I received a book yesterday.  It had been on my WL for quite a while, so I was excited to get it.  I looked through it, and except for the fact that I thought it was printed on really cheap paper, it looked fine so I marked it Received.  Well, I picked it up to read today and noticed that on the bottom of all the pages in small print are the words "Bound Galley Edition" and a date and on the front cover it says, "Not For Sale, Advance Uncorrected Proofs".  Is this an ARC and should I have marked it RWAP?   I've been looking for this book so I was happy to get it, and if I can't repost it I have friends who also like this author, so I'll just pass it on.  I'm just curious in case it ever happens again.

Yes, it is an RWAP.

You can always offer it in the Bazaar if it is still WL by the time you're ready to repost it.

Or you can offer it as a freebie with an order from your shelf.

You could always send a gentle reminder to the sender that ARCs are not postable. 

Yes it's an RWAP and yes, you should have marked it as such. On the occasion when I've noticed a problem after I check the book in and mark received, I personally would not go back to pm the person to request credit back or anything--I figure it's my own darn fault for not looking at it more closely. But in your case I think I would send a gentle PM to the person explaining that as an ARC or "bound galley copy" the book was technically not postable and that if they send others, someone is likely to call them on it.

Several of the few RWAPs I've had have been for this reason (and for posting the book with wrong format/different ISBN) rather than damaged books or anything like that. I already get quite a few ARCs from publishers and various reading sites, and I really don't want any more because they can be a pain to unload unless they're the brand-new-hundreds-on-wishlist type of books.

Cheryl

Yes Erin, what you have is an ARC and is not postable.  Unfortunately, ARC formats are not uniform and can be difficult to spot until you've seen several...some look very similar the the finished book (including cover art), others have plain solid color covers, some publishers put the same (white & purple) cover on all their ARC's, and I've even seen one spiral bound.  I haven't personally seen one with 'bound galley copy' actually printed on the pages, so that's a new one!

And I'll agree that a gentle reminder to the sender about the unpostability of ARC's might save her a headache later.

This copy I received looks exactly like a finished copy, front and back covers look like any other book.  Live and learn.  I will send a gentle reminder to the sender to check their books carefully before posting.     Thank you, all.

I'm sorry, i'm not sure i understand.  What is an ARC?  And "bound galley copy"?

ARC is for Advanced Reader's Copy.  This can be a bound galley copy (copy designed to be proofread and may get major changes and editing) or a review copy (close to the final steps of editing).  Either way, these are not the final draft.  These can be offered in the forum but cannot be posted FIFO.