I just got a google alert today for The Familiars. Excited, I clicked on the link, hoping to find a new press blurb in Publisher's Weekly or a favorable mention in someone's blog. To my dismay, I was directed to Ebay to find that someone had placed an ARC of The Familiars on the site for the low bargain price of $5. Selling a proof of a book that they no doubt received for free.
Click here to see the book on Ebay.
With a quick search I came to see that this is an ongoing issue for authors and the publishing community. Here is a great blog entry on sharonlovesbookandcats talking about how we can bust arc ebayers and a nice blog entry on wordforteens debating the problem.
What do you all think about people putting author's pre-published advanced reader copies of their books up for sale on Ebay? And what can we do to put a stop to this?
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I think it's really distasteful. It irks me on many levels. I feel for the authors. It's not like they make money off ARCs, so why should those who get them be able to sell them? (Never mind that it says on them NOT FOR SALE.) I wish eBay would disallow sales of ARC books. Maybe the book industry could do like the music industry - put an end to this the same way Napster was taken down.
ReplyDeleteWe talked about this on Mundie Moms and have made a lot of tweets (right after BEA, which we sadly missed) reminding people not to buy ARCs. I don't know why people feel the need to be so disrespectful to both the publishers and authors. Most ARCs say right on them NOT FOR SALE and mention some where on the book places to donate them.
ReplyDeleteEbay needs to do something about it. It's a huge problem.