A Look At Advanced Reading Copies, or ARCs
July 10th, 2008 at 12:57 pm (The Biz)
An important part of getting a book ready to come to market is the making of advanced reading copies. These are commonly known as ARCs in the industry.
ARCs are typically released by a publisher before a book has gone to press for a complete printing. This means that ARCs usually do not have the final cover art, formatting or binding of the finished product. And even the text of an ARC can differ from that of the published book if the book is edited after the ARC is produced.
The standard is that ARCs are distributed to reviewers, bookstores, magazines, and even libraries occasionally. This done between three and six months before the book is officially released. Part of the reason for this is to get prepublication reviews that you can include on the dust jacket or cover.