian action figure

Librarian action figure — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:32:13 +0000

At the public library where I work, we receive ARCs fairly often as donations. We have a rule that we do not put them in the book sale because they are marked NOT FOR RESALE in huge letters on the cover, and we don’t want to deal with questions from book sale buyers on why we have these for sale (it saves a lot of explaining and headaches). We usually put them out for staff and volunteers to take away, and they almost always get passed around to interested readers pretty quickly; so they do serve their purpose.

By: Cawm

Cawm — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:53:26 +0000

As I librarian, I could easily pick up hundreds of ARCs at conferences and publishers display days, but I rarely do. I just never know what to with them. Unless it’s an author I really love, I’m happy to wait for the actual book. I would guess that the majority of ARCs are thrown out. Very few of them would have any value on Ebay, they can’t be added to library collections, most UBSs wouldn’t take them, and I don’t really think uncorrected proofs should be given to institutions.

By: AztecLady

AztecLady — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:41:56 +0000

No worries, Ms Leto

By: JulieLeto

JulieLeto — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:00:55 +0000

Oh, shit. Sorry, Azteclady! Thank YOU for the post!

By: helenkay dimon

helenkay dimon — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:32:36 +0000

Coming out of lurk to thank azteclady for this. The biggest issue I have is with the sale of ARCs on ebay before the book is even released. Don’t sell them since the ARCs say right on there NOT FOR RESALE, but at the very least wait until a few weeks after release to give the author a fighting chance.

By: Lili

Lili — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:26:07 +0000

I HATE seeing my ARCs on ebay. It’s nothing to do with the money. I don’t want them auctioned, given away as prizes, donated, anything.

There’s a reason it says ‘uncorrected’ on the front: because that version of the book isn’t as good as it could be. It has glitches. Most are mistakes I made that got fixed by the final version, but now – surprise! – they’re back, being sold on ebay. Sometimes there are problems that the copy editor introduced – again, these got fixed by the final version, but now they’re out there in all their glory (and now it looks like they’re my glitches).

I put an awful lot of time and hard work into making my books as good as they can possibly be. And then some tosspot comes along and undermines all that because he wants to make a quick buck and he feels he’s just so special that ‘NOT FOR SALE’ doesn’t apply to him.

By: AztecLady

AztecLady — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:47:41 +0000

Oh Kristie, I do exactly the same, I keep my ARCs, just as I keep signed copies.

By: Dee

Dee — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:03:27 +0000

I have a friend that is seriously fanatical about one particular author. And I mean fanatical. If a book has been re-released with a new cover, my friend buys it. She has a copy of every release of every book. I just shook my head over it.

Anyway, I know she buys ARCs when she can get her hands on them. She actually squeals with delight when she finds them.

By: KristieJ

KristieJ — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:02:40 +0000

I don’t know – call me Polyanna – but I keep any ARC’s I get. I don’t get that many so when I do, I figure someone went through the effort of sending them to me. In the rare case it’s a book I know I won’t want – I would send it to a friend who I think would like it. To sell them on EBay is just wrong IMO

By: AztecLady

AztecLady — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:46:38 +0000

Karen, I appreciate the post.

*cough*