Publishing Trends has an article up on the new wave of ARC giveaway programs, "a serendipitous moment... when publisher, web, consumer, and reviewer come together" to generate pre-publication buzz. Here's the hardcore stat graf:

"Targeting citizen reviewers might be a wise move considering 68 percent of consumers trust 'people like me' first for product advice, according to Edelman Trust Barometer in 2006. An oft-cited statistic from Marketing Sherpa this summer says 89.9 percent of consumers surveyed would trust a friend's recommendation over a review by a critic, and 83.8 percent would trust user reviews over a critic's. And in the conflated world of social networking, trusting a 'friend' takes on even more importance."

The article runs through early giveaways at the Book Report Network, moving up to Bookbrowse.com's "First Impressions" program and LibraryThing's "Early Reviewers Group," the latter of which awards ARCs to potential readers by looking at the titles they've already listed as their favorites and checking for correlations. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble are also getting into the game as well. And though nobody in publishing is ready to write off newspaper reviewers just yet, at least one marketing director, Christina Casaccio of HarperCollins, is of the opinion that "a customer online review is just as valid as a professional book review." A hundred reactionary book critics are already chomping at the bit, ready to respond...