thoughtfulBut anyway.
In the world of publishing, the ARC is not King. The ARC is sort of like the King's herald, the one who goes beating at the doors of every noble in the land to announce that way-hey, there's a ball coming up, and every marriageable girl in the Kingdom is invited. When the ARC arrives, all the local lords assess it, maybe take a peek at it behind closed doors, and decide just how much they're willing to spend on new dresses for those pretty little maids in waiting. The ARC sets the stage, and gets the discussions started.
The ARC isn't your only marketing tool, of course. There are hundreds of ways that people learn about books, from author websites to word of mouth to advertisements in industry magazines. But it's the ARC that kicks things off, much like Noah and his ark kicked off an international boat-building industry. You know. Later. After we got over that whole "fear death by water" thing that was going on at the time.
I'll be honest: There are issues with ARCs. Some people sell them, which is bad and wrong and totally uncool, and also makes me die a little bit inside. Some people don't actually get around to reading them, turning them, instead, into somewhat expensive, really weird paperweights. They're fragile, so they fall apart under any sort of rough or extended use—and for people like me, who tend to read their favorite parts eight times, take books in the bathtub, and generally...let's not say "abuse," but, instead, "experience" their reading material, this can result in my finishing the ARC in its new incarnation as a handful of unconnected pages. They aren't perfect.
That said...the ARC is a way to build buzz early. The ARC is a way to get the book out there into the world, gaining support, courting blurbs and positive reviews, and basically saying "Hi, how are you, I'd really like it if we could get to know each other better." Have I had ARCs show up on eBay? Yeah. I have. I've gritted my teeth when people came up to me to proudly tell me about the ARC that they just bought off of the Internet, and tried not to say anything when they went on to tell me that they wouldn't be buying the mass market edition because "This one is more special."
But I've had more people come up to me and tell me, in all sincerity, "I heard about your book when a friend loaned me the ARC." Or: "I saw a review posted of an ARC of your book, and that's when I decided I wanted to read it."
What brought all this on? John Scalzi has some comments on the concept of the "eARC"—an ARC issued only as an electronic file, and I found them really fascinating, from both a practical and a philosophical point of view. The discussion in the comments is also fascinating, with people calling out both the good and bad aspects of the physical and virtual ARCs. One of the ones that really spoke to me was the concept of scarcity. See, ARCs are intrinsically scarce. Only so many are printed; there is no second print run. If there's an error in the ARC, that goes out to everyone. If an ARC gets out before you want it to, well, that's your tough luck. And I look at all the fuss and bother about runaway ARCs, and wonder...
How long is really going to take for somebody to break the encryption on the eARC? And really, how long is it going to take before some people start saying "Well, if you're posting the text of something that was always intended to be free (because ARCs are not for sale, remember?), how is that piracy?" I can see the justifications from here. (No, I don't think the majority of people would ever even consider that. Sadly, as keeps coming up, piracy isn't going anywhere, and it makes my cats cry. Making my cats cry is a cruel, cruel thing.) Going eARC-only limits the chance for surprise readers, for readership on buses and in bathrooms, and for readers who don't have an ebook reader. If we go eARC-only, I won't be reading my own ARCs. Pardon me while I find this...ironic.
I hope we can find good answers. I hope we're asking the right questions. And I hope that when you're invited to the ball, you'll put on a nice dress, and you'll come.
Please?
May 11 2010, 07:49:54 UTC 7 years ago
It will hurt sales, in a way that conventional piracy can't - it gives the whole experience EARLY.
I'm of the firm opinion that 99% of those who pirate Item X would never have purchased it in the first place (and thus are not lost sales). I also believe that of those who would buy Item X if they couldn't pirate it, at least 80% of them will buy it anyways.
But if people get the whole kaboodle a few months early, that kills motivation to buy the book 3-6 months later.
I only see a few ways around this problem.
#1 is not ideal by any means... make eARCs only partial books. Maybe half of it. Enough for the reader to get into the book, drive interest, and push them to buy the final product... but inherently worthless as far as piracy goes.
Cons are that you get no advance reviews, and a LOT of reviewers are liable to refuse to read half a book, knowing they have to wait months to finish it.
#2 is a secure website. Distribute logins to authorized folks, and have an IP/login monitoring to detect and shut down any login credentials that are shared. Technology to detect overshared logins has been around for decades.
The con here is that all reading has to be done on the website. This gives it flexibility (any browser on any device), but ties it to constant online access and the quality of the website in question.
#3 is to significantly watermark the PDFs, so that once a copy is found to be shared, you can track down the source real easy, and blacklist them in the future (or even pursue legal action, if accompanied by some kind of NDA). The text would be included as images, so it would not be inherently extractable. And likely in an unconventional font to try and foil OCR.
This is likely the most user-friendly way of doing the whole eARC thing, as PDFs are inherently portable between all sorts of devices.
There's a future in eARCs. Everything is going "e-" and this will be no exception. It's cost saving if nothing else.
IMO, the best way to proceed with eARCs right now is simple... publishers have their registry of "People To Send ARCs To".
Work on contacting those people, and ask if they're interested or willing to accept eARCs in the future.
Then send them the files, and everyone else the paper.
May 11 2010, 16:58:10 UTC 7 years ago