Plan and manage advance copies
Check the ARC information
Before advance copies are produced, check the publication date, ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers), price, format, publicity contact, and uncorrected-proof notice. A wrong date or contact can waste every copy you send.
Authors often hire help with this: design or production, publicity or marketing.
Why it matters
An ARC with no publication date or no contact is a copy that cannot be scheduled or followed up. Trade review outlets in particular expect this information and may set the copy aside without it. Checking a proof takes minutes; reprinting ARCs takes weeks and money.
Your part
- What you do
- Verify. Someone else may do it. Inspect the result yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher. Publisher prints; author checks the proof
- When
- Before advance copies are produced, usually five to six months before publication (Plan and manage advance copies: twelve to six months before publication, ahead of every review deadline)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Reviewers, booksellers, and librarians who receive an advance reading copy (ARC) need certain facts to do anything with it: the publication date, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and price for each format, the imprint, the format and page count, a publicity contact, and a clear statement that the copy is an uncorrected proof not for sale. Most publishers print these on the ARC's cover or a first page. Digital galleys carry the same information in the platform listing or on a title page.
Ask to see the ARC cover or the galley title page before it goes to print, and check the facts against your Book Identity Sheet. A wrong publication date is the common and consequential error, because reviewers schedule by it, and a publicity contact who will not actually respond is nearly as bad. If you design the ARC yourself, put the facts on the back cover or the first page: title, author, publication date, each ISBN with format and price, imprint, page count, your contact for review requests, and the words "uncorrected proof, not for sale" or similar, plus the short description and a line about who to contact for a finished copy.
Do this before ARC production, not after, because an ARC cannot be reprinted cheaply.
Common mistakes
- Printing a provisional publication date that later moves, without any note that it may change.
- Omitting the ebook and audiobook ISBNs, which reviewers of those formats need.
- Listing a contact who has since left or who does not handle reviews.
- Skipping the uncorrected proof notice, so a reviewer quotes a typo.
Templates for this
Professional review submission cover noteA one-page cover note that travels with a galley or finished copy to a professional review outlet and puts every fact an editor needs in one place.
When to use it: Use this when you submit to a trade or professional review outlet that accepts material from your route, whether the note is printed and tucked into the package or sent with a digital galley. Do not use this when the publisher or publicist is already sending the same book to the same outlet. Check first, because a duplicate submission wastes an editor's time and yours.
Review-copy shipment slipA half-page slip to tuck inside every physical review copy, so the book's details and your contact information stay with the book after the envelope is gone.
When to use it: Use this when you mail any advance or finished copy to a reviewer, outlet, librarian, or award program. Print one per copy and tuck it inside the book. Do not use this when you are sending a digital copy only. Put the same details in the covering email instead.
What done looks like
- Publication date, imprint, format, page count, and each ISBN with its price printed on the ARC or galley.
- A publicity or review contact with a working email.
- A clear uncorrected proof notice and a request not to quote without checking against the finished book.
- The short description and a line about finished copy availability.
- All facts matching the Book Identity Sheet as of the ARC production date.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified