While I understand the argument behind considering an ARC a publisher’s “payment” for a review, I personally shy away from that. I also don’t view ARCs as “gifts” from the publisher. For me, both concepts imbue the ARC with a sense of obligation — to an “employer” on one hand, and a feeling of gratitude or reciprocity to the giver on the other — that I absolutely do NOT want. I write reviews solely because I want to, and I want the emotional freedom to write them as honestly as I can. Feeling a sense of obligation to the publisher would only serve to dampen that emotional freedom.

So I don’t consider ARCs to be either a payment or a gift, but I really don’t know what label I would assign them. Which I think is a big reason why I don’t feel comfortable selling them. For me to justify (to myself) selling them, I’d have to figure out what exactly I consider them. Since, at this point, I haven’t figured that out, I don’t feel right making money off of them.

I’d like to point out that just because I feel this way, doesn’t mean I expect everyone else to feel the same way, nor do I negatively judge others who feel differently. I don’t consider a reviewer making a few bucks from selling an ARC that she reviewed to be an issue strong enough to warrant me labeling the practice “unethical” — which I consider a very weighted word.

Thanks! I’m not a collector but I find things like ARCs fascinating so I’m having fun going through the Google links. The thing that strikes me is that there seems to be luck and hard work involved. Luck in getting hold the right ARC and hard work finding that right someone willing to buy it.

Most ARCs aren’t going to be worth that much unless the stars align. (Your post #50. )

I hope more ARCs escape the shredding bin. Not enough to flood the collectors’ market but enough to help us look at history within the book world since hand-written drafts are probably a thing of the past. Are there hand-marked editorial galleys floating around for sale? (Yeah, I know google. I’m on it. LOL)

Robin:

To employ AQ’s example of getting free movie tickets, would that make someone feel they owed the movie studio some sort of obligation? That they had some relationship to the studio?

Would that change if one of the stars gave the movie tickets to a private viewing that they were hosting?

Robin, to take what you said one step further about the “gift” aspect: Are ARCs a form of author branding? Would there be a difference between sending the final print book vs. the ARC?

But for my part, mere repugnance without sound reasoning is not enough to justify an ethical claim.

The word “ethical” carries a lot of weight for me, so I don’t use it lightly. Calling someone or something “unethical” is, for me, a substantial and serious charge — every bit as serious as accusing someone of stealing or cheating or the like. So I very much appreciate the desire to root out the reasoning behind these different feelings we each have about ARCs.

I do have to wonder, though, if in communities where there is not a lot of author and reader interaction — where, for example, we aren’t constantly imbibing authorial views on things, from ARC sales to digital publishing and the like — whether people would have a different sense of the ARC. There just seems to be so much author loyalty and *personalization* of an author’s work in, well, at least the Romance culture, but I’m sure it’s not the only one like this, that I really do wonder if the ARC can be seen by some as an extension of the author-reader connection. Not that ARCs are anthropomorphized, exactly, but that they’re given significance beyond their production and distribution as promotional copies.

I have to say, though, that the thought of viewing ARCs as a “gift” as some were discussing above, just squicks me out on many levels, not the least of which is the idea that receiving the ARC creates some obligatory relationship between the recipient and the publisher. Now if an author sends an ARC explicitly with a review request, that’s another thing, IMO. But it does concern me a bit that readers would feel obligated to a publisher should they receive an ARC. To employ AQ’s example of getting free movie tickets, would that make someone feel they owed the movie studio some sort of obligation? That they had some relationship to the studio?

As Laura was pondering above, it’s tough when you have a community of people who love books not to put some sort of value on the physical copy, even if it’s an ARC. And maybe that’s core here — if we didn’t value books, per se, this wouldn’t be an issue at all. And I think reviewers have particular issues to deal with in the way they deal with ARCs that may shape the trust that authors and publishers place in them in sending them future ARCs.

I can imagine that publishers might be thrilled to think they are instilling a sense of obligation in ARC recipients (I shudder a little to think if some publishers aren’t reading some of these comments quite happily). But I think it’s a very, very sticky place we get into where an ARC creates any formal or informal relationship between reader and publisher. In fact, where book reviewing is concerned, I think the notions of honesty and neutrality are best served when there is no perceived obligation and no sense of specialness around the ARC, so better understanding how ARCs are perceived and why seems like a pretty worthy project, IMO.

Thank you for the explanation. It makes sense and I think it’s relevant to the discussion. As a person who understands the collector aspect is there any way current to determine how many ARC copies are created? Something on the order of how many pennies were minted with a certain mark? Is that relevant to this collectible now? can you ever imagine that it would be in the future or is this something that is irrelevant because there are too many unknowns such as publisher ARC vs. agent ARC vs. author ARC vs. whatever?

Again, it’s not how many but how few finally remain that’s important in terms of collecting unless of course one is simply a fan. Always remember that fans pounce on things for completely different reasons than collectors and yet fans are a type of collector. And one never knows what will ultimately set off a reason for something being considered collectible.

As to the question of determining how many ARCs are actually printed or created, though, I’m sure the publisher and possibly individual authors know how many were created and ultimately passed out.

Just as an experiment, run this search in your bowser if anyone is interested: collectibles, books, ARCs

Or alternatively: collectibles, paperbacks, ARCs

You’ll get some fascinating results but pay attention to how often romances show up on various category lists. One generally has to search for either it or love story as a keyword to find anything remotely within range.

Thank you for the explanation. It makes sense and I think it’s relevant to the discussion. As a person who understands the collector aspect is there any way current to determine how many ARC copies are created? Something on the order of how many pennies were minted with a certain mark? Is that relevant to this collectible now? can you ever imagine that it would be in the future or is this something that is irrelevant because there are too many unknowns such as publisher ARC vs. agent ARC vs. author ARC vs. whatever?

To all: Does time make a difference for the people who believe it’s unethical to sell an ARC? If I held onto to an ARC for 20 years would that make a difference in whether or not it was ethical for me to sell it?

What is the actual objection raised by the givers of the ARCs and what data do they present to prove their claims?

That’s something someone more interested in the current publishing side things would have to address. My interest is more in collecting and the historical evolution of the printing process itself. The part I find fascinating is that at least some of the ARCs do have those specialty promo covers instead of simply plain brown ones, so to speak. To me that says a lot about their intended purpose.

BevBB, so the other ARC question becomes: if you are a mind to sell them with the intent to make money, are you better off selling them before release date or holding them until they become collectors items? Selling them to a used book store after release would probably only snag a dollar so I’m not seeing that it would be worth it. How many ARCs would bring any type of significant dollars and what do we consider significant in this conversation?

Um, for me, the before or after the release date question is sort of irrelevant. How to explain without going on forever though.

Okay, typically, value accrues over time in collecting anything, if it’s going to at all. Which is why book dealers are probably the ones who do gobble up the majority of the ARCs at the lowest prices and then stash them away in the hopes that they will become collector’s items. They are essentially gambling. Or investing, whichever term they feel comfortable using.

So, basically what we’re dealing with is something my father always taught me which is that the worth of something is what someone is willing to pay for it right that minute. You either wait for it to become valuable or you find someone who thinks it’s valuable right now. Which in this situation means a fan, not a collector. So, you see why I always make the distinction between the two groups and emphasize time here. It all has meaning and it all affects relative value.

But to be even more direct, hopefully, value also depends a lot on several other factors and the popularity of the author is only one of those and sometimes a relatively small one at that. Consider if an uncorrected promo ARC existed of Christina Dodd’s three armed heroine cover. Not saying one exists, just saying that books with “mistake” covers like that are some of the most collectible items out there and an ARC of one? It would boggle the mind because it would conceiveably be even more rare.

Then there’s simply the fact that so many paperbacks are collected for the covers in the first place combined with ARC special covers sometimes not matching the final products anyway. That they may actually be a test cover that gets changed and so they’re even more rare.

There’s just no way of knowing until time passes and things play themselves out. See what I mean?

You know, I had a kind of a thought just now. There is a third option. Why not pass them on to other reviewers? Not sure how that might be done logistically but it would keep them in circulation for promoting the books and avoid the tangle of the ethical question.

But then isn’t the reviewer assuming a cost (mailing) to help promote the book? Where are the lines between just being a reviewer and becoming part of the promotional machine?

Which is why I also keep telling people that authors are not simply readers and neither are those that choose to review either. Once one crosses that line, one has entered new territory. Doesn’t mean one isn’t a reader any longer, just that there’s a new dimension attached to everything that makes things a lot more complicated.

So very, very true.

***

Jessica, doesn’t this have a certain similar feeling to the conversation we had about authors participating on blogs? How there are different types of blogs from pure fandoms to indepth analytical “takedowns” (to borrow a WWF phrase) and everything in between. Each type of blog has a different set of expectations as it applies to author interaction. Wouldn’t it reasonable to assume that non-professional or rather unpaid reviewers would have as many flavors as they are blogs and that there is something similar here as to how they approach their reviews and their “relationships?” Which I know was part of Laura’s point above.

Baring, of course, any stupid regulations that interfere with something so simple and logical maybe happening.

See, it’s a lot easier for us just readers who recieve these things on occasion. I have one ARC in my possession, at least that I can remember, and I did not buy it. It was given to me – signed – by a favorite author. So, this headache is not an issue for me.

And truly I probably wouldn’t think twice about coming at this from the other side as a fan, collector or simply a devoted reader and buying an ARC that I wanted.

Which is why I also keep telling people that authors are not simply readers and neither are those that choose to review either. Once one crosses that line, one has entered new territory. Doesn’t mean one isn’t a reader any longer, just that there’s a new dimension attached to everything that makes things a lot more complicated.

What is the actual objection raised by the givers of the ARCs and what data do they present to prove their claims?

I know it’s kind of outside the realm but of course now I want to know. Obviously they can do things. We don’t see Harry Potter ARCs lying around. So if ARC are truly an issue I see a simple sign this contract agreeing to not sell this and we’ll send you the ARC. And yet I don’t generally hear that in these discussions. Not that it doesn’t happen.

BevBB, so the other ARC question becomes: if you are a mind to sell them with the intent to make money, are you better off selling them before release date or holding them until they become collectors items? Selling them to a used book store after release would probably only snag a dollar so I’m not seeing that it would be worth it. How many ARCs would bring any type of significant dollars and what do we consider significant in this conversation?