Incorrect Book Sent

I won Academy of Unholy Boys in the November 2024 ER batch and have not received it, but today I got a package with another book from the same publisher. I didn't buy it or win it and the only reason I can think of for receiving it is that the publisher sent the wrong book when trying to send the one I won.
Has anyone else had this happen? How should I deal with it?

>1 solenophage: Some publishers keep lists of ARC readers to send ARCs to now and then. (I don't know the criteria for getting on a list, but I imagine one is you have to review ARCs favorably most of the time.) My guess is when you won the ARC here, your name got added to such a list, even though you have yet to receive the ARC you won from the November batch.

Something similar happened to me many years ago. Out of the blue I received an ARC in the mail. Coincidentally, it was a book that had been offered here the month before, so I thought I'd been sent it by mistake; however, not long thereafter I found out about ARC lists from an editor friend. What I don't understand is why these publishers didn't email first to find out whether I was interested in reading the ARC. This has happened to me twice now from two different publishers, and both were books I wasn't the least bit interested in reading, so I didn't. They wasted money sending these to me, but I guess they assumed I'd be open to reading them because they were in genres I do read...? The gamble probably pays off most of the time.

>1 solenophage: Contact @AbigailAdams26, abigailadams at librarything.com

>2 Caroline77:

What I don't understand is why these publishers didn't email first to find out whether I was interested in reading the ARC.

The publisher was wrong in sending you unasked-for books, and would also be wrong in emailing you: Your winners’ contact information is provided to you for the purpose of distributing the books offered through your giveaway, and cannot be used for any other reason. You may not contact your winners, other than for the purpose of sending the book.

>4 lilithcat: I used to be in email communication with Simon & Schuster about ARC offerings every few months and was fine with that, but they may have gotten my email address from somewhere else. My opinion is that "cold mailing" ARCs is a dumb way to get books in reviewers' hands. One in particular was a hot, in-demand book at that time. I gave it away.

>5 Caroline77:

Ah. I assumed you were talking about ER books, as that's what the OP was referring to.

>6 lilithcat: Well, one of the ARCs I got had been offered here the month before, so like the OP, I assumed I'd gotten in by accident. I asked the moderator here at the time--Loralen (sp?)--but she didn't know why it had happened. It was unrelated to ER, though. I just thought it was at the time because it was before I knew about reviewer lists. When I got a second unrequested ARC (NOT offered here), I felt for sure that this happened because of a reviewer list.

>2 Caroline77: That makes sense. It's just strange bc I don't think I've read anything from this publisher before and then the unasked for book arrived before the one I actually won. Seems like a bad strategy on their end, when who knows if I'll even like what they put out.

>8 solenophage: Yes, I agree it's such a bad strategy! I guess it pays off for them most of the time.

>1 solenophage:

Have you contacted Abby about this yet?

>1 solenophage: Sometimes winners lists will get mixed up, if a publisher is running more than one. It's possible that this is what happened here. I have PM'd you to confirm some details, and will contact the publisher about this.