I truly love what I'm doing, and my only intention is to give readers a fun book to read and a fun place to go on the Web to interact with Kylie. Well, Jon, you've convinced me. While I was in Atlanta at Celebrate Romance 2001, the following anonymous email was received. This rant is almost as silly as the Amazon Blue Box rant. The publishing industry isn't about to take on either the eBay or Amazon issue head-on.
ARCs are a grey area of bookselling.
When the cover says Not for Sale, it really means that Barnes and Noble can't sell it, not individuals. Saying I can't sell something in my possession is like telling me I can't sell my regular books to a UBS or on eBay when I'm done with them. Again, it's a grey area, and I doubt if very many publishers will pursue the legal nightmare of prosecuting every single case of ARC sales. So the sales will continue. Microsoft successfully gets auctions of its software pulled from eBay on a regular basis because it's vigilant about scouring the site for any mention of its name.