Advance Readers' Copies and the Like: A Basic, Not All-Encompassing Overview

-This thread is comprised of the knowledge and insights I've picked up over the years.
-Relates to traditional publishing and physical/printed ARCs.
-Does not reflect the views of my employer.

Also note that this thread is not about how to receive ARCs. Plenty of others have previously shared best practices and other insights about this, myself included.

Let's get started!

Advance Readers' Copies (or advance reader's edition, galley, ARC, proof) are early review copies of a book distributed to booksellers, librarians, educators, and reviewers (media and bloggers) for early blurbs, publicity coverage, and buying decisions.

These are printed months before the book is officially published, so the text file that is often used is 1st pass or the copyedited manuscript. If it's a bound manuscript (think of this as a pre-ARC), it's often just that: the manuscript—which may or may not be copyedited.

This means there will be typos and other errors because the editorial/production process isn't complete by the time ARCs are printed. So while reviewers are reading the ARC, the author and publisher are finalizing the text for the final book.

In some cases, the text might undergo rather substantial changes by the time the final book is printed. So if you're a word nerd, you might have fun reading the ARC *and* the final book to see what all changed.

So why are review copies uncorrected? Well, mostly because of timing. Publishers want/need early buzz and early reads/support, and retailers/accounts need to make their decisions in advance of publication, so there isn't really time to wait for the text to be 100% finalized.

Now, this doesn't mean you won't find errors in a finished book. Nothing in this world is perfect, so sometimes not every error is caught before publication.

And big shoutout to all the editorial, managing editorial, and production people out there for transforming a Word doc into a beautiful bound book!

ARCs are often super expensive to make, especially when there are effects on them like embossing, foil, stepbacks, and other ornamentations. But they're also not built to last and publishers don't print extensive quantities, so the cost per unit is always rather high.

So that's all I can think of at the moment, but let me know if you have any specific questions! I hope you found this insightful!