by Kelley York(Half Light, #1)
Release Date: August 15, 2012
Publisher: Kelley York; 235 pages
All 18-year-old Briar Greyson wanted was to figure out this whole living-away-from-your-parents thing. Apartment, steady job, cool roommate? Check. Noah, her adorable (albeit elusive) boyfriend? Check. Everything in the life of Briar was pretty good.
Then she and her roommate are attacked on their way home one night. Briar wasn't supposed to survive.
Instead, according to the two guys who saved her, she's turning into the things that attacked her: a vampire. Totally crazy and Not Okay. Now Noah's secrets are coming to light, and he wants Briar dead. Then there are the vampires who attacked Briar to lure out her sister.
Her sister...who died years ago.
(Didn't she?)
The city's body count is rising, and Briar wants to help put a stop to it. But first, she has to figure out who the real enemy is: the vampires, the boy she loves, or the sister she thought she'd lost.
The Sad Thing About ARCs
Print Advance Reader's Copies are a coveted item. Librarians and bloggers and readers reach for these beautiful creatures. Because they want to help spread the word. Because it's their job. Because it's just a book they really, really want to read and tell everyone about.
Sadly, the ARC is abused.
You might have heard about the uproar when someone discovered, shortly after a writer's conference, that a bunch of ARCs went up for sale on eBay. There's a reason every ARC has a "NOT FOR RESALE" line in them: they are not for sale. These sellers didn't care. They went to this conference, hauled in all these ARCs—depriving others of having them in the process—with no intention of reading them.
Who does that hurt?
The author, who isn't seeing any of that money.
The book blogger, librarian, or teacher who was told by the publisher, "Sorry, we're out of that title."
The fans, who might miss out on that book because the aforementioned people weren't able to put out their review.
ARCs are for buzz-building and early reviews. They're for librarians and teachers to make plans for getting books into the library and school systems. Publishers are pumping money into these ARCs and losing out on the publicity for themselves and their authors. This hurts the entire industry.
But there are people out there who make it their mission to grab as many books as humanly possible, either to sell, or simply for bragging rights later. (I'm sure we all heard about that fiasco a while ago, too, right? This librarian's post broke my heart and shows first-hand how this is a problem.)
I'm not saying you shouldn't pick up print ARCs if you're just a casual reader (or even an author!). However, if you find yourself lucky enough to snag an ARC, take the time to read it and review it. Put it to use. Help the author out if you enjoyed something they slaved over.
Which leads me into answering another question that went around the blogsphere: what do you do with an ARC after you've read it?
Maybe you didn't like the book. Maybe you don't have space on your shelves. Maybe you want to buy an official copy when it comes out. So...what do you do with those print ARCs sitting around?
You should probably...you know...not sell them.
This includes giving them to a used book store. I've run across a few ARCs in my local used shop, and was rather dismayed. These are not supposed to be for sale. Ever.
But I don't see a problem with giving them away. This isn't the same as passing around an e-book, which duplicates copies so multiple people can own them. This is physically passing ownership along. Hopefully, when giving away a print ARC, the book is being passed to someone else who will read, love, and review it, therefore helping further build the buzz.
Don't abuse the privilege we've been given to receive these beautiful things. Understand that by receiving one, you're getting something special. Somewhere out there someone else is being told, "Sorry, we're out of that title," because of the copy you received.
More than anything, the point of this post is: be nice to your ARCs.
Do you have opinions or thoughts on ARCs these days?
Thank you so much to Kelley for allowing us to be a part of her blog tour and for the wonderful guest post write up! Stayed tuned for tomorrow when I'll have my review of Hollowed up!
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