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If you’ve been in the book world for any amount of time, you may have heard the term ARC. You see it on Instagram, BookTok, BookTube and you may be asking yourself, “What the heck is an ARC?” Well fear not friends, I’m here to inform you about what it is and how even you can get one!
What actually is an ARC?
Let’s start off with the simple part. ARC stands for Advanced Reader Copy. You may still be thinking, “Ok but like, what does that mean?” Well in a nutshell it’s an early copy of a book that hasn’t been released to the public yet.
Who receives these mysterious ARC’s?
When it’s a book that is being traditionally published, i.e. from a major publisher such as Penguin Random House, the publisher will usually choose specific ARC readers. If it is a book that is being independently published, so a book that the author will publish on their own, then the author typically chooses their ARC readers. How they’re chosen is completely up to the entity that is in charge of choosing them. Some of the typical people that receive these ARC’s are bookstores, book influencers, or even people who enter a giveaway.
What is the point of an ARC?
The point is to get the word out about this book to as many people as possible and build the hype leading to release day. It’s as simple as that! The ARC readers that are chosen get sent these books for free in exchange for an honest review. Sometimes it’s the physical book and sometimes it’s an ebook to save on printing costs.
Most of the time when it’s a traditionally published book, the publishers are going to choose influencers who have a larger following or good engagement so that they promote the book to their large audience. When it’s a smaller indie author, they may choose a wider audience to try and get it seen by as many people as possible. Don’t get it twisted though because sometimes, indie authors are choosing a very select few to receive their ARC’s while publishers may cast a wider net. It’s all dependent on the book and the audience they are trying to reach.
So you get a free book in exchange for an honest review, what if you don’t like the book?
I could write a whole other post about this topic because let me tell you, there’s lots to unpack here. What it comes down to, in the end, is that you should still write your review when you’ve agreed to post it. But be honest in your review! Don’t slander the author but be honest in how you felt and things you think the author could have done better. Really try to find the positives in the story (there has to be a few otherwise why would you accept to read the ARC if there wasn’t something about it that you found intriguing?)
I would love to get a free book! Where do I sign up?!
There’s many places you can go to request an ARC! There’s even opportunities for publishers to reach out to you directly once you have a bigger following and influence! If you want to get to a point where people are coming to you, be consistent with your posting on all your platforms, engage with your audience, and make sure to have a way for companies or authors to easily contact you. This could be a link in your bio or an email address displayed on your profile. Make it SUPER simple otherwise they may give up if they have to go digging for it.
I’ve listed out the major places to request ARC’s down below. I will caution you, don’t request more than you can handle at a time. I’ve seen so many people request a ton of ARC’s trying to play a numbers game hoping they get approved. Then it turns out they get approved for more than they can handle and now they have forty books to read in a month. Now some of you may be able to handle that, but I for one cannot. Just a word of warning before requesting too many all at once!
I hope this was informative and I’d love to know if you’ve ever received an ARC and what was your experience? Let me know down below!
Also here’s a quick video of me receiving my first ever ARC from a major publisher. Can you tell I was excited?
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