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Question re ARC Copies for Self-Published Authors
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Kathleen
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Nov 03, 2016 09:03AM
Hello. I'm unclear about the procedure that self-published authors must follow to get Advance Review Copies to reviewers. Would a self-published author process their formatted book through Amazon (for the ebook) and CreateSpace (for the printed book) but delay the release of those files to the public, then send a link to the ebook file and print up 15-20 review copies to reviewers? Or would a self-published author convert their formatted manuscript into a PDF (for the ebook) and hire a POD printer (outside of CreateSpace) for the 15-20 copies, then send them to a reviewer? And how far ahead of the book's release would the pre-review copies need to be sent to reviewers? Thanks for your help. Kathleen
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I just converted the file to a Mobi/pdf/epub as I normally would to upload it to other places, and then just passed it out to individual reviewers as they agreed to take on my book.
Most of the reviewers I have were from direct communication, so I just emailed them from my own email address.
A hundred books out later, and a year down the road, I've collected 75 reviews for the book when I put it up on different outlets.
Hello, Riley. How did you convert your file to the Mobi/pdf/epub formats? I have never done this before. Did you have your book professionally formatted first before you converted the (formatted) file--which I assume would be in Word format--on your computer into the Mobi, pdf, and epub formats? And if you followed this procedure, did you need to download some special software program to convert the file? Or did you follow another procedure to convert it into Mobi/pdf/epub?
Mod
Hi, Riley. My book is written in Word (and I'm unfamiliar with Google docs). Can I assume that I would download some software to convert my Word file into the Mobi, pdf, and epub formats? And would I use the professionally-formatted version of my Word file for these conversions?
Here's what I did:I had my cover designer make up an ARC version, where the space on the back cover that would normally hold a blurb or author bio, I had them put in the ARC info - publication date, number of pages, ISBNs of the ebook and paperback versions, etc etc. I also made an ARC interior with ADVANCE PROOF NOT FOR RESALE all over it, and that same information again where the cover page would be.
Then I uploaded the files to Createspace. You upload your ARC files, and then order proof copies (bonus - they come with the word PROOF stamped on the last page). You can order up to five copies at a time, then re-upload your interior files and order five more proof copies. You can do this as many times as you want. Then, when you're done the ARC phase, you re-upload the publication-ready versions of the cover and interior and publish it on the appropriate day.
OR, if you want more copies at once, you can create a separate createspace project called YOUR BOOK ARC with a createspace-assigned ISBN (which you will have to list in the interior of your book somewhere or they won't approve it), publish it, print a whole bunch of copies, and then delete the whole project when you're done.
I mailed paper ARCs to important reviewers/reviewers that want print copies. Each reviewer has their own guidelines, including how many months in advance they want it.
For e-books, I made an ebook file which was identical to my ARC interior and emailed that to people - bloggers etc who accept ebooks.
Some people have success with Calibre (a free program that transfers docs into many formats including those. )I'd suggest you format your text ready for conversion first as I often received files converted with Calibre without the best results. (paragraphs cut in middle of sentences etc.) so if you use the program, make sure your converted file reads well before you send them to potential ARC readers.
If you have one of the latest versions of Office Words, you could save your file in PDF directly there.
Hi, CL. How did you make your ARC interior? Did you run the words "ADVANCE PROOF NOT FOR RESALE" on each page (say, in the headers) of the book? And when you finished the ARC phase, did you delete the ARC versions of the cover and interior before you uploaded the publication-ready versions of the cover and interior?Thanks so much for your help!
Kathleen
C.L. wrote: "Here's what I did:
I had my cover designer make up an ARC version, where the space on the back cover that would normally hold a blurb or author bio, I had them put in the ARC info - publication da..."
C.L. wrote: "Here's what I did:
I had my cover designer make up an ARC version, where the space on the back cover that would normally hold a blurb or author bio, I had them put in the ARC info - publication da..."
C.L. wrote: "Here's what I did:
I had my cover designer make up an ARC version, where the space on the back cover that would normally hold a blurb or author bio, I had them put in the ARC info - publication da..."
Thank you.Kathleen
G.G. wrote: "Some people have success with Calibre (a free program that transfers docs into many formats including those. )
I'd suggest you format your text ready for conversion first as I often received files..."
Kathleen wrote: "Hi, CL. How did you make your ARC interior? Did you run the words "ADVANCE PROOF NOT FOR RESALE" on each page (say, in the headers) of the book? And when you finished the ARC phase, did you delete ..."I made an ARC interior page in place of the title page. There are sites telling you how it should look, like this one: https://finishyourbooknow.com/2012/06...
And you don't have to delete anything - createspace let's you re-upload files as many times as you want, so I when it's time to publish you just upload your updated interior and cover files with publication-ready versions.
Thank you! Much appreciated!C.L. wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "Hi, CL. How did you make your ARC interior? Did you run the words "ADVANCE PROOF NOT FOR RESALE" on each page (say, in the headers) of the book? And when you finished the ARC phase..."
I send people the book in PDF, the same copy that I actually send to Create Space unless they request A MOBI file. Either is free. I tried gifting books to people through Amazon, but I paid full price on about four of them that already owned a copy and they couldn't claim it. So- make sure before you do any gifting through the Amazon store that the reader has never downloaded your book in a discount of free sale. The silver lining if there was one? I had a 70% royalty set at that price and will be getting some of my money back in the form of royalties.
use zamzar.com to convert files to many formats.
Riley wrote: "Well, I write in Google docs, and one of the great things about it is you can directly save it as a epub file. So I just downloaded it off of Google docs, and started passing it out. Really helps a..."Hey Riley... been a while. I write in Google Docs, too. Love it. And I've been saving ARCs (download as...) as PDFs and sending those out. And get this: I never even noticed that Docs supported .epub! Duh. However, when I tried to email it out for "sideloading" to Kindle, Amazon sends back a quick response: "the following document could not be delivered to the Kindle you specified." They say they can only convert and deliver: .doc, .docx, .rtf, .htm/l, .txt and Mobi. ***Q: How do you get around that?
BTW: I'm on Mac, and epubs open fine in iBooks. But not everyone is on Mac.
Thanks for feedback.
Hi Morris. Yeah, but I (and I think Riley) was talking about passing files directly to people. And I tested sending an epub to my Kindle app, but Amazon's Personal Document Service kicked in, rejecting. But I can alway just send the epub directly via email. Just not sure if everyone can open it. Macs can, but can Windows folks? Do you know? Thanks.
