Dear Writing Diary Entry #18

Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs): What They Are & How to Find People to Read Them

In this entry, I write about what ARCs are, what I included in my ARC interest form, and how I’m going about finding ARC readers.

October 1, 2024

Dear Writing Diary,

This week I’ve been busy finding potential advance readers for my debut fantasy, THE FATED. The book won’t be released until February 2025, but I’ve never been one who likes to work too close to deadlines, so I started my search for ARC readers this weekend. What is an ARC exactly? It’s a free copy of my book I will send to readers in advance of its official release day. While I’m not requiring reviews due to Amazon restrictions (see more below), the point of ARCs is for readers to read the copy and then leave reviews about it on Amazon, Goodreads, Instagram, Substack, etc. That way on the day of the book’s release, potential buyers will be able to look at reviews people have posted to determine if they want to buy it. More reviews also tends to lend the book more legitimacy as a product. Additionally, the reviews serve to help hype the book up before its release date as an integral part of its marketing and awareness campaign.

THE ARC INTEREST FORM

My first step in finding potential ARC readers was to make an interest form via Google Forms. At the top, I gave a brief summary of the purpose of ARCs and the pitch of my book. Then I had my potential readers fill out their basic info, such as their email, e-reader emails, and what genres they like reading. Next, I had my potential readers confirm that they understood and agreed to certain parameters of my ARC process. Specifically, I had them check a box to confirm they understood and agreed to the following:

1. The format of my ARCs would be eARCs (no physical copies to cut down on expenses)

2. ARC readers would get a free ARC of my book as well as a short story, but they would not receive any monetary or other type of compensation if selected to be an ARC reader

3. ARCs were not to be resold (lately this seems to be an issue with physical ARCs)

4. Filling out the interest form did not guarantee them a spot as an ARC reader

5. They were not required to write reviews, but if they did, they needed to disclose that they received an advance reader copy and were reviewing it voluntarily.

Regarding point 5, I recently learned that Amazon has a tendency to remove reviews with phrases like “I received an ARC in exchange for a review” or similar language stating that a review was required for an ARC. This is because requiring a review goes against Amazon’s policy as follows (read more about Amazon’s policy HERE):

FINDING READERS

With the interest form now completed, I needed to find readers. In order to do this, I announced on all my social media platforms that the link to the google form was now live. I didn’t only make 1 post though for the announcement, but rather, multiple ones, each with different aesthetics. The black and white picture at the top of this entry, for example, fit the vintage 1920s-30s aesthetic of THE FATED, whereas I did another post of my link tree I just created that had a more modern and trendy look. In all of these posts, I featured the elevator pitch of my book to not only hook potential readers but remind my followers what my book was about. I also mentioned comparative titles to my book in several of my posts as well.

Lastly, I believe my most important post was actually of the first page (and basically chapter) of my book. By sharing this with others, I gave them a teaser of one of the core features of my book: my writing style.

So far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who have signed the interest form, and it’s given me a boost of confidence to discover more people who care about my stories. Additionally, the great thing about Google Forms is that it can export people’s responses into an excel sheet as well as provide graphs of the variance in responses. For example, from my responses, I can tell most people will be leaving reviews on Instagram and Goodreads, with Amazon coming in third, and TikTok sliding into fourth place as a platform for reviews.

Whatever the number of ARC readers I eventually end up with, I will treasure each and every one. After all, these people will take time out of their busy lives to read words I wrote and a story that up until now has lived only in my imagination.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE AN ARC READER?

Whoever’s reading this diary entry, if you’d be interested in receiving & reviewing a free ARC of my upcoming debut fantasy THE FATED, then this is your chances as well! Below is the link to the ARC interest form if you’d like to be a potential reader (or if you’re simply curious, you can see how I structured my form as an example):

Fill out the form HERE.

If you need a little more information, here is the pitch and who I would recommend this book for:

TITANIC meets THE NIGHT CIRCUS in this story about a luxurious ocean liner known as The Fated that appears at the docks to carry a few lucky passengers to paradise every sixteen years. But when people onboard begin disappearing, one woman soon discovers their destination might not be paradise after all.

Would recommend for fans of: the Caraval series, The Shining, The Great Gatsby, Rebecca, Agatha Christie, The Alchemist, Erin Morgenstern, The Midnight Library

If you’re still on the fence, here is the first page:

If this still doesn’t sound intriguing, then that’s fine, and I hope you find your next great read soon!

Here's to seeing what other readers tomorrow holds.
-K

P.S. Whoever’s reading this, if you’ve enjoyed these glimpses into my writing life, could you please hit the subscribe button? I would love to share more of my writing journey with you in the future. :)