Not For Resale
the ethics of trading in proof copies
I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh no, please don't let me be misunderstood
"I hope that you will cooperate with us by removing all Faber
proof titles from your site. The books are sent to you in good faith
for review purposes, not for financial gain. I am afraid that if you
continue to sell these copies we will have to remove you from our mailing
list.” Head of Children’s Sales, Faber
Before the final production of a book, an ‘uncorrected’ proof
copy is circulated to various people. The principle purpose of this proof
copy is to allow the author and the copy editor to eliminate lingering
typos or to make any other revisions they deem necessary. Authors are
warned at this stage that revisions should be minimal and that any significant
rewriting is likely to incur costs that will be deducted from their advance.
That being the case, the bound proof copy is as near as damn-it to what
will be finally published and it therefore serves another purpose – as
a promotional advance version of the book to be sent to booksellers,
literary editors, reviewers and anyone else whose interest in the book
might be profitably aroused.
It follows that the more notice a publisher wants to give of a forthcoming
title, the more proof copies will be produced. Indeed, the number of
proof copies of children’s and young adult fiction swirling around
nowadays is far greater than it was five years ago.
Not only has the number of proof copies increased, so has the quality
of their production. There was a time when a proof copy would always
have a plain sugar paper cover printed in black ink. Now the majority
have glossy, laminated covers and a stylish cover design that often replicates
the design of the finished book so closely it is difficult to tell them
apart.
Because final revisions are still possible at this stage, reviewers
are warned (a warning that is particularly valid in the case of non-fiction)
not to highlight errors of style or fact until they have verified them
with the finished book.
For obvious reasons, neither publisher nor author likes a proof copy
to enter the public domain before the finished title is published. There
was a time when even a review of the book was not supposed to break the
publication date embargo. In practice, many reviews (especially of children’s
books) appear several weeks before publication date, a date which in
itself is rarely followed to the letter by booksellers.
I have never, and would never dispose of a proof copy until the finished
book has been published. Once that has happened the proof copy’s
job has been done and a pre-publication embargo no longer applies.
In times past most proof copies bore a ‘NOT FOR RESALE’ notice.
These days the picture is patchier. I have a Kingfisher proof copy which
carries no such notice, or any other. The Chicken House state on the
back page of their proof copies “This is an uncorrected proof copy
and is not for sale. It does not reflect the quality, page size or thickness
of the finished book.”
Whatever the wording, and whatever the publishers’ intentions,
the irrefutable fact is that the second-hand bookselling trade has always
considered trade in proof copies to be a legitimate market. There are
approaching 30,000 uncorrected proof copies being offered for sale on
abebooks.com. Indeed, exactly because of the rise in profile of children’s
books and the consequent increase in the circulation of proof copies,
they are seen as increasingly collectable.
If NOT FOR RESALE was ever intended as a blanket for-all-time embargo
it has obviously been one that has been impossible to sustain or enforce.
I am not sure that the statements printed on proof copies have any status
in law or were ever intended to do more than prevent them being sold
as new.
Once the primary purpose of a proof copy has been served, what’s
to be done with it? More to the point, what is a reviewer to do with
the stacks of them that arrive each month? Regular review copies are
easily disposed of. Relatively. School libraries and playgroups receive
the majority of ACHUKA’s, with novelty and some series titles going
to charity shops. In the latter case care has to be taken that a reasonable
time has elapsed since publication date. And I know of one reviewer who
was discouraged from donating books to a grand-child’s school library
because it was affecting orders submitted to the local bookshop the school
had an account with.
A proof copy, because it may and probably does contain errors as much
as for any other reason, can never be put on a library shelf. What is
a reviewer to do with the stacks of them that arrive every year? The
purists will no doubt argue that they should be shredded or returned
to the publisher (and what will the publisher do with them if not shred
them?).
Book-lovers tend to be uncomfortable shredding books or sending them
to land-fill sites, so most people who receive proof copies retain them
in their personal libraries or release them to the second-hand market.
ACHUKA recognises that publishers have had legitimate concerns about
proof copies being released to this market prior to a book’s official
publication date. After all, this is tantamount to piracy. And because
of the huge increase in the numbers of proof copies produced and distributed
there have been cases of individuals acquiring significant quantities
of a single title for speculative purposes. These individuals have often
been closely connected with the publisher and its distribution networks,
so this is an issue that needs addressing inhouse by the publishing companies
themselves.
As I’ve already said, ACHUKA never disposes of a proof copy until
well after the publication date has passed. We never seek to acquire
multiple proof copies (heaven knows, we don’t want more of the
things!) and nor do I at book events get an author to sign a proof copy
to enhance its value.
For the last two years I have been openly selling proof copies on eBay
(not on ACHUKA’s main site, let it be noted), a fact that the whole
children’s publishing industry has been well aware of, since ACHUKA’s
lead page includes a link to the eBay listings and the fact has been
prominently featured in our eLetters. Out of the blue, Alyssa Brugman,
an Australian author of young adult novels has demanded I stop listing
a proof copy of Being Bindy. She has reported ACHUKA to the Australian
Society of Authors and to Faber, whose Head of Children’s sales
sent me a strongly worded email threatening to remove me from the mailing
list.
I know I am not the only reviewer to sell proof copies on eBay; I may
be the only one doing so openly. Whereas others tend to use disguised
eBay usernames, I took the decision to sell the proof copies openly on
eBay, alongside the other second-hand titles I have dealt in for much
longer - principally Puffin and Penguin first editions.
I did this because it seemed more honest, less underhand. I might, for
example, have chosen instead to enter into a private agreement with a
dealer (I have been offered this kind of arrangement). But as my primary
purpose was to raise funds for the upkeep of the website, it seemed much
the best thing to include the trade under the ACHUKA name, so that all
proceeds could be declared in the end-of-year accounts I pass to the
accountant.
All profits from eBay trading are declared in ACHUKA’s annual
financial return. Indeed, all my freelance work outside of teaching,
including payments for reviewing from the TES and The Scotsman, form
part of that return. The website would be running at a loss if that were
not the case, and I would be hard-pressed justifying to my wife the amount
of time I spend on its upkeep. Essentially, ACHUKA does run at loss,
since I would be financially better off if I shut it down tomorrow, and
concentrated on reviewing and other writing. I have had no time for ‘other
writing’ since starting ACHUKA in 1997.
Trading on eBay, and in particular the trade in proof copies, did bring
in helpful funds in the first year, much less so last year. But whether
a proof copy changes hands for £2.50, £25 or (extremely rarely) £250,
I have always felt, up to this point, ethically and financially at ease
when dispatching it to the successful bidder. Avid book collectors love
completion. There are still some of the early Puffin originals up to
#100 that I would love to acquire. Nowadays, a collector of first editions
will often want to acquire an author’s proof copies, for exactly
that sense of completion. I can quite see why, for example, a fan and
collector of Meg Rosoff, would want to own,in addition to the first edition
hardback, the proof copy of Just In Case, a glossy proof which replicates
the hardback design on the outside and has stylish black pages at inside
front and back.
It’s not only collectors who have an interest in
acquiring proof copies. Researchers and academics can use them to study
textual differences
between the proof, the first and later editions. (Another reason I would
never be happy destroying a proof copy.)
I have put this matter out into the public domain so that there can
be wider discussion of the issue, and of ACHUKA’s approach to proof
copies. Either it has been and continues to be acceptable for ACHUKA
to trade on eBay in the manner it has been doing, or it is not.
If it’s not acceptable, it seems amazing that it has taken over
two years and the inexplicably urgent, irate demands of an author in
a different hemisphere to be told so.
If it is acceptable, it must be acceptable in all cases, including Ms
Brugman’s.
2006© Michael Thorn
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