A copy from an author: the delivery link

What the link is

An author who has your e-mail, or who met you somewhere, can hand you a protected copy of their book without a campaign: a delivery link, or the same thing as a QR code. The page it opens has no navigation and one action: the author's name and face over Ana Reyes is giving this copy away, the book with its cover, their note in their own words, and a button. While the link is still open it shows how many copies are left and how many days it lasts, so you can see whether you are in a race.

Opening the copy

• No account yet, on a link open to anyone: Create a free reader account and open it: your name, an e-mail address and a password, then Open your copy. Readers never pay, and the account is yours for good. A link for signed-in readers or for the author's followers asks you to Log in first, and offers the follow on the same page.
• Signed in: one tap, Open your copy. Your name is shown above the button; if it is the wrong one, Not Sam? under it lets you sign out and open the page as somebody else, with the copy still unclaimed, or follow the author and leave the copy for whoever it was meant for.
• A password: some links ask for one the author gave you, as one more field on the same form. A wrong password says so under the field, creates no account, and keeps what you typed.
• A copy sent by e-mail from a campaign opens the same door with a different first line, Ana Reyes sent you an early copy, because that copy was sent to an address the author typed and it asks for a review by the campaign's date. It works once: a second person opening it sees This copy was already opened.

A giveaway you win arrives the same way, for the same reason: nothing is owed for it (Giveaways).

Two kinds of copy, and the page says which: a delivery link or a giveaway win owes nothing and goes to your Library with the rest of your books, while a copy an author sends you from an early-copy campaign is an early copy of that campaign, asks for an honest review by its date, and sits in My early copies with your other requests (Reading or downloading your early copy).

The book comes the way the author chose: on Booklabria, one chapter at a time with your place kept on every device; as a protected download with a link that lasts fifteen minutes; or sent to your Kindle. If the link offers more than one way, right after you open it you pick one from equal cards (Reading or downloading your early copy explains them, and Sending an early copy to your Kindle the Kindle).

The copy goes to your Library, marked From Ana Reyes, by a link with A gift. Nothing is owed. under it, and it keeps that mark wherever you put it: move it to Reading and the mark moves with it, because where a book came from is a fact about the copy, not a place it lives. New copies land on the From authors shelf; one you have already filed elsewhere stays where you filed it. To see every copy an author handed you at once, whatever shelf it is on, use From an author beside Sort. A receipt mail, Your copy of The Salt Road, says the same.

What this copy asks for

Nothing. No review, no deadline, and nothing about it goes on your follow-through.

Your copy is yours, and the author sees only what the way you read it reports. On a copy you read on Booklabria that is how far you got, never what you highlighted; on a download, that you downloaded it; on a copy sent to your Kindle, that it was sent. When a link offers more than one way, you choose how to read it, and the author sees what you chose.

When a link cannot deliver

• All copies are claimed: the author offered a number of copies and they are all taken. The page says how many there were. Follow the author to hear when the book is out, or when a campaign opens.
• This link has expired: the author set it to end. A copy you already claimed is still in your Library, marked From Ana Reyes; Go to your Library opens it.
• This link is no longer active: the author closed it. No reason is given; copies already claimed stay readable.

A claimed copy stays yours whatever became of the link, and the page shows it as yours even when the link is full, expired or revoked.