The Dilemma of Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs)
Just reading my reviews on the various Amazon country sites tonight. I always approach it with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. I do honesty read them all, good or bad. Getting someone to leave even a rating is hard, and most people don’t ever leave a review. I understand, I don’t often leave reviews on the books I read either. It takes effort, and once I finish a book, I am generally off to the next shiny thing on my reading list. If you do leave a rating or review, I applaud you for taking the time, I really do.
Before publication of a book, I sometimes ask for people to review an advanced reader copy (ARC). Now an ARC is sort of a “nearly finished version” of the book before the final edit. There might be spelling errors, a few passages that might not make the final cut and other things that will get tweaked. It’s not the finished product but it’s close. If you ever get an ARC for review that’s what you need to bear in mind.
You might not know this, but you can review a book on Amazon that you haven’t actually purchased through the site. Reviews obviously help readers to decide on whether a particular book is for them or not. So, as an author, if you can get a few reviews immediately the book is published it can help with kicking in the algorithms behind the mighty Amazon selling machine. The idea is that you send out a few ARCs, people get to read the book a few weeks before publication, and then as soon as its on sale they can post a review on Amazon if they like. They don’t need to buy the book on Amazon.
Anyway, I just read one review that I know was generated via an ARC. I thought, “yikes lady”, I appreciate you leaving a review, but I soon realised what the review was based on. Not my actual book but partly on the free prequel novel to the series and partly on the ARC. The reviewer pulled me up on spelling and grammar. I’m sure she did see some problems as she was reviewing the pre-publication copy before the final edit! That’s an ARC for you. Also, she quoted parts of the storyline that aren’t actually in the book she was reviewing at all. They were in the prequel book which I presume she read before the actual ARC of the novel. Now don’t get me wrong, the fact she took the time to leave a review was fantastic. However, the actual review makes me wonder if I should continue giving out ARCs or not. It’s the first time I have done so via the storyorigins site and it’s been very hit and miss. Anyway, you live and learn…
P.S Don’t get me started on the differing spelling of the same words in US and British English. I unashamedly write using British English spelling. Why wouldn’t I? I live in England, it doesn’t make the spelling wrong…😊