Last Thursday, my doorbell rang at 2:30 p.m. and my first thought was, “Bookmarks!” Actually, that’s a lie. My first thought was, “You’re going to wake up the kid!” But once that passed through the system, my mind jumped to bookmarks.
So I raced downstairs and opened the door and found……two boxes.
This puzzled me. I was pretty sure we didn’t order that many bookmarks. Surely they weren’t my ARCs. Those weren’t scheduled to arrive for another two weeks. Curious, I picked up a box. And the weight made my stomach go all fluttery.
I hurried to the kitchen. Grabbed the nearest knife. Cut through the tape. Tore open the top. And there they were. My ARCs had arrived!
Seeing my book was a lot like seeing my son for the first time. I used to think, before I gave birth to Brogan, that I’d cry when the doctor handed him over. But when the moment came, I was not emotional. It was all too surreal to be emotional. And I was high on Percocet. The same thing happened here (only without the drugs). I didn’t hold my book in my hand and weep for joy. I held it in my hand and laughed. Not because the book is funny-looking. But because I couldn’t believe what I was holding.
Instead of crying, I felt like tossing the books up in the air and rolling in them.
Once that passed, part of me felt like shoving them into some envelopes and sending them out right away. The other part wanted to hide them from the world.
Before I explain this interesting conundrum, how about a definition?
ARC stands for Advanced Reader Copy. Do you see that purple circle on the bottom right of my cover? That purple circle lets people know that the copy isn’t the final version. It’s a version that has not yet passed through copy edits and galley proofs. And since I’m a perfectionist when it comes to my writing, the idea that people will be reading imperfect copies makes me a wee bit twitchy. Thank the good Lord for that purple circle because I already found two errors. One on the very first page, where it says He man, instead of The man. Just for the record, my book is not about Heman.
Anyway, I have a box of these at my house.
Waiting for the right moment to make their way into the world and hopefully, create some buzz.
The early kind.
While my amazingly awesome in-house marketer will use the ARCs to create a buzz in bigger circles, I’ll use them on a more personal level.
Here’s what I plan to do with them:
- Visit the book stores in my area. Introduce myself to the manager. And leave him/her with an ARC and bookmarks.
- Give an ARC to the lovely lady in charge of my church’s Books and Things kiosk to see if they might sell my book at church.
- Give an ARC to a friend who writes for the Quad City Times to see if she’d be interested in featuring the book in an article.
- Send ARCs to book reviewers who’ve agreed to review Wildflowers from Winter on their blog.
- Send ARCs to people who have volunteered to be early influencers.
Timing is key.
I don’t plan to send them out until late March. I don’t want the buzz to die away before the book hits the shelves.
But still. It’s Christmas time. And in the spirit of Christmas, and in an effort to let go and dive into the scary world of sharing my work, I’d love to giveaway a free ARC to one of my awesome blog readers. All you have to do is leave a comment that you’re interested, and I’ll pick the winner on December 14th. Come Christmas time, you could have a shiny new book on your door step (albeit, an imperfect one).
Let’s Talk: Are you a perfectionist? In what areas of your life? Would you like an ARC of Wildflowers from Winter for Christmas?
