ARCs - Advance Reader Copies

My editor tells me my Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) are ready and how many would I like for myself. Having never in my life been asked such a question, I'm back to being Bambi in the car headlights, but the publisher has done all this before, and tells me that most authors only order a few like 5-10 for themselves. Unsure, I order three (and later order three more). They are more expensive than what the book will actually be, because it's a different printing process.

The ARCs are mostly for the publicist to send out to reviewers. They order 50 copies. I haven't written much about the publicity part of this, but will.

For those keep track of publishing costs. I pay for the book printing, both the ARCs and the main runs.

Later the ARCs arrive:
It's a WHOA! moment. What I've written is an actual book. It's a dizzying experience to open a book and see something you have written. I post of photo of the three books to Facebook.