I am obviously *not* the expert on ARCs. I only request one or two a year, despite being a virtual blogging veteran at this point đ So perhaps I should keep my trap shut and let other more experienced bloggers take the lead on this topic⌠but then when have I ever managed to do that? I guess itâs about time that I address the NeBUloUs topic of ARCs (and why thereâs no need to get in a tizzy over them).
What âinspiredâ me to talk about this was the latest twitter drama: an author having what can only be described as an unhinged rant about how people with small followings arenât entitled to arcs. Which, naturally, made me want to rant I DAMN WELL AM ENTITLED TO ALL YOUR ARCS đ JK I just thought âwow this is a good way to put people off buying your books darlingâ. And more importantly, most people donât care about your ARCs, chill out.
Really, there are a lot of perks not being too invested in ARCs. For starters, as The Literary Phoenix pointed out in her brilliant piece âFive Reasons I Kind of Hate ARCsâ, they allow publishers to continue to undervalue bloggers. While theyâre seen as compensation for blogging/vlogging/whatever, theyâre actually more of a free marketing tool for the publisher. Ironically, the reward for all our hard (unpaid) work is⌠more work?! I dunno about you, but that seems a little off balance.
Admittedly, there has been a lot of (good-natured) discussion about Tiktokers getting paid and getting all the ARCs. Which seems part of the course at this point- when it comes to blogging, thereâs always someone else on some other platform getting all the perks and opportunities. Luckily for us, as Krysta @Pages Unbound wrote in her fantastic piece âIâve Accepted That Publishers Arenât That Interested In Book Bloggersâ there are definitely upsides to this. Not being valued as commercial commodities actually gives us the freedom to write what we want and say what we actually think!! I wouldnât trade that for all the ARCs in the world⌠and yes, I do realise Iâm saying that as someone whoâs not a part of the ARC-machine đ
Clearly, we donât blog for the accolades and money and prestige. And thatâs why I can safely say that ARCs donât really matter to me as a reader. I personally have no desire to read every ARC. Especially given Iâm perfectly content to read from the backlist, to get to the popular books after the hype dies down and to not be tied to deadlines. Reading is supposed to be fun after all!
This is not to disparage anyone who enjoys getting ARCs. And honestly, more power to you- I know what kind of graft you have to put in to get them nowadays. That said, itâs never going to be the end of the world if you canât get hold of the latest ARC. After all, if youâre just looking for free books, you can always head to the library đ
So, what do you think? Are ARCs important? If so, how important? Really wanna hear your thoughts on this one!
the orang-utan librarian 