Strategies for Finding ARC Readers

& How Not to Drive Yourself Nuts - REPUBLISHED with NEW INFO

Mar 15, 2023

I’ve republished this with new information. Are you an author looking for ways to get your ARCs (advanced reader copies) in the hands of readers? I'm knee-deep in this process. Why was releasing three books and three audiobooks within months of one another a good idea? On the surface, it seemed brilliant. I could save on advertising dollars, and how much more time could it take to market three books and audiobooks than one? I'm discovering the answer; Lot's more and I’m an idiot.

Unfortunately, I failed to understand the difficulty of getting eyeballs on these books before releasing them and that readers dislike purchasing books without reviews. While I seldom glance at reviews unless I read them in The NY Times, other people are not like me. My mess-up will help you start out strong because I've spent several intense months playing catch-up and researching this topic. I've provided the resources I've discovered to help you get started and make your ARC reader program successful without pulling our your hair. For those who've figured this and more out already, please share anything I've missed.

Possible ways to find ARC readers:

Book Sprouts. I put all three books Hitman's Honey, The Devil You Know, and Truth Moon, on this book launch site. This company specializes in hiring ARC readers to read your books. It has four different payment plans available. My biggest complaint about Book Sprouts is that readers are slow to sign up and slow to complete reads. At first, I thought they weren't interested in my books. However, I've spoken to several other authors, and since we’re all experiencing the same issue, one’s a YA author, and another sweet romance; I don’t think that’s the case. I believe Book Sprouts is overwhelmed. Let's face it: there are a lot of writers out there and only so many readers.
Book Sirens is another paid reader service. You have to apply to use this one. They do not accept every book submitted. I applied with Truth Moon, a dark romance published by The Wild Rose Press, with a release date of April 5. I was turned down within twenty-four hours. Let me warn you the company does not explain why they reject you. They could turn a book down for various reasons; the cover, the book description, the story, or they have too many other books in that genre. Or the release date doesn't jive. Disappointed, I tried again with my self-published, gothic romance suspense novella, The Devil You Know. This one had an $85.00 cover, but it was professionally edited. I used Draft2Digital for formatting and the release date was February 15. I got through the first round. In the second round, they examine the book's formatting. Thankfully, I made it through this round too, and they accepted the book.
Book Sirens is an economical solution, charging $10.00 a month. During the couple months it was on there I got over thirteen reviews through this one site. I liked that when readers requested to read it, it was left to me to decide to approve or reject the reader. I could see the past scoring of each reader and what kind of books they liked, and I could read all their past reviews. I could have kept my book up there for three months, but I took it down earlier, because I wanted to sell my book and I felt I had enough reviews. I like this company because they did several promotions sending my book out to a huge amount of readers. They also sent helpful marketing emails. They were great to work with, and I can't recommend them enough. If I get a chance to work with them again, I will.
Hidden Gems. You would need to book their service well in advance, if you are interested. I suggest three months minimum. It was difficult for me to tell when a review came from one of their readers. I’m not sure this is a good match for me, because it was difficult to track the reviews.
Pubby. If you need reviews quickly, this might be the answer, but it comes with a big catch. Not only do you have to pay for this service, but you have to read other authors' books and post reviews (build up points,) a kind of exchange service. You would figure since you are exchanging reviews, you would get good ones, forget about it. No one can trash another book better than another author, and perhaps it's deserved, but I certainly don't want to be put in the position to do it. Since I'm no longer a college professor getting paid a salary to critique others' work, I'd rather not. I did not use this service mainly because I barely have time now to enjoy reading, and when I read books, I want complete control of what I read and when I do it. I don't want to be forced into it.
There are plenty of reviews about this company online, some positive and some negative, so do your homework. The positives: You'll get great turnaround times, sometimes in several hours, but don't expect any detail from the review unless you get lucky. These people are just putting in their time to get their books reviewed. They might not even read your book, they might just look at the opening paragraph and the book description and then wing it. Therefore, provide an excellent book description. This is going to be key for all those reviewers who aren't going to read your book. Pubby reviews do not start their reviews with "I got this book for free…" so that is another positive. It's going to look like someone purchased your book. It was suggested by another user to do the trial period, ten days for free, and after that, go for a month's membership and cancel after that.
Literary Titan. Originally I wrote that they didn’t get back to me. They did, it took them four days. I decided to take a chance and see what they could do with Hitman’s Honey a book I had no reviews on. I signed up for the $199.00 package and they guaranteed 6-8 reviews. What I liked about this service is that the reader buys the book, increasing my book sales.
I had four reviews up on Amazon and another on GoodReads within five days. Compared to some of the other readers on other sites the reviewers provided enough detail that let others know they’ve read the book.
I give this company high marks for speedy service and a positive experience. The only problem, the reviews are too positive. The people that write the reviews write too well and don’t sound like a “typical reader.” They sound too intelligent. I think I would use this service to fill in with, but I will need other reviews. Literary Titan also sent other marketing tips and turned me onto another company (Written Word Media) that does book promotions for books priced under $4.99.
Goodreads is a good source for ARC readers. You can look for groups and leave calls for ARC readers. I strongly advise checking their profiles and ensuring they have profile pictures and past book reviews. I don't recommend sending a book if they don't have past reviews and a profile picture. Yes, it's difficult to believe people want to steal a book and market it as their own when I'm having difficulty getting people to read one for free; There's a story somewhere. I did get several good ARC readers from Goodreads, but I also had several people take the book and I never heard from them again.
Facebook Groups also have ARC readers. These two groups have been helpful. Arcs For Every Reader and ARC Group for Readers & Authors. I've found several ARC readers from both these groups. I recently joined a third one, the Romance ARC Readers Group. I haven't used them yet, but it’s for self-published authors and they seem like an active group. Remember you can't force any reader to provide a review, positive or otherwise. It's totally up to them.
BookFunnel. I participated in my first ARC on BookFunnel with Truth Moon. Thirty-seven people signed up for the ARC but only thirty people actually downloaded the book. I only got about four people from Bookfunnel that actually followed through with reviewing on GoodReads or Amazon. I believe the Bookfunnel platform makes it too easy to get free books and is not really a venue for ARCs. I did send one reminder at the end of the ARC promotion to remind people, but was not allowed to do more. With this particular promotion, you were not allowed to keep the persons email, either. It is doubtful I will use it for ARC’s again.
Hire your own ARC readers on Upwork by posting a job. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Nowhere in the Amazon community guidelines does it say you cannot pay for reviews. It tells you, you cannot compel someone to give you a good review or any review. If you have faith in your book, push forward. However, if you hire someone to read, ensure they're readers you want. Make sure they read romance if you write romance. Make that a hiring requirement. Check their amazon page. It doesn't help you if they write a review and don't have a history of reading romance. It will probably mess you up, so you want your brother-in-law to refrain from writing a review for you, unless he’s ordered some romance titles in the past. If you write dark romance, you need to be careful. Not just any romance reader will do. They have to love this genre. If not, proceed carefully. Do you want the first review you get to be one star when they bash your hero and tell everyone what a terrible man he is? Of course, this can sometimes work the opposite way and make people line up to read it, but why take a chance? Ensure they have Amazon or Goodreads accounts if you expect them to leave a review there. Don’t forget Bookbub! Ensure you refer to the Amazon community guidelines when constructing your ad to get the wording correct. When I write my job description, I state I am paying them for their time to listen or read, not for a review. I ask them if they would kindly leave a review after reading. I have had only one person not leave one.
Beta readers. It might be worth it to go back to your beta readers and ask if they would consider writing an ARC review for you. Go back to your editor. Our guest author, Dayna M. Reidenouer, suggested that idea.
There are many book promoters on Instagram, and I get solicitations almost daily, saying they will get arcs for my books. I cannot comment on this. So if some of you have used someone, and know this isn’t a scam, leave a comment.

Readers should begin to leave reviews on their own, organically, at some point. Hopefully, you put a page in your book asking for reviews with links to your Amazon page, Good Reads, or other pages. Some authors want over a hundred and fifty reviews to do bigger promotions, but I'd rather try to sell my books to get the one hundred and fifty reviews than give the books away as ARC reads. I perfectly fine with eight or ten to get the ball rolling.

The other suggestion — have your reviewers publish reviews elsewhere besides Amazon if you are publishing-wide. If you have plans to advertise on BookBub, get some reviews there, too.

I've finished the ARcs for The Devil You Know, Hitman's Honey and Truth Moon e-books, and Truth Moon and The Devil You Know audiobooks. I'm just starting to ARC the audiobook, Hitman's Honey.

Please comment on other ways you've found to ARC your book.

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