Daily Archives: May 25, 2012
What’s an Advanced Reader Copy?
For a while now Chris and I have been discussing the idea of sharing some info about the publishing process. Today’s is post is the first to follow up on that idea. We plan to post once per week on the publishing process. Likely, the posts will appear on Fridays. We hope you enjoy these, and if you don’t, well…we’ll stop. But on to today’s topic….
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The front cover of an advanced reader copy.
What’s an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC)?
In yesterday’s post we gave away advanced reader copies of Spiritual Influence by Mel Lawrenz. These copies have a glued binding like normal softcover books. They’re made with a cream paper and they have a lighter weight paper for their cover than a typical book. They have a Z logo on the front that says “Advance Reading Copy, Not For Sale.” On the back cover they have information about the marketing campaign for the book and the publicist’s contact info. The interior content of the book is nearly final, with perhaps a few more edits pending.
All of this isn’t to say that these ARC’s aren’t good looking, quality copies of the book. In fact, they are just the opposite – which is why we print them.
ARC’s look like real books. They are just as heavy as a real book. They are in the same trim size the final book will appear in, and their covers have just as much vibrancy and color as the final covers will have. ARC’s also have fully designed pages inside. The font, sub-headings, chapter openers, diagrams, images, and other design elements have already been designed by the time ARC’s are made. The overall experience upon reading an ARC vs. a final printed copy is very similar.
So why do we print them?
Here’s what the back cover of an ARC looks like.
ARC’s are printed primarily to secure media and publicity opportunities for the author before the book is actually available. Most media outlets – radio, TV, magazines, news websites – work pretty far in advance. Media channels need to know what books are coming out far ahead of the release dates if they plan to showcase the book in their channel at all. So, in the case of Spiritual Influence, which releases in July, we printed the ARC’s a while back so we could begin sending them to magazines and other media channels. Then, when the final book comes out in July and starts really hitting the market in August and September the media channels will be ahead of the game and able to feature the book and interview Mel.
Make sense? Those who have worked in publicity at all could probably go on about this process with much greater detail, but this is at least a snapshot of the why we print ARC’s.
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Do you have questions about the publishing process? Let’s us know what it is below and we’ll cover it in one of our Friday posts.
