Advance reader copies: what an ARC is and how to send one

An advance reader copy is the book before it is the book. Publishers have printed them for decades: a plain-covered paperback marked uncorrected proof, not for sale, sent to reviewers a few months ahead. Self-published authors send the same thing as a file, and the conventions carry over.

What an ARC is for

Two jobs, and they are different.

Reviews. Trade reviewers, bloggers and bookstagrammers schedule their reading weeks or months ahead. A review that appears in publication week needs the copy in their hands by then, so the ARC goes out two to three months early. This copy should be as close to final as you can make it: the reviewer is judging the book, not the draft.

Beta reading. Readers who tell you what does not work. This copy goes out earlier and can be rougher, because its whole point is that you will change it. Say so in the copy, so the reader knows what kind of feedback you want.

What it should contain

The book, as it will be. Reviewers read for the prose, so the ARC should have the design, the chapter openings and the typography of the final edition. A draft in a Word file with a different typeface is not a review copy; it is a manuscript, and it reads like one.

Three things mark it as an ARC:

• A notice, at the front and, in a PDF, on every page: advance reader copy, not for sale. On every page because a reviewer quotes from a page, and the page should say what it is.
• The recipient’s name, when you send copies individually. A copy that says prepared for Ada Reviewer is a copy that is not forwarded, and one that turns up somewhere says where it came from.
• An expiry date, if the text will change. Please do not quote from it after 31 December tells a reviewer which draft they have.

What it must not contain

The ISBN. The ISBN identifies the edition for sale. An ARC with the sale ISBN can be catalogued as the book, sold as the book, and filed by a reader’s library app as the book. Leave it off.

The final title alone. Call the file Title (Advance Reader Copy) in its metadata, so a reviewer who later buys the finished book does not see two files under one title.

Digital rights management. It does not stop the reader who wants to share, and it stops the reviewer who wants to read on a second device. The recipient’s name does the job better.

Formats

EPUB for anyone reading on a phone, tablet or e-reader. Amazon’s Send to Kindle takes an EPUB, so there is no need for MOBI any more. The notice goes on a page of its own after the title page, because an EPUB has no fixed pages to put it on.

PDF for anyone who wants the printed pages, or who reads on a computer. The notice can sit in the margin of every page.

Send both when you do not know how the reviewer reads.

Making one from the same manuscript

The ARC and the final book should come from the same file, so a correction made after the ARC goes out reaches the final edition and nothing is lost between two copies of the manuscript.

In Nueel, the export screen has a switch, Advance reader copy, for the PDF and the EPUB. It adds the notice page, the running line in the PDF, the title suffix and the recipient’s name, and drops the ISBN. Everything else is the book as it will be. Switch it off, and the same export writes the final file. See exporting.

Common questions

What is an ARC?

An advance reader copy: the book, or a near-final draft of it, sent to reviewers, bloggers and beta readers before publication. Publishers have printed them for decades; self-published authors send them as EPUB or PDF. It is marked as not for sale, usually carries no ISBN, and often says who it was prepared for.

What format should an ARC be?

EPUB for anyone reading on a phone, tablet or e-reader, which is most reviewers. PDF for anyone who wants to see the pages as they will print, or who reads on a computer. Send both if you are not sure. MOBI is no longer needed: Amazon's Send to Kindle takes an EPUB.

Should an ARC have an ISBN?

No. The ISBN identifies the edition for sale, and the ARC is not that edition. A review copy with the sale ISBN can end up catalogued as the book, and a reader's library app may treat the two as one title.

How do I stop an ARC being shared?

You cannot, technically. What you can do is mark each copy with the name of the person it was prepared for, so a copy that circulates says whose it was. Most reviewers respect that. Digital rights management does not stop sharing and does annoy the reviewers who play fair.

When should ARCs go out?

Two to three months before publication for trade reviewers and bloggers, who schedule reviews weeks ahead. Beta readers earlier, because you still want to act on what they say. Put an expiry date in the copy if the draft will change.