FIRST: If the member who I had this swap with reads this, please know that I'm not upset with our transaction! It's just piqued my curiosity, so I'm posting here to try to get more info!

OK, so I had a book on my WL in both HB and PPB formats. The member posted a PPB which had the HB ISBN# on it. There was no price on it, and searching through the book I saw no other markings, so I marked it RWAP (PPB not HB) and informed the sender that the book was an ARC and that ARCs are not postable. We had a friendly PM conversation back-and-forth (what's an ARC, blah blah), and the poster said he'd gotten the book through Quality Paperback Club. (Note: Book was for DH and wasn't going to be re-posted anyway, as he's planning to forward to a friend, so I didn't request a credit back. End of transaction, all is well.)

Well, if that's the case, it wasn't an ARC. But how can one know that it's a QPPBC book and not an ARC? I saw no indication on the book that it was a BCE, and there was no price on it (but it did NOT say "not for sale" or other such language on it). I seriously thought it was an ARC and reported it as such, but now I'm wondering how to tell the QPPBC books from the ARCs!

Anyone here have an answer?

I think ARC have "Advanced Reading Copy" or "Not Proofed" stamped all over them, and are obvious.

QPB publishes paperbacks before they are released as such, IIRC.

I hope that helps.

(is this where I admit I saw an ARC at the bookstore the other day that looked good, but declined buying it because I knew I couldn't swap it out? Grin)

ARCs will say "Advance readers copy" "uncorrected proof" or "not for resale" somewhere on the front or back cover.  It may be in small print, so look carefully.  If it doesn't have this, it's not an ARC.  If he got it from a book club, it most likely was not an ARC.  Book club editions aren't always marked as such.

Edited because someone pointed out it's ADVANCE not ADVANCED.  Sheesh.  I'd also like to point out, it's a message board, not an English term paper.

I was at a used book store in town the other day. They had a rack of books that people donated and they were selling ot raise $ for the local animal shelter.  There were a bunch of ARCs and it said clearly on them that they were ARCs.

Book Club books and ARC's are not the same thing.  Book Club books are final copies of books usually with different bindings, paper, etc.  They are acceptable on PBS.  An ARC, as posted above, is an advanced reading copy or unproofed copy.  They are not the final copy of the book and usually have grammatical errors, etc.  They are clearly marked on the cover or inside the cover.  They are not postable on PBS.

I am curious on made you believe it was an ARC? As others have stated, an ARC is very clearly marked as an ARC-not for resale. The fact that it was listed as a HC and was a PPB isn't it, that happens all of the time, which by the way makes it posted incorrectly by this member and he should have returned the credit. He COULD NOT use that ISBN because the 4 points did not match that are required to(Author, Title, ISBN, AND type (binding), and it needed to be posted as a book without an ISBN. The fact that there was no price won't make it an ARC, almost no BCEs have prices on them.

I guess the way you tell is if it does not have ARC or Advance Reader Copy printed on it somewhere, it is not an ARC and is perfectly find to post here (as long as the follow the rules and post the correct book to the ISBN).

QPPBC books are just like the hardback except with a paperback cover. Same paper for the pages, same page layout and numbering, same ISBN, etc. They are a pain at PBS because you have to post them as if they had no ISBN.

OK. Thanks for all the input. I'm a member at Zooba book club, and the books I've received from them had prices in them. Up until now, the only books I've seen that had the HB ISBN on a PPB were ARC's. Looking at the book NOW,  I see that there is no ARC inscription, but at the time I thought it was an ARC.

*shrug* Oh well, it was posted incorrectly, regardless. But next time I'll make a better examination for the "ARC" notation.

I'm a member of QPB, and they do offer a lot of early softcover editions, which as you've seen, are not the same as ARCs.  They probably shared the same ISBN, but the poster should have made sure the binding matched, of course, when they entered it into the system.

Don't worry....if you ever get an ARC, you will know, because they are clearly marked as Advanced Reader's/Reviewer's Copies/Not for Resale/Uncorrected Proof, etc.

Sorry just need to point out (yes again) that they are ADVANCE   READERS COPY.. Not Advanced, there is nothing advanced about these books.

Plus most ARCs list when they are going to be published  usually the month or season. They also usually state the number of pages on the back too plus if they are Childrens ARCs they normally list the age group targeted and subject matter.

I have a number of QPBC books.  They definitely are swappable, just as any other book club book would be, but usually they have to be input as "no ISBN" since usually they are paperback books with the hardcover ISBN.

The covers of ARCs are usuall very plain. Card stock covers. No pix at all or very low quality graphix. As for QPBC, they sometimes? often? have  "QPBC" on the spine.