All About ARCs

Survey Questions & Response Breakdowns

Quite a few--the timeline was completely revamped, one character was removed (a minor character, but still), some embarrassing continuity errors were corrected, and the prose was made more sparkly and smooth. I shudder to think of the people who judge the book by its ARC. The ARC gives an idea of the finished product, but it isn't the finished product by a long shot!

ARCs to Final Copies

Buying & Selling ARCs

ARC-to-Print Survey

ARCs to Final Copies

I make a lot of changes after the ARC is printed, from correcting errors that slip in during typesetting, to tweaking entire passages to improve the writing. For my first YA novel, PROXY, I actually rewrote the last few paragraphs for a much stronger ending. It didn't change the story, but changed the quality of the telling and, I hope, the emotional impact of the final page.

The entire first section--ten poems--of my YA poetry novel were not included in the printed ARC. Reviewers would have had no idea that they were missing anything. It was obvious that some reviewers did not check the finished book before posting reviews.

In my books, all the changes that have occurred between the ARC and the final book have made up for less than 10% of total editing, and are mostly copy edit/continuity issues (a character's eye color changing, a misplaced word or wonky punctuation) that slipped through the final round of copy edits.

Aside from the grammatical and typesetting errors we caught in the ARC, I opted for the finished book to change the name of the first school my character attended. I had originally used the name of a real Chicago school, citing its gang problem and violence, as relayed to me by a former student and by a parents' Internet-based watchdog group. However, I felt in the end that I was doing a disservice to the school, and to the teachers and the students and their families, by drawing such negative (though accurate) attention in naming their school. (Leslie Stella, PERMANENT RECORD)

My book didn't have any enormous changes to the text between ARCs and the final product, but several words were changed (for clarity or lyricism) and a few sentences were re-organized. Typos were, hopefully, caught and corrected. The artwork in the ARC was revised significantly for the published book, and minor errors in design and layout were tweaked. Overall, I personally made corrections (however minor) on 20% of the ARC's pages, and I'm sure my editors and proofreaders made even more.

We caught lots of formatting mistakes and last-minute snafus that jumped out at us on print in a way that was sneaky on screen. How pages flowed from one to the next also changed as well as decisions made about certain aspects like pacing chapters. And arc is NOT a substitute for a final book any more than a dress rehearsal is a final performance.

Treat writers like artists, performers and the like and know that sneak perks and early concept sketches cannot take the place of (or even fully prepare you to experience) the finished products.

There were quite a few changes between the ARC of LEVEL 2 and the finished copy. Most of them were in the last chapter, and were meant to clarify some points that early readers were confused about. You definitely get a better reading experience with the finished copy.

Sometimes minor, sometimes major.Typos, spelling errors, etc. Proper acknowledgments or dedications might be left out of an ARC. Last-minute content changes can make a difference between an ARC and a finished book, too, not to mention that the overall quality of an ARC is generally less than a for-sale book. I've had paragraphs of content that were to be cut, show up in the ARC but not the final version.

Survey Questions & Response Breakdowns

Getting ARCs

Survey Questions & Response Breakdowns

Win from contests - 30

Bookstore partnerships - 6

Sent by author (solicited and not) - 19

Work for publishing company - 1

Committee work - 4

Amazon Vine - 1

Library "free" pile - 2

Review for trade journal - 10

Purchase them - 8

Baker & Taylor review program - 2

Local librarian review group - 2

Publishing friends - 1

Ask authors - 1

Online tours/sharing groups - 2

Who are you?

Librarian - 162

Librarian and Blogger - 104

Teacher - 11

Teacher and Blogger - 31

Blogger - 129

Bookseller - 15

Other Industry Professional (author, editor, archivist, print journalist) - 22

What are your ARC preferences?

Using ARCs

265 Total Responses

ARC Use Survey

Responses without bloggers included

345 total

- Ran March 20 - May 15 on Kelly's blog and on Liz's blog. Extensive social media promotion

- 476 total responses; 2 "did not use" ARCs

Survey Questions & Response Breakdowns

So where are you buying/selling ARCs?

All who noted buying from Amazon said they didn't know they bought an ARC since the description wasn't clear

HALF of responses for buying/selling to a bookstore named Half Price Books

Using ARCs

Includes all responders who use ARCs

- Informal survey via Twitter and responses gathered by Google Doc

- 40 total responses

Survey Questions and Response Breakdowns

What do you do with ARCs when finished with them?

All About ARCs:

The Ins and Outs of Requesting, Using and Abusing Advanced Reading Copies

Presented by Elizabeth Burns, Kristi Chadwick, and Kelly Jensen, with Jen Childs and Victoria Stapleton