As of Sept 1, 2017, ARCs are no longer swappable in any way at PaperBackSwap.

The ARC swapping thread in the Book Bazaar has been removed.  We thank Amanda S (ABCatHome) for her diligent work managing the thread!

The reason for this policy change is that ARCs are copies for which the author/publisher was not paid -- they are intended for reviewers and other "advance readers", and were not intended to reach general readers or replace book purchases.

Why now? We decided on this policy change because over time ARC trading had become very common in the Book Bazaar, and the effect on authors could no longer be considered negligible.

• PaperBackSwap does not intend to cheat authors of payment for their hard work!
• We know members don't want to cheat authors either -- many members may not have realized (as we didn't, until we saw the volume of ARCs being traded, and gave it some thought) that circulating ARCs does that.

How ARCs differ from swapping of "regular" used books:

• Their content is different
  • ARCs are not final copies of books (they may contain typos or content that is changed in the final version)
  • The "regular" used book is the final version
• Authors were not paid for ARCs
  • ARCs are distributed only to advance readers -- influencers or reviewers -- and the publisher and author are NOT paid for these copies. They were not intended for general circulation.
  • "Regular" used books -- these copies were sold, and authors were paid for those sales.

ARCs are also known as "review copies" - "Advance Reader Copies" - "Advance Copies" - "Uncorrected Proofs" - "Galleys" and so on.

Amanda S. (ABCatHome) has suggested some publisher-sanctioned uses for ARCs:

• Donating: To a school library, or to a prison (where families are often not allowed to give books to prisoners), or to Books for Soldiers.
• Blog ARC Giveaways: this is our favorite option, as it benefits the authors and is in keeping with the original purpose of ARCs:
  • Get your ARCs to bloggers/influencers, who can blog/post about the book and the author and do an ARC giveaway.
  • ARC giveaways are good for both the author and the blogger, and most publishers are OK with that re-use of ARCs.