Not so long ago, more precisely during the month of my blog anniversary, I rambled about my love for blogging. You can check the post here «Why do I love being a book blogger?» (Shameless Self Promotion 101).
And today I’ve decided to continue this rambling series and talk a little bit about my love for something else.
Advanced Reading Copies (ARC for short) is usually a free copy of a book at its latest stages of production. Sometimes these are bound together before the final text formatting and in most cases lack the final cover art or any other additional perks the book might have when it is published, and can often contain spelling errors, typos and other dreadful things! (I am sure all of you have the complete knowledge of ARC science but it seemed appropriate to have a small introduction).
I would also like to point out that I am in no way an ARC expert and I only joined NetGalley after I started blogging which was only a year ago. However, after reading a large amount of ARCs this year I came to realize just how much I love them!
This year I’ve been doing fairly well when it comes to balancing ARCs and books I own. Hopefully it will stay this way for the remaining months of 2017.
WHY ARCs ARE THE BEST:
REASON #1
They are completely and totally FREE!!!! This had to be the first thing to mention on my list of positive things, because who doesn’t love free books?!
There is a catch though! People see it slightly different, but for me, when it comes to ARCs that I request and then luckily receive, I see it as a contract (Law school’s influence right there). And in this contract I only have a few obligations:
- Read the ARC;
- Respect the timeframes;
- Write my feedback.
Can’t say that writing reviews is easy but it’s something I enjoy, so in the end it is a win win!
REASON #2
Results from the first point is the ability to read as diverse as possible! Since the ARCs are free and only require you to write a review in return (that we all love doing anyway), we can request as much or as little as we want. AND we can try that book from that genre we never read, because WHY NOT?! if it’s free!
Due to ARCs, I’ve started reading so much more General and Literary Fiction than I used to! I read some wonderful thrillers and amazing dystopian books. I even read a non-fiction!
REASON #3
I love required reading, but as I am no longer in school or University, ARCs and those timeframes are perfect solutions for my lust of READ 100 BOOKS IN A WEEK assignments! I just love it. There might not be an explanation but I love the idea of being on time with things, I love it when I know what and when I need to read. It brings order to my reading life and calms down my inner perfectionist (when I do things on time of course, otherwise… )
REASON #4
The chance to READ THE BOOK WAY BEFORE ITS RELEASE! Right?! Who doesn’t love the overpowering feeling of happiness when YOU get to read the most anticipated book of the year before everyone else?! I sure do! It makes me feel like a VIR (very important reader) – yes, I love making up my own abbreviations. I am starting a list!
REASON #5
And because we get to read the book before its release AND post our review on every social platform known to men, our REVIEWS ACTUALLY IMPACT OTHER PEOPLE’S CHOICE whether to buy that particular book or not. How powerful are you feeling right now?
REASONS #6
Besides all of the above, ARCs are also a great way to find more new authors, debut books, new topics, new genres and just have fun exploring the bookish world!
This is my ramble for today! But I would love to hear your opinion. Do you love ARCs? Maybe you’ve discovered some of your favourite books or favourite authors through reading their ARC first? Or maybe you hate them more than chinese dumplings! (believe me those are HORRIBLE!)
With love,
Alex
WhimsyPages 
Great post, I feel exactly the same way. I agree with your point about viewing it as a sort of contract. I feel the same way and try to make a point of reading and adding reviews before publication (although it does annoy me slightly if they move). Has just happened – a book due to be published end of next month, now out this week! The best thing for me is the opportunity to spot what you think will be a winner and then see if others think the same once it’s published.
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Thank you, Cathy 🙂 I am so happy that you enjoyed this post!
I didn’t even know that the date release can move sometimes, never happened to me before and I am hoping that it won’t happen ever! As I plan my reviews way ahead and would hate to disturb my schedule 😀
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I only noticed it because I saw a tweet from the author saying it was published this week! I’m a slave to my schedule as well 😁
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Oh no! That sneaky Publisher 😀
I still believe that it doesn’t matter as much when we talk about the book, as long as we do talk about it. It will always get attention to the book, even a year after publication.
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I could never request an ARC and then don’t review it, it’s just like you said, it’s a contract. They certainly have a lot of perks (I’m particularly happy that they’re free – otherwise I wouldn’t read as many books as I do, – that I get to read a book before its release and that I’m more likely to experience new books this way). I’m trying to request fewer books on Netgalley tho! It’s not that I have a huge TBR pile, but balancing ARCs and other books can be hard.
Great post! 🙂
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Thank you, hun ❤ I've been so proud of myself this year. Out of 50 books that I read so far – 27 were ARCs and 23 were my actual books! I hope to continue this ratio. 😀
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As a new blogger to the community I found this post really interesting and helpful! I wasn’t aware of NetGalley until reading this post but I’ll be sure to give it a look, especially as I’d love to branch out of my usual reading selections 🙂
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NetGalley is probably one of the best sources to obtain ARCs, especially for someone who doesn’t live in the UK or US (i.e. me).
Don’t be afraid to request those “most anticipated” books even if you are new on NetGalley, because there is always a chance you will get approved.
I had my fair share of declined request and still do and will have as long as I use the website, as there are only so many e-copies the publishers can give away, but I was so happy to receive some of the most “popular” books even when my blog was still fairly small compared to now.
Thank you for reading ❤
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Excellent post! I fall somewhere in the middle. I love them, for all the reasons you mentioned, but I also hate them because it’s so easy to get caught up in them and over request. Plus, I have a very hard time reading something I’m not interested in. I guess that’s why I had to accept that sometimes explaining in my Feedback why I wasn’t able to finish will have to be enough, otherwise I’d read less and who wants that!
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Thank you 🙂
It can be difficult sometimes when we request the ARC and then end up hating it, or even worse DNFing. But it’s something we have to embrace because everyone’s reading taste’s are different and criticism (as long as it’s constructive) is just as important as any praises. ❤
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I agree, and it makes me feel slightly better when I can’t finish one.
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I completely agree with your post! Though I’m only just now starting to request books on NetGalley, I would feel bad about it if I didn’t write a review in return for getting the ARC.
I’m still trying to figure out how to schedule everything though, haha. When you just started blogging (a month now), you still have research to do, I guess. I sometimes don’t know whether to read all ARC’s immediately after receiving them or letting them wait a bit if they’re only due in a couple of months.
Isn’t there some very clear guide on that somewhere? Haha!
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You have just given me an idea for the next post! 😀 Thank you. I might as well write that “guide” about reading and reviewing ARCs!
When it comes to reading ARCs I usually do it straight away. And there are multiple reasons for that, but mostly because I like to stay ahead and don’t leave anything for “tomorrow”. In this case, when I read the ARC in January and the book only comes out in May, I write my review right away and just schedule for it to go up closer to the release date. This way everything is done and ready to go, I won’t forget what I thought about the book and everyone will be happy 😀
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I’ll definitely be looking forward to that post then! Pretty sure it’ll help a lot of people out, haha.
I guess I should start doing it like that as well then. And now that I think of it, it just makes more sense. If I’m up to date with my ARC’s all the time, I have a better view on when I can or cannot request another one.
Thank you for your answer to this! 🙂
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❤ I hope it works for you!
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Wow this was a cool post! I like ARCs too!
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Thank you ❤
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I didn’t know what an arc was before this, so thanks for enlightening me! 🙂
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