Who Owns Your Advance Reading Copies?

Since the Used Books Blog just posted about Advance Reading Copies (ARCs), those paperback preview editions that publishers send out for review before a book is officially published, it seems like a good time to introduce the publishing world's latest innovation to try and keep proofs off the secondary market. This is a scan from a recent Scribner ARC.

Publishers don't want ARCs, for which they get no money, selling on eBay, AbeBooks, or Amazon. The publishers have been most successful with Amazon, which prohibits Marketplace sellers from offering them for sale (though a few slip through). Ebay is somewhat more lax and AbeBooks seems to allow nearly unfettered sales, as do most other used-book web sites.

I've written on this subject before, so I won't rehash the whole thing, but Scribner has decided its ARCs are on loan.

The problem with this is that we did not request this proof. Scribner decided to "loan" it to us of their own accord. Now that it's in our hands, they insist we have a duty to keep it. They won't even let us throw it away. After all, they may want to "recall" the loan (with interest? Might I have to send two books back?), and surely the Eureka garbage company is a "third party," to whom we aren't allowed to transfer the book. In fact, our city dump is called a "transfer station." Sending it there seems to be prohibited by Scribner.

Scribner didn't say on the outside of the package - which was left on our doorstep by the delivery company - that accepting the package bound us to these terms. They didn't provide a way for us to return the book at Scribner's expense. In short, they are attempting to saddle us with a book we don't want and are hinting that legal action might follow if we dispose of it or sell it.

If all publishers took this position, the New York Times, which gets thousands of ARCs each month, would have to build a warehouse to keep all the "loaner" books.

As I pointed out in my previous post on proofs (or galleys, as ARCs are also called), Scribner's "loan" language seems to be contrary to Congress's very clear intent to prevent just such attempts by companies to send unwanted merchandise to unsuspecting people:

"The recipient...may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender."

Now if publishers want reviewers to sign an agreement that any books they get are on loan AND provide a way to return them at the publisher's expense (or at least allow them to be recycled or tossed), that's fine. If there's a book I want to review, I'll accept those terms. But don't send me a book I don't want and didn't request and then threaten me over it.

Comments

[Benjamin L. Clark]

Right On! You've covered it well before, but that's a great point about collectors buying ARCs, and very likely to buy *from the publisher* the 1st ed., the limited ed., a signed copy, the "director's cut" edition, the super illustrated movie tie-in with a replica of the author's third grade maccaroni doodle as a promotional bookmark...

Most publishers do not understand book collectors.

[Theodore P. Savas]

Thank you for writing on this fascinating and timely topic.

As a publisher and an attorney, i do not believe Simon & Schuster’s latest gambit will survive the scrutiny of any judge able to fog a mirror. Unsolicited ARCs are gifts (as you describe), and treating them any other way will infringe on established law and create unintended consequences so obvious even judges and politicans can spot them.

There has long been an unspoken gentleman's agreement that ARCs are not for sale. But the winks and nods have, sadly in my opinion, overridden sounds ethics.

SPAN (Small Publisher's Association of North America), a vitally important organization whose newsletters I read with religious fervor, and other similar groups (PMA in particular) have been discussing / debating this issue recently.

Savas Beatie is a small but thriving military and general history house. We produce (at considerable expense) ARCs for nearly every book. A time or two the number was as high as 300-500 copies (for unique promotional opportunities for unique titles). It is expensive, and of course I do not like to see the ARCs for sale.

Speaking only for Savas Beatie, the issue of whether a reviewer sells one does not keep me up at night. I don't like it, but I don't see how to reasonably police it and stop it.

Last, we have had many people ask to buy galley copies of our books. Some people consider them the "true" first editions. (I am not in that category.) Some of our authors sign them and we sell them, making some collectors very happy.

Keep up the fine work.

Theodore P. Savas
Savas Beatie LLC
989 Governor Dr., Suite 102
P.O. Box 4527
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
916.941.6896 (phone
916.941.6895 (fax)
www.savasbeatie.com

[John Harvey]

Great article, seems I will have to inform my membership to watch this space! Regards John.