The ARCs I'm giving away and will be giving away I got from BEA, or BookExpo America. I gathered many that day and I still have a pretty big pile of them leering at me from the corner of my room. Not that I'm complaining. :)
The rest are from publicists and authors contacting me. I've yet to actually reach out and ask an author or publicist first for an advance reader copy to review. There is one I'm dying to get my hands on but I think I'm going to have to wait until closer to the pub date but that one I'm going to actually ask for. Other than that, the contacting works the other way around.
But yeah. Nothing exciting. I'm not part of any kind of book swap or have any ins with authors or anything like that. I don't seek out ARCs simply because my reading pile is so huge right now that it'd be stupid of me to purposely and willingly add more to it. I might just cry. I've won a few ARCs from other book bloggers but that's about it.
I did get one blast email from a publicist that was trying to get author interviews and guests post going for this particular author. In her blast email she offered ARCs of this particular author's books to go along with whatever post she might be doing. So I emailed back and said I'd love to have the author on and if you have any extra copies, I'd like to get an ARC for review as well. A few more emails passed with zero mention of said ARC from the publicist's side so I brought it up again, very politely, mind you. Zero acknowledgement of it, no response, no ARC. Overlooked once, I can understand. Overlooked twice? I'm unlikely to believe that.
I'm still trying to figure out if I should be cranky about that or not, that it was offered to me and then I was very blatantly ignored unless the email was about the author's promotion. Here's a hint; if you don't want to offer ARCs to certain bloggers but still feel the need to shill for free promotion for the author from that blogger, don't make the offer to give them an ARC. Amend your blast email. I felt pretty used after that. Not that I expected an ARC for a payment or anything but I'm not about to offer someone something and then when they bring it up completely ignore it as if the offer were never made but still use that person for my own agenda. That's just rude. Thankfully I realized later on that I probably wasn't missing out on much from that book but still, it left a sour taste in a mouth. At least I learned my lesson.
That's my one ARC story. Everything else is pretty mundane! Sorry! My ARC acquisitions are just not exciting right now.
3 comments:
Very informative! I wish I could get out to Book Expo.. why can't they come back to Chicago? *pouts* At least I have ALA every few years (thank god they're based in IL). I'm hoping to get some serious ARCs there. :)
Great post!
Same here. I've always been afraid to come out and ask for an ARC. Wonder if I don't like the book and I am the one who asked for it? How embarrassing would that be?
Not all of my review books are ARCs either. Some are HC & paperbacks.
Had to laugh about the email with no ARC. I've never had one offered or not offered like that before. I'd bluntly say something. ;)
Getting ARCs are fun, but it's gotten completely out hand for me. I know. What else is new? (lol)
Thank you, thank you! I'm so looking forward to BEA next year! And yeah, my face would be red if I didn't like an ARC I asked for. Since I don't like getting my hopes up too often, it's something I'm disinclined to do!
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