Welcome to Friday Debate, a feature on cup of tea with that book, please, where every Friday a question will be posted that tantalize the brain and expands our horizons. For this week’s question:
As a librarian, I am fortunate enough to get advance copies of books from publishers. However, that is not the case with everyone. Before I changed my status to “librarian” on my Netgalley and Edelweiss accounts, I had difficulty getting advanced reader copies (ARCs). Being a book blogger was just not enough to get access to free books.
But with technology continuing to rise, people rely heavily on online book reviews. These type of reviews are not usually read through the conventional means (New York Times, London Book Review, Publishers’ Weekly, etc.) but through new innovative means, like Goodreads, YouTube and blogging. Book lovers go through different channels to get their book fix, shouldn’t publishers accommodate this change?
And it doesn’t just stop there. As you all know, I have a huge preference for books published in the UK over books published in the US. However, I can’t get access to the UK ARCs due to rights issues but have no problem buying the book through other means. Is this really about copyrights or is this about making money?
So for this week’s Friday Debate, I am asking these one question to all my fellow book bloggers:
Interesting question. I’ve been blogging about books since 2012, but I’ve never attempted to get ARCs. I purchase the books I review or get them from the library. While I can’t answer your question, I do want to say that I agree with you about the importance of online reviews. I find the books I read based on reviews I’ve found on blogs, youtube, etc. I imagine that many other people do too.