Win A Free ARC!
Or request one on NetGalley!
It’s a local tradition here on Vancouver Island to politely but aggressively notify the rest of Canada that, while they’re shivering through their latest snowstorms, we’re enjoying tulips and cherry blossoms. That’s why we have our annual Greater Victoria Flower Count, which is a fun way to make other Canadians feel bad about where they live. (In case you were wondering, this spring’s tally was 44,006,225,366 total blooms.) As someone who’s experienced plenty of miserable, snowy winters, I’m a fan of this tradition. I know it’s petty, but here we are.
As the local flora comes to life, so too does the marketing campaign for COLIN GETS PROMOTED AND DOOMS THE WORLD. (Oooh, nice segue.) This is the long, weird period in the life of a forthcoming book when advanced reader copies, or ARCs, enter the world. Usually based on earlier, uncorrected proofs, ARCs (also known as galleys) are proto-books that publishers distribute to reviewers, media outlets, and others as a way of building interest. This is the first time ordinary readers, not just editors and publicists, will encounter your book. It can be scary, because this is when we start to see hints of how a book is landing with audiences. For better or worse, it’s out there.
And then we get to wait—in my case, six more months—for publication.
It’s fine. It’s all perfectly fine.
If you’d like to get your hands on an ARC, you can! Here are a couple of options:
You can go to this link at NetGalley and request an e-copy. Publishers go through and approve requests from people with a demonstrated track record of posting ARC reviews, so if that’s you or someone you know, this is a free and easy way to get one.
Alternatively, you can enter our Goodreads Giveaway! If you enter by April 30th, you’ll have a chance to win a free physical copy of your very own. (Sadly, this giveaway is limited to people in the U.S. I don’t know yet if my Canadian publisher is planning to do something similar.) I’ll drop a graphic below, and if you’d like to support me and this book, please feel free to share this and the link above with everyone you know!
In the meantime, I’m busy writing the next book, which is an agony all of its own. Maybe I’ll share more about that in my next newsletter, and you can marvel at the wonder that is the creative process. It looks a lot like this:
For now, I’ll leave you with one last image. Here are Daisy and Lucy, gazing soulfully into your eyes because they think you’re just amazing.
Be well.
~ Mark