What's an ARC, Anyway?

Edith Maxwell, reporting from north of Boston.

Authors and editors often throw around terms like ARC, but some readers might not be familiar with it. So that's my topic for the month!

ARC is an acronym for Advance Reader Copy or Advance Review Copy, depending on who you ask. They are normally the finished manuscript before it has had its final proofreading stage, so readers inevitably find errors. But it's clearly labeled as such somewhere on the front cover.

In this ARC of Turning the Tide, a label on the top reads, UNCORRECTED PROOF FOR LIMITED DISTRIBUTION. The spine is different from what the released copy will be - see, this one is white and gives the On Sale date.

The back is different, too. The back copy - book blurb and various praise quotes - are the same, but in addition it includes marketing and publicity information, details that won't be on the final cover.

This is a print ARC, but publishers create ebook versions, too, and sometimes PDFs. ARCs normally are ready three to six months before the publication date.

ARCs are really important for authors and publishers. Why? They get the book into the hands of reviewers, primarily. Positive pre-release reviews build hype, let libraries order the book so it is available on the release date, and encourage pre-orders, which translate to built-in sales. ARCs can also be sent to "influencers" who might write an endorsement, and can be used as prizes in contests or giveaways. NetGalley sends ebook versions for approved reviewers who request them. The paper copies can be sent through the mail or handed out at speaking events.

Midnight Ink sent me five paper copies of Turning the Tide for my own pre-release publicity push. So...drumroll please...I'm giving away one copy today (US only)! And if you like the story and post a positive review - before release date on Goodreads and on release date for Amazon - you will have my eternal gratitude and a hug if I meet you in person at a conference or elsewhere. Reviews are easy to write. They don't have to be long, they don't have to rehash the story, and should never include plot spoilers. It can be as simple as, "I loved this book. Rose Carroll is a great amateur sleuth, I love the historical setting, and I can't wait for her next adventure."

Readers: Have you read other ARCs? Do you post reviews? And do other people's reviews and an author's rating influence your buying/reading decisions? (Please include a coded email address with your reply so I can contact the winner.)

Agatha- and Macavity-nominated author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. Called to Justice, Maxwell’s second Quaker Midwife mystery, is nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. As Maddie Day she writes the popular Country Store Mysteries and the new Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. As Tace Baker she wrote two books in the Lauren Rousseau Mysteries.

Maxwell is president of Sisters in Crime New England and lives north of Boston with her beau, two elderly cats, and an impressive array of garden statuary. She blogs at WickedCozyAuthors.com, KillerCharacters.com, and Under the Cover of Midnight. Read about all her personalities and her work at edithmaxwell.com.

How Hard Is It to Turn a Tide?

Edith here, gearing up for the release of Turning the Tide, Quaker Midwife Mystery #3. 

Actually, I don't think it's possible to turn an oceanic tide. It's not a little boat. It's not even a giant ocean liner or tanker. Our earth's ocean tides are mighty gravitation-powered forces. They come around more or less twice a day, with two high tides and two lows. The moon influences them. The weather influences them. We dinky humans have no effect, unless on a grand climate-change scale.

Don't trust me on this, though. I write novels, not science articles. But I'm pretty sure it's true. So why would I name a book if turning a tide isn't even possible?

The story opens at a meeting of the Amesbury Woman Suffrage Association a few days before election day in November 1888. We now know this was more than thirty years before women got the vote by the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US constitution in 1920. But that didn't mean women weren't already protesting and lobbying for the right to express their opinions at the ballot box.

Gradually, inexorably, women were turning the tide of opinion toward allowing half the adult population to vote. In the same way as with the movement to legally enfranchise African-American men, Quakers were in the forefront of the women's rights movement. Midwife Rose Carroll joins forces with other Amesbury suffragists in this book, and her mother - a well-known activist for the cause - comes to town to stand in solidarity across from the polls on election day, as does Elizabeth Cady Stanton herself.

I'm so excited that this book will reach the reading public in three short months! In the meantime, I have five advance reader copies itching to reach the hands of avid fans. I'll give one away to  a commenter here today.

Readers: Do you vote? If not, why not? What do you think of when you exercise your right, not even a century old, to mark that ballot or pull that lever, whether in a local election or to name the next leader of the country?

Agatha- and Macavity-nominated author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the popular Country Store Mysteries and the new Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. 

She is president of Sisters in Crime New England and lives north of Boston with her beau, two elderly cats, and an impressive array of garden statuary. She blogs at WickedCozyAuthors.com, KillerCharacters.com, and midnightwriters.blogspot.com. Read about all her personalities and her work at edithmaxwell.com

Studying 1888 Politics

Edith Maxwell here. Now that Called to Justice is launched to rave reviews ("A grand slam!" "A riveting historical mystery," "A mystery that surprises," and "A real page turner," I'm starting to write the fourth book in the Quaker Midwife Mysteries series. Wait, you say. What about Book Three?

Turning the Tide is already in production, and you can pre-order it (please do!) but the cover isn't up yet.

I loved writing this book. The story takes place during presidential election week of 1888. Here's the cover blurb:

Excitement runs high during Presidential election week in 1888. The Woman Suffrage Association plans a demonstration and movement leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton comes to town to rally the troops. When Quaker midwife Rose Carroll finds the body of the group's local organizer the next morning, she can't help but wonder who could have committed the murder.

Rose quickly discovers several people who have motives. The victim had planned to leave her controlling husband, and a recent promotion had cost a male colleague his job. She had also recently spurned a fellow suffragist's affections. After Rose's own life is threatened, identifying the killer takes on a personal sense of urgency.

What do you think? Sound like a fun read? The research was even more fun. I learned about election cakes. Women used to make these huge fruitcakes and the political party would give out pieces to men entering the polling place in an attempt to woo their vote.

I learned that the parties had different color ballots, and that the party regulars wore different color top hats while campaigning.

 I also studied up on women's suffrage. At the time they wore sunflower yellow sashes to protests and carried placards with slogans like, “Women Bring All Voters Into The World. Let Women Vote,” “Ballots for Both,” “Equal Suffrage,” and “Votes for Women.” Many of the suffrage leaders were Quakers like my midwife, so it wasn't a stretch to make Rose's mother an activist, too. John Greenleaf Whittier goes into vote in the election morning scene, and then comes to stand in solidarity with the women across the street from the polling place.

It was great fun studying Elizabeth Cady Stanton and bringing her  to Amesbury to support the women. She appears in several scenes in the book, even though I don't know if she actually ever visited my town where the series takes place. She was moving on to essays on personal responsibility, and I extracted bits of one for a talk she gave to a women's salon I portray in the book. 

Incumbent Grover Cleveland didn't win the election, as it turns out, even though Rose was on his side. And her investigation of the activist's murder turns dangerous, too. You'll have to read the book to find out if Rose is defeated or not.

What's your favorite election story, or factoid about either elections or women's suffrage in the past?