What is ARC Reading?
Earlier this year, I applied for my very first ARC book and was successful! Working with an author firsthand was a great experience to understand the importance of an ARC reader and how the process works. This might not be the case for everyone, as some authors may want to recruit already-established ARC readers, which is understandable. If you are looking to get into ARC reading, or have never heard of it before, hopefully I can help you out in this blog post!
What is an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy)?
Advanced reader copies (more commonly known as ARCs) are early copies of a book that are provided to book reviewers, bloggers, journalists, and anyone engaging in publication. ARCs are important because it allows the book in question to gain as many reviews as possible before it is formally published. This helps with traction and advertising as your credibility as an author grows, and you start to gain a dedicated readership.
For readers, applying for ARCs is a handy way to establish yourself as a book reviewer/blogger, as you can be granted the opportunity to work directly with some of your favourite authors or even new and upcoming authors. Anyone can apply to be an ARC reader as long as they can formulate a review and post it according to the publisher’s/author’s requests. Ideally, an ARC reader will need to post their review(s) on a platform that centres around books and the most popular are Amazon and Goodreads.
Where to apply for ARCs:
Instagram
LinkedIn
Facebook groups.
The traditional ARC would have been a paperback copy of a book, but the most common form of ARC now are either Ebooks or PDFs which you can download to your Kindle.
Final
If you’re planning on becoming an ARC reader, it should be worth noting that you will not receive any monetary gain by writing a review. The author trusts you to provide your honest opinion about the book, so don’t feel pressured to find silver linings if they don’t exist. Negative reviews are just as valuable as positive reviews.
If you are an author looking to start finding ARC readers, I would recommend this blog post by Jessia S. Taylor about the Rules and Restrictions Around Running an ARC Team.
Lauren Ternent | The Editorial Geordie