Image by Mohamed_hassan via Pixabay
You know how it is. You’re on GoodReads or Amazon or whatever book review platform you fancy, and you stumble on something intriguing. Maybe the cover or title draws you in. You skim the blurb and are hooked. Then your eyes skip down to the reviews. None of the little stars are colored in. A big fat 0.00 hovers next to “reviews.” Your interest fades, and you move on to another potential read.
It’s a fear for every unknown author, the dreaded “no reviews” for their book. It’s a quick and easy way to turn off potential readers, and yet how does an unknown author, especially a debut author, solve this conundrum? Enter early reviews or ARCs.
If you already know what ARCs are and why they matter, feel free to skip to the “Show Me the Data” section to see how my ARC experience went as a first-time indie author. Otherwise, read on to learn the nitty-gritty of ARCs.
ARCs (Advanced Review/Reading Copies)
ARC stands for Advanced Review Copy or Advanced Reading Copy. These are copies of the book given to readers prior to release in hopes that the readers leave honest reviews. Most authors send ARCs to readers a month to two weeks before release. That way, come release, their book already has reviews that can guide other readers. It’s a lovely system and is essential for building up interest.
Are They Kosher?
“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking. Is this even allowed? Is it ethical? Is it legal (if you’re opting to use an exclusive distributor)?
Let me go ahead and assure you, ARCs are very ethical and legal. They’ve been a part of the publishing industry since, well I don’t know exactly how long, but a long time. They weren’t called ARCs back in the day, but writers have always been giving free copies of their works to folks to in order to help spread the word. The system has, like everything in the modern day, simply become more complex.
But let me expand a bit on each of these concerns.
- Is it ethical?
If you approach ARCs in the right way, yes, it is ethical. What do I mean by “right way?” Let’s go back to my definition of ARCs. “…copies of the book given to readers prior to release in hopes that the readers leave honest reviews.” HONEST REVIEWS. That’s the key.
ARCs should not only be good (3+ star) reviews. They can be if the reader actually enjoyed the book. When an author is requesting ARCs, they should NOT pressure reviewers to only leave 3+ star reviews. If they do, they’re simply perpetuating a system of inflated book ratings. To be clear, plenty of authors seem to expect only 3+ star reviews, but in my opinion, that’s not in the best interest of future readers.
- Is it legal?
If you’ve signed up for an exclusivity deal with a distributor, such as Kindle Unlimited with Amazon, there are rules you must follow. In this particular example, Amazon has exclusive rights to your ebook for 90 days. Digital copies of your book are included in that. This means you shouldn’t be sending digital ARCs to readers after your book has been released.
How do you work around this? You’ve got two main options. You can either send physical copies of your book to ARC readers after your release date (not my recommendation given how expensive this can get) or you can simply limit yourself to ARCs only prior to release (this is what I did). That being said, I’m not a legal expert. Make sure you read and understand any exclusivity agreements you make with distributors.
How Do You Do ARCs?
We’ve now established that ARCs are important and kosher, so how does an author go about finding these mythical ARC readers? Here we come to the work part of the process, and boy can it be work. Fear not, there are plenty of options depending on your time and budget constraints. Let’s start with the cheapest route and move upward from there.
Cheap But Time-Consuming
The cheapest option is to find ARC readers yourself, send them the book, and remind them to submit reviews as release approaches. Step one is the hardest. How do you find these people? You can start with your immediate social circle. Do you have friends and family that are interested in what you wrote? Can you trust them to be honest in their review? Now, fan out from there. Do those in your immediate social circle know of others who might know of others who etc.
“But I’m an introvert,” you might say (me too, don’t worry). Or maybe your social circle isn’t into your genre. What other options do you have for finding recruits? Enter oh-so-lovely social media, although in this sense I’m not being cheeky. Social media can be incredibly useful for indie authors. It’s free marketing as long as you can figure out the algorithm (no easy task and one I still largely fail at). But in the case of finding ARC readers, all it takes is posting on your socials and slapping in some hashtags (Instagram) or sharing to some groups (Facebook).
I personally made use of the following: my author Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts; my blog; ARC reader groups on Facebook, GoodReads, and Reddit. From all of these sources, I was able to convince a decent amount of readers to help with ARCs. Stay tuned for the actual numbers at the end of the post.
After you’ve put out a call for ARC readers, you can use a Google form to collect pertinent information to both vet the readers (make sure they aren’t just in it for a free book, more on this in a minute) and be able to send them digital copies of the book. Once you have all your readers and your book file, send it out. You’ll need to make sure to remind these readers about your upcoming release. I did a 1-week notice, a 1-day notice, and a release day notice.
Expensive But Quick(ish)
“Well, that’s useless advice,” you might say. “I don’t have a big social circle, and I don’t use social media.” Don’t worry! There are still some options, although these require a little bit of cash. If there’s a need for something, you better believe someone has created a service for it. The hunt for ARC readers is no exception. There are several platforms out there that exist, either in whole or part, to connect authors with ARC readers. The big players are BookSirens, Booksprout, and NetGalley.
The model is simple. An author pays to have their book hosted for some set time period, the platform shows the book to readers, readers sign up to be an ARC reviewer, the platform reminds readers to submit their reviews, and the author (hopefully) gets reviews. This option can be much more hands-off. The only parts an author has to commit to are signing up for the service and uploading their book, book blurb, and cover.
However, I’d suggest vetting every reader who requests your book. The default on some of these sites is to auto-approve every person, but you don’t want to do that. For one thing, expenses can add up if the service charges per reader (e.g., BookSirens). For another thing, some ARC readers are just on these sites to collect free books and won’t leave reviews.
Treat your novel like the precious thing it is. Don’t just give it to any person that comes along. This can actually back-fire on you in a few ways. Piracy is always a concern. The more people you give a copy to, the higher your chance is that one of them uploads it somewhere unsavory. The other concern has to do with your reviews themselves. If you let someone who doesn’t typically read your genre review your book, they’re more likely to give it a bad review. This is different from an honest review. These people aren’t your intended audience, so why would you want them to have a say about your novel to begin with?
Show Me the Data!
How did ARCs work out for me? In short, rather well, all things considered.
Just for some background, I write science fiction, which is a bit of a tough sell these days. Don’t ask me why. I don’t get it. The other consideration is that my novel is in the cyberpunk subgenre, which is an even harder sell. Again, don’t ask me why. I obviously love it enough to have written a novel in it. All that to say, I didn’t get nearly the same interest from ARC readers as other, more popular genres might get (i.e., fantasy, romance).
Which platforms and strategies did I use? I went wide to get as many readers as I could. I did the organic approach, asking my social circle (messaging people directly that I thought might be even slightly interested) and also posting on my author social media accounts. In addition to the organic approach, I signed up for BookSirens and NetGalley. A note of caution: NetGalley is obscenely expensive, but it’s also the most-used ARC platform. The best option for indie authors is to use a co-op for NetGalley. I went with Victory Editing and strongly recommend them.
Now, for the actual data, including how much I spent, how many readers I got, and how many reviews that resulted in.
Social Circle
- Cost: $0
- Readers approved: 16
- Reviews received: 10
- % Reviewed: 63%
Social Media
- Cost: $0
- Readers approved: 7
- Reviews received: 6
- % Reviewed: 86%
BookSirens
- Cost: $24 (dependent on amount of readers)
- Readers approved: 7
- Reviews received: 6
- % Reviewed: 86%
NetGalley
- Cost: $57.75 (independent of amount of readers)
- Readers approved: 8 (excludes booksellers and librarians who rarely leave reviews but are good to approve in case they opt to stock your book)
- Reviews received: 7
- % Reviewed: 88%
Was It Worth It?
From all my readers, I received 29 reviews, many of which were on both GoodReads and Amazon. I spent a total of $81.75 and had 76% of readers leave a review. I see this as highly successful. It was a lot of time and effort, but it was worth it to me and my goals. For my next novel, I plan to do a similar approach with the possible addition of Booksprout, just to see how that platform works out.
What about you? Have you used ARC readers in the past, and if so, did you find them to be useful? Let me know in a comment!
Leave a Reply