What if we told you… you could read new books for free?
Welcome to the world of Advanced Reader Copies, or ARCs for short.
Advanced Reader Copies are unreleased copies of upcoming books that publishers hand out to a select number of readers in order to gain feedback, reviews, and public awareness in advance, before the book’s official release. You might be thinking, “How do I become part of that in-crowd? Do I need to be an influencer? Or dedicate my life to reviewing books?”
The answer is no, to both of those questions. Modern technology has made it easy to become an ARC reader, without needing a massive social media following or quitting your day job. The easiest way is to sign up for an e-ARC platform like NetGalley, Edelweiss, or BookSirens. These websites allow publishers to post their upcoming titles as digital files for readers to request. Reviews are the trade-off, here. You give the publisher your honest review on various platforms in exchange for getting to read the book for free. Some of the platforms you
might be expected to post a review on are: the e-ARC platform itself, online bookstores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and book-related social media platforms like Goodreads and Storygraph. If you have a following on social media, you could also post reviews there. Some ARC readers have Instagram or YouTube accounts dedicated to book-related content and reviews, but it’s not a requirement of publishers that you have a large social media following.
ARCs from these platforms come in the form of e-books that can be read on the site, or uploaded to an e-reader or tablet.
But what if you’d rather read physical books?
Getting physical ARCs from publishers is a little more tricky. Physical ARCs are more expensive to produce than e-ARCS, because they require printing and shipping. In this case, it does help if you have a social media following. But, that’s not the only way to get your hands on them.
If there is an upcoming book you’d really like to read, research the publisher. Find the email of the publicity department of that publisher and write them an email asking if it would be possible to receive a physical ARC of the book. Explain where you would post your reviews (the more places, the better!), and include your mailing address for their convenience. If you do have a following on social media, let them know your follower count. This won’t guarantee you a response, but it’s better than not trying! If you’d like to request an ARC from Typeface Books, send us a message from our Contact Page.
Another way to get physical ARCs is to enter giveaways on Goodreads. Often, publishers will host a giveaway for their upcoming books as part of their marketing campaign. They’ll list between 5 to 100 ARC copies on the Goodreads giveaways page. It’s up to chance if you’re selected, but there are ways to improve your chances, like entering giveaways with more books, or looking for ones that have a low number of entrants and are ending soon.
We’ll leave you with one final note: if you receive an ARC of any kind, make sure to hold up your end of the deal and post your reviews after you finish the book. On e-ARC platforms, not submitting reviews makes publisher less likely to select you in the future. Plus, it’s just the right thing to do!