Best of Ask the Agent: WTF is an ARC?
Plus a new release, a few nice links, and book deal news...
Hello, and welcome to Ask the Agent, the Newsletter. I will pluck the most informative cherries out of the bottomless sundae that is my #AskAgent Tumblr and present them to you weekly (or as weekly as possible). Plus, bookish news and updates!
Best of Ask the Agent
You see authors online unboxing what look like paperback copies of their own books months before the books are released. You see “influencers” with early copies of popular books all over the internet. What ARE these books? Where do they come from?
These early copies are distributed by the publisher to key bookstore accounts, sent to reviewers and bloggers, and given away at trade shows such as BEA and ALA. Authors may get a FEW of these copies for their own use as well. They go by many names…
What is an ARC? What are F&G’s? What is a galley? I know they are all related to each other, but not sure how. On the Internet one term is used to describe what the other is… Which is not helpful to when you just don’t have enough background knowledge. Can you please illuminate? Thanks.
GALLEY: The publisher’s first typeset proof, it looks like the insides of a real book! This is generally for circulating “in house” at the publisher; it is not for public consumption, there are still errors, there will be several more rounds of tweaking before it IS a final book.
ARC: Advance Reading Copy. (Also sometimes called ARE, Advanced Reading Edition). This is an early copy for booksellers and reviewers, made from the galley proof – it looks almost like a paperback book, but it isn’t! It will contain errors, and the cover art may not be final, and it will have marketing info on the back, etc. These are also usually made from much “cheaper feeling” paper than a real book, because, well, they are not real books.
F&G: Stands for “folded and gathered” – this is like an ARC for a picture book. The pages are printed. This is done on a massive piece of paper that is then cut and folded and gathered into “signatures” each signature representing one of the massive pieces of paper worth of pages. (If you look at the spine of a book, you can often see what appear to be “sections” – each 16 pages long, usually – each section is a signature. This is why 32 pages is a standard size for a picture book, because that is two signatures.) So anyway, these folded and gathered pages are not bound, but are just kinda loosey-goosey in their bundles, and are distributed to various publications and places as marketing material, much like ARCs.
BLAD: Often for books that are very graphic intensive, such as a coffee table book, cookbook, or graphic novel, instead of “F&Gs” or “Galleys” or “ARCs”, there will be BLADS. Blad stands for Basic Layout and Design, and it’s a generally full-color sample of the actual final or near-final book. It gives a TASTE of what the real thing will look like, because often with these kinds of books, printing a cheapo black and white galley would just not look great or be true to the content.
Below: the cover of an ARC versus the final book cover; The inside flap of an ARC versus the inside of the finished book.
A few more facts about ARCs:
Booksellers generally use the words “galley” and “arc” interchangeably. I usually say galley because it sounds like pirates.
ARCs are marketing material. They go out to publications, booksellers, bloggers, etc, six months or so before the release of the book – reviewers often have very long lead times for trade publications, so if they don’t get this stuff well in advance, they won’t review the book - and we need them to review the book! And booksellers buy stock six months ahead of time, too.
ARCs are never to be sold. They say in big letters NOT FOR SALE and NOT FINAL and DO NOT SELL all over them. Yes, despite this, I have seen ARCs on eBay and similar sites, and even sometimes on the shelves in used bookstores. Yes, this is highly forked up and unethical of the person selling, and makes me hate them. This material, again, is UNFINISHED. Authors do not get paid a lick of $ for the selling of ARCs, nor do they want unfinished work floating around everywhere as if it is their final beautiful book. So basically, if you are selling ARCs, you are hurting authors. You like authors, don’t you? Why do you want to hurt them? :(
ARCs ARE PRECIOUS. Printing an ARC is more expensive than printing a book, because the runs are smaller and they are done in different facilities and just trust me, they are pricey. Authors usually have very few copies to dispense with. A lot of time I see readers hounding authors to get ARCs and it’s like…. do you work for PW? Are you a bookseller? Will you promote this book on a robust platform? IF NOT: GO TO THE LIBRARY IN SIX MONTHS AND GET IT FOR FREE.
New Book News
Last week saw the release of the brilliant SAY HER NAME by Zetta Elliott, illustrated by Loveis Wise, from Jump at the Sun, an imprint of Disney. This is a book of poetry for Young Adults (and grown adults, too!) that celebrates the brilliance and resilience of Black women and girls. It is a very special book full of both hope and rage, and it will no doubt inspire and empower readers. You can buy SAY HER NAME at your indie bookstore, or wherever fine books are sold. Or, request it from your local library!
Link Roundup: In Case You Missed It
I posted a new episode of the Literaticast, all about Career Building with Kate Messner.
This Horn Book/Calling Caldecott review of ¡VAMOS!, LET’S GO TO THE MARKET made me absolutely cry.
And PW announced a new deal for Sergio Ruzzier!
If you’ve gotten this far — thanks for reading! If you’d like these updates directly in your inbox, click the button to subscribe. xo Jenn