Tagged: publishers

Discussion: ARCs

For those of you who aren’t hip to the book community lingo, ARC stands for advanced reading copy.  Basically, before books are published authors send out a certain number of copies to reviewers to generate hype for when the actual release date is.  Bloggers seem to love them, publishers like giving them out to a certain extent and most self-published authors are eager to send them.  But not everyone seems to like them.

From a blogger’s perspective I do like ARCs.  It’s nice to get physical copies in the mail because, hey, free books.  It’s also nice to get ebook ARCs from my favourite self-published authors because it’s very hard to wait until the actual release date for a book you’re excited for.  Some bloggers say they feel pressure to get and review ARCs but personally I’ve never really felt that pressure.  Maybe I just have too much of a “I don’t care what most people think” attitude.

What I want to know now is: If you’re an author, would you say there are substantial benefits to sending out ARCs to bloggers?  What are some of the benefits?  As a book blogger, do you feel pressure to seek out and review ARCs?  Do you like the idea of ARCs in general?

The Mad Reviewer is Closed to Submissions (Temporarily)

With so many requests coming in as well as my own not-so-great health, I’ve decided to close submissions for reviews from authors until the fall.  This will give me more time to focus on my health, but also to catch up on those authors who have been waiting and waiting for months while I’ve only had time to process the numerous review requests I’ve received.  If you got your request into me before 8:26am MST I’ll still process it.

There are, however, two exceptions for the closed submission policy:

1.  If you’re an author who has a series and I’ve read your first book and liked it, you are free to submit your second book for review.  If I like that, then your third book and so on and so on.  This is so I don’t forget the characters’ names in a series, let alone half of the plot points before I get to finish it!

2.  If you are a publisher contacting me to review an ARC or galley copy as long as it is a print copy I will process your request.   This is because I usually have more time to read print copies.

For those of you wondering, I will likely be re-opening for business sometime in the fall.