William Gibson Books www.williamgibsonboard.com www.williamgibsonboard.com Spook Country *NO SPOILERS* BUYING ARCS
www.williamgibsonboard.com www.williamgibsonboard.com Spook Country *NO SPOILERS* BUYING ARCS Topic Closed|
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It seems to me that resold ARCs serve a purpose by giving the most devoted readers early access.
Those readers will play by the rules and won't say anything about the book's contents, but will - especially as publication date gets near - say things about their reaction to it. Assuming the book is good - and I'm hard-pressed to imagine otherwise - that's all to WG's benefit. Also, like others I doubt there's any real financial downside. Scott Atkinson Watertown NY |
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Perhap some but not all of the "most devoted readers". Not everyone is rich and lucky or trusts e-commerce (in)security enough, to bid successfully on eBay for such an Advance Reader Copy or Uncorrected Proof Copy, ahead of the official publication date.
That is not necessarily the best way for the publishers to encourage "word of mouth" or to engage in successful "viral marketing" which does not backfire. Instead of wasting ARC or UPC or Review Copies on busy or uncaring book reviewers, who obviously do not treasure the book enough to want to keep it, perhaps the publishers should send some to the devoted fans on this forum instead ? Such fans, like myself, are very likely to buy publication copies, probably at book signings, as well. |
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Interesting idea. But how would you propose selecting which board members should receive an ARC? Wouldn't it divide the WGB'ers into a group of haves and have nots? I can understand this wish from a fan's point of view, but what's in it for the publisher? |
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... WiGBers did all get our own little mini-UPC's through the blog. that will tide me over 'til August.
Hey we could do a chain ARC instead of a chain letter and all the WiGBers can sign it after they finish reading and send it to the next on the list (alphabetically by handle? if everybody took 2 weeks to read it, it would only take 160 years circulate not counting shipping time) ______________________________________________________________ ...after all you can chuck bones in an envelope -- remotepush "Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor not an animator!" -- Thal ...if it's that small a world, it starts to smell funny -- CayceP |
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I was thinkin of doin that with my copy but I couldn't think of a good way to make it work
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Just got mine in the post... can't wait to read it through...
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Draw lots ?
Like we are already ?
The members of this discussion forum are, by definition, more than averagely well connected to the internet. The publishers will get far more proper reviews and opinions from people who will have actually bothered to read every word of the book, than by sending out the same number of ARC or UPC or Review Copies to the mainstream media or even specialist book trade reviewers, who may only skim through it as part of their job. Some of us publish websites and blogs through which such a review of Spook Country could easily reach as many readers as those of many specialist printed magazines and periodicals. If what the publishers Puttnam in the USA and Penguin / Viking in the UK, are hoping to achieve is a critical mass of "word of mouth" and pre-publication publicity, thereby increasing sales, then they would be foolish not to support ardent fans of William Gibson's writings in this way, at minimal cost. |
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"Hell hath no fury as a fan spurned."
Fans are quite unreliable with new works because they have such a high expectation. And their internet presence reaches mostly other fans, so it is a captive market. ARCs have nothing to do with viral marketing and all in making sure that reviews are possible the same week the book is published, as well as some last minute corrections. Hardcovers are the viral marketers for paperbacks... Names. Numbers. Held as though they might be a map, a map back out of the underground. |
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Of course ! 
That does not seem to be true for music or movies or for other book genres, or even for other authors. Professional book reviewers are at least as "unreliable" as fans.
That may be true of websites and blogs dedicated solely to books or to a particular author (e.g. this forum) or to a particular book (e.g. SpookCountry.co.uk). That is simply not true about other more general or personal blogs, websites, MySpace, Second Life, email lists and all the other social networking internet channels, none of which are reachable directly by a traditional media professional book review.
That is the 19th or early 20th Century publishing model. However, it is hard to believe that modern publishing companies, with an extensive internet presence, are unaware of the practice of selling ARCs / UPCs online via eBay, ahead of the publication date. One fax from the publisher's legal department to eBay, would result in a prompt ban on such auctions. I suspect that the publishers are complicit in a half hearted attempt at online marketing.
My idea of "viral marketing" is closer to the definition of viral marketing in Wikipedia. |
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Agreed, insofar as that's not why they exist. I think, though, that eBay permits them to *become* a kind of collateral (in the "collateral damage" sense) viral marketing artifact. All of a sudden, people who never knew they existed can find advance reading copies by accident, just by running broadly-worded searches on ebay, and on abebooks, and google. Furthermore, the minute one of these newsprint wadbacks goes for a hundred thousand dollars, we'll hear about it like we heard about that old Vanilla Underground promo record this past winter. Worldwide coverage. Now, what agency wouldn't spend a few hunnerd thou' to garner a few million in sales?  |
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I’m sure whatever business model is right in the digital age will end up winning out, whichever one that is, but for ARCS, I don’t know.
The only ARC I have right now was given to me by a person (friend) I know from a few visits to Brixton (London) many years ago. He was working for a book warehouse as a gopher I think, and stole a whole bunch of book stuff nobody wanted. He gave me what I now know is an ARC for Stephen King’s “IT” (and a promo coffee mug with “IT” written on it). My friend eventually got laid off as I believe the warehouse shut down. I still have it at my parent’s house. My thoughts: I consider it to be a really neat collector piece with basically no value. I’ve never checked, but I would guess, looking at the way the ARC is made, that if it did have decent value, it would be very easy to fake up after the fact. So I’m basically saying I would get the “Spook Country” ARC if I had more free money, but I don’t. The one other thing that stops me is: If I read it before the release date I wouldn’t be able to shut up about it. Reading a Gibson book colors my world in such a way, that I wouldn’t be able to talk about the weather without somehow trying to digest his book. So how would I post then? Hell, I forget particulars about his last few books (and should reread them) but Neuromancer’s grammar actually shows up in my own sometimes. The subconscious is a funny thing. |
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If you check the archives you will notice in 2003 many self-called fans upset by Pattern Recognition, and vocal about it.
Why give a book to an uncontrolled fellow just to get a myspace presence when you can have someone in your ad company set up ten such pages? Or, use those hundreds of pages they have already set up, to promote this week product? And the complaints were heard, at least by the New York Times
It is not marketing if it is not under your control. As for the hurry, if this was a book aiming for #1 the first week, to appear in Oprah's, then it would make sense a strong pre-publishing promotion. Instead the objective (if previous books are a sign) is to slowly climb places, get a good rep, sell all the hardcovers and get a good sized paperback sale, as well as strong translation presence. Finally, the ARC is still a work in progress. Usually changes are minimal. Sometimes they are not... And I am sure some fans here did receive an ARC. But they joined much earlier and have participated a lot. Names. Numbers. Held as though they might be a map, a map back out of the underground. |
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Who cares? I bought the ARC of Spook Country, like I did with Pattern Recognition, because I wanted to read them first, and I am happy to have done so. Almost finished with it now...
Video_Snapshot_1.tiff (301 Kb, 51 downloads) |
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Genuine "word of mouth" recommendations or even mentions of, say, the fact that "Spook Country" is due out soon, utilising the reputation and social networking of real people, is proven to be far superior and more effective marketing than Ad agency astroturfing. Such "fake grassroots" movements can actually damage your brand and reputation e.g. the much derided attempt by the ASK search engine to steal back some market share from Google, which involved tv ads, a poster campaign on the London Underground and a website with fake users or shills pretending to be genuine people - see information revolution The reactions to this in the online blog comments were so scathing that they have now been censored, but you can get an idea of the outrage from this New Statesman print magazine article on the debacle - Phony revolution
That review, by Lisa Zeidner, a Professor of English and non-science fiction author, is actually quite positive about "Pattern Recognition" - she describes the book as "elegant" and "entrancing" in her very next sentence. Surely all successful writers, musicians, film makers, artists etc. who produce a body of evolving work over the years, both alienate some of their original fans and gain new ones
Conniving at the sale of ARCs and UPCs before the official publication date via eBay to the highest bidder, is hardly exercising any sort of control, unless the sellers are actually agents of the publishers themselves.
There is a lot of competition for readers' attention and money. I visited the major bookshops in London yesterday, and William Gibson's work is not fully available in any one shop, and there is no publicity at all, that there is a new William Gibson novel due out this August.
Is anyone here who has received a Spook Country ARC from the publishers prepared to say so ?
Some of us have been using this bulletin board forum since 2003, under different online identities, but have not participated in the random topics discussions. This message has been edited. Last edited by: Memetic Engineer, |
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Read what I write. Even the NYT realized fans were unhappy. That has nothing to do with her own criticism.
And WG does not usually read other sections besides random, as he does not reread his own books.
A true fan reads everything and memorizes it. You never know when it will be needed. If you know how to read between lines, a few receivers are obvious. As I said, right or wrong, Putnam-Penguin do not believe in a strong pre-publication campaign for a Gibson book. And you come across as believing you are owed an ARC, maybe because you have started a Spook Country Blog. It is not us you have to convince, but Penguin. Names. Numbers. Held as though they might be a map, a map back out of the underground. |
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Not that this has much to do with obtaining
ARCs, but...
You realize, of course, that you essentially remove yourself from the social memory of the board with that sort of behavior. In any community, visibility is key in the development of the social reinforcements necessary to be recognized as a member of that community. In the real world, participation isn't all that necessary (although it helps to strengthen the social bonds within the community) so much as being visible. Within a community, it's fairly common to develop a social bond (that is to say, a shared corporate identity) with others, whom you never even talk to, but pass in the hallway every day. In online communities, the processes are somewhat different. Although certain lurkers (e.g. lurker4hire) are sufficiently visible to build the necessary social bonds to become part of the shared identity, most do not. Instead, while daily lurking will allow them to feel like a part of the community (building the bonds through the reinforcing properties of social memories), this is a one-way street. There is insufficient social visibility, and thus no social memory, within the community to recognize that lurker as a member of the community. Likewise, creating new online identities effectively cuts ties with any social memory constructed with the previous identities, unless some direct (or obvious) ties are created to the previous identities (e.g. madevilbeats, JRE, anarchocyclist, and hydra). Even then, the new identities maintain a sufficient amount of visibility to help create social identity. So those people you mention, those who use multiple identities in some of the low-traffic areas of the board, are not likely to have sufficient visibility to be considered to have core membership (or even peripheral membership in some cases) within the community as recognized by those who are highly visible. This could easily change as the WGB community is fairly welcoming and the methods to do so, for those interested, should (hopefully) be obvious. This post ought to be edited for consistency in terminology and theoretical framework, but I have work to do, so... tough. -- Fanaticism is nowhere. There's no tenderness or humanity in fanaticism. - Joe Strummer |
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That review was published only a couple of weeks before the official release date of "Pattern Recognition", however, it seems unlikely to be referring to pre-publication reviews or criticism from fans directed at that book, but rather to the reaction of some fans to the previous books. The reviewer seems to use that early paragraph in her article as a straw man to argue against in the rest of her positive review.
Or they may outsource some of their fallible human memory to a web search engine.
That seems rather complacent of them in 2007.
I am not owed the time of day, let alone an advance copy of the book. I am neither more nor less deserving, than any other fan, even though I have been a fan for decades before starting that little blog. This message has been edited. Last edited by: Memetic Engineer, |
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Such "fake grassroots" movements can actually damage your brand and reputation e.g. the much derided attempt by the ASK search engine to steal back some market share from Google, which involved tv ads, a poster campaign on the London Underground and a website with fake users or shills pretending to be genuine people - see information revolutionYes, but you never can tell for sure if your are being schilled for sure. You could very well have your occasional Mamma Anarchia lurking and any given online community might be none the wiser. I myself have been here since 2003 and have used this site often, but I've only 100 some odd posts as well, though I'd consider myself Gibson's biggest fan, having poured over each of his novels, probably, at a minimum, five times each. I love the man's prose and, at the end of the day, I'd sooner fall into his sentences for a fifth reading than most author's on a first. |
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