I knew it was bound to happen. A Google alert let clued me into an Ebay merchant selling a copy of an ARC of Soul Enchilada. ARCs are provided free by publishers as review copies for bookstores, reviewers, and other gatekeepers. They aren’t meant to be sold. In fact, most of them are clearly labeled that the book is not for sale. It is also not the final version of the text. Soul Enchilada has been edited twice since galleys went out, so if anyone buys it, they will have less perfected version. 

I have no problem with readers sharing galleys by passing them around, swapping them, giving them to a dental assistant (which is what I did with Graham Salisbury’s latest). In fact, I hope that has happened with Soul Enchilada because it’s the best way I know for a book to find its audience early on.

Selling ARCs on Ebay is a different story. I tagged the item, but I doubt that Ebay will do anything about it. They seem to look the other way in cases like this.