How to Get Free ARCs from Publishers
Part 1: Criteria
Getting ARCs from publishers is actually pretty easy, but you do need to do some things for that to happen.
- Get a blog.
Obviously, you need a blog to receive ARCs. Publishers want someone who’s consistent in his reading and reviewing books and has an established readership.
- Review, review, review
Publishers like bloggers who write at least two reviews per week and post other book-related posts. It’s up to you to schedule yourself accordingly to your time, but try to be an active blogger.
- Experience
You can’t just create yourself a blog today and expect to receive ARCs tomorrow. That won’t happen because 1) you don’t have the established readership yet and 2) publishers don’t know if they should trust you or not. When you’ve blogged for at least four months, have at least 300 followers on Bloglovin’, WordPress or Blogger – whichever the way you offer your readers to follow you – and have posted posts at least twice a week, then we can talk.
- Use social media
Publishers like it when you take pictures of the books they’re giving you for review and post them on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook and mention them. Even just talking about the books you’ve received on Twitter can work. They just like it when you spread the word about their books. You don’t have to be super active on social media, but at least create yourself an account and post something now and then. You can even link your Facebook and Twitter to your blog, so it automatically posts a link to your new posts on your profiles.
Those are really the main keys to getting ARCs.
Now, when you have readership, followers, accounts to different social media platforms and are posting without taking ‘‘hiatuses,’’ then you’re good to request ARCs!
Part 2: Requesting ARCs
To request ARCs, you have to e-mail the publishers. This is my favorite part. I like writing the e-mails and then receiving replies. I actually enjoy interacting with publishers, because most of them are extremely nice and easygoing.
When you first contact a publisher, you need to present yourself and your blog. Try to include all of the following elements:
- Name
- Name of blog
- Address of blog and other social media platforms
- What your blog is focused on (Young Adult, New Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary, etc.)
- How often you review
- Where you post your reviews
- What you’re interested in reading
- Why you want to review books for this publishing house
- Number of followers
- Number of visitors on your blog per day and month (unique visitors as well)
- Page Views
- Number of comments
- Your address
- A thank you
My letter of presentation has changed ever since I first requested books, but it looks something like this.
Hi, HarperCollins!
My name is _____________.
I am a book reviewer of Young Adult books of the fantasy, dystopia, contemporary and paranormal genres mostly, but I can widen my reads to New Adult and Adult titles as well, if the latter contain an ounce of romance. I created my blog, Hit or Miss Books, back in July 2014.
My blog is mainly focused on Young Adult books so, by informing myself on your publishing house company, I realized that I would be honoured to review your to-be-published books.
I post my reviews on my blog, Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I review two to three times a week and have been doing so for more than two years. I also possess a NetGalley account on which I am very active.
Links:
Blog: https://hitormissbooks.wordpress.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lolareviewer/?hl=en
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7eusC5ilQYj_AyNnaSU8_g
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14596170-lola
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hitormissbooks
Followers
- Youtube: 200
- Twitter: 1420
- Goodreads: 3400
- WordPress: 1200
- Bloglovin’: 800
- Instagram: 600
- Google +: 131
Visitors per month: 5 000
Unique visitors per month: 4 500
Page Views per Month: 10 000
My average of comments per month revolves around 400, and I do my best to interact with my followers, readers and other fellow book bloggers out there.
I would be very interested in a copy of:
– Three Dark Crowns
– The Dark Army
– The Fixes
– Avenged
Here’s my address:
[Insert Address]
Have a great weekend!
Lola
Part 3: Who to Request from
Now that you know what it takes to get ARCs and how to write an e-mail to request them, you need to know who to send that e-mail to!
I know most of my readers are from the US, but I am a Canadian blogger, so my post wouldn’t be very authentic if I gave you the e-mails of publishing houses in the US, if I’m not working with them, but I’m working with quite a few of them nonetheless.
I’m not going to give you the personal e-mails and names of the publishers I’m in contact with, but I’m going to give you the e-mail addresses you should send your e-mails to.
HarperCollins Canada: hccpublicity@harpercollins.com
St-Martin’s Press – in the US but they don’t seem to mind sending me copies anyway: publicity@stmartins.com
Raincoast Books – this is THE publisher you want to e-mail b/c they distribute books from the majority of MacMillian imprints: publicity@raincoast.com
Simon & Schuster Canada : ChildrensPublicity@simonandschuster.com
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – in the US also: childrens_publicity@hmhpub.com
Random House + Penguin Canada: canadianbloggers@penguinrandomhouse.com
Algonquin Books – US: inquiry@algonquin.com
Sky Horse Publishing – US: publicity@skyhorsepublishing.com
Scholastic Canada: nkritikos@scholastic.ca
Hachette Book Group Canada: publicity@hbgcanada.com
Well, I think we’re going to stop here. There’s a few more, but they are less known publishers and, anyway, you can easily find the e-mail addresses by going on their websites and checking the ‘‘FAQ’’ or ‘‘About Us’’ or ‘‘Contact Us’’ sections. Or just Google ‘‘Harper Collins review copy’’ and the links to find the e-mail addresses usually appear.
Well, I hope you learned a lot and that you’re excited to request your first ARCs! I know I was.
Thank you for reading and good luck.
LOLA
Book Depository | Youtube | Twitter | Instagram | Google+ | Goodreads | Bloglovin’
Great read and super informative. If I ever decide to ask publishers for books to review, I’ll definitely review this again.
Honestly, I didn’t even know people contacted publishers like this. Amazing.
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Great information!! Thanks for sharing.
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Dang! This is so helpful. I’ve heard of people requesting directly from publishers before, but I wasn’t sure what the protocol is there. Thanks for this super helpful post! Really appreciated. 😀😀
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These are such great tips. Thank you!
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Always helpful information! Over the years, I’ve had to learn more about requesting and the best ways to go about it too. It’s been a fun learning process that’s for sure. 🙂
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Thank you for the helpful tips, Lola! 🙂
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Fantastic tips Lola.
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Thank you so much for breaking this down for us so perfectly! I really appreciate this post, especially the sample email and other info you give out to publishers. HUGE Shout Out, thank you!!!
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Super informative post! Thanks so much for sharing it 😊 I’m not sure if I want to request ARCs, but I was always a bit unsure on how to structure the email if I ever did decide to so that section was super helpful!!
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This is a really awesome post Lola! I have only requested a couple of books, but haven’t really had the time to do so in the past few months, especially since I am moving all over the place. I’m definitely bookmarking this and sharing with others though! 🙂
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Dang! Your book blogging skills are impressive. I bow before greatness 🙌🏻
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Very informative and very well written! Loved that you gave such detail in how to receive ARCs 🙂 You’re pretty amazing!
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All extremely helpful advice Lola!
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Reblogged this on Jeannie Zelos Book Reviews and commented:
Interesting post. I do a few direct from publishers and authors – when I started I contacted them directly as above, but now I mainly use Netgalley and authors/publishers that contact me. I don’t have time for more 🙂
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Interesting and informative. thats pretty much how I started – I’ve reblogged on jeannie zelos book reviews as I’m always being asked how I get ARCs
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This was so helpful, thank you! I only usually request books through NetGalley but I’ll definitely try this 🙂
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This was so helpful! Thank you so much, Lola!
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Very helpful. I’m more of a blogger for pleasure at the moment but one day I may want ARCs. This is going on my bookmarks.
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Super helpful info! I usually just request through NG or EW because I am a big baby and scared to email them requests. Maybe one day . . . Great post!!
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Great tips. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Thanks for the tips! I’ve never tried to get an ARC from a publisher. Maybe someday. 🙂
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Thanks for all the tips Lola! 😀 this was incredibly informative, and I hope to put these tips to good use in my future.
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Wonderful post again, Lola! Thank you so much for doing this!
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Very informative post! I’m slowly trying to build my own blog up to where I feel comfortable requesting a book from publishers. I’ve gotten several from NetGalley, but I just don’t enjoy reading ebooks as much as the physical copies, so I don’t request as much anymore. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my site will get more popular with the more networking I do.
And you make a very good point with the social media aspect. I didn’t realize it was so easy to connect with authors until I really started using Twitter!
Brittany @ Space Between the Spines
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A: This post is fantastic and I cannot wait to refer back to it in the future. B: I am SO impressed by the numbers surrounding your blog and can’t imagine having a blog so massively popular as that. Definitely something to aspire to. C: Just keep on reading on. Thanks for posting this and being awesome! 🙂
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THANK YOU SO MUCH for such an informative post! I’ve always wondered myself about how to get ARC’s! And HOLY CRAP BALLS, I never knew there was so much that goes into it! It’s fascinating and intimidating all at the same time! ❤ I love your blog! IT'S SO PRETTAYYY, LOVE! ❤
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Great advice! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
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Thank you so much for this post, I’ve always wondered how people get free arcs.
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Question: How do you know which books the publishers have available for ARC requests?
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You browse their catalogs! 🙂
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Cool tips! I know though that some Goodreads readers who gets arcs. They have massive followings there though so I guess it helps.
Now there’s a blog that i know with a group of reviewers and they ech get physical arcs. I know publishers limit one per blog. I’m curious how they do it
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Very informative post. Thank you.😘
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Great post, Lola! I have been trying to get physical ARCs. I mostly get digital, though 🙂
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A great thanks from France. It is not easy to get books in English to review here. And yet, there is a market!
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You should contact the distributors, instead of the publishers themselves 🙂
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I always find these kinds of posts helpful! Thanks for sharing!
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Great post! Super informative! I currently just get my ARCs from Edelweiss and Netgalley. I don’t feel like I’m big enough to go to the publishers directly yet, but when I get there, I am going to be using this!
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You are so beyond nice to post this!!! So many bloggers are very secretive of how they go about contacting publishers and how they go about requesting ARCs. I’ve been blogging a long time and I think I’ve only ever seen 1 other person post a sample email for people to see. You rock!!
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Thank you for the tips, really informative! Anyway I have some questions 😀 Do publishers only give ARC to people who live in the same country as the publisher? Like… it’s easier and cheaper to ship the books. Or do they also give it to people outside their country? Will they ship to other countries or will they give the e-book version or something?
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Well, obviously some US publishers do ship ARCs to Canada bloggers, since I receive them, but you always have to check with the publishers. What usually happens is that there is a distributor in your country that distributes books from publishers, like Raincoast Books here with all MacMillian imprints. But don’t be scared to send e-mails even if you’re not sure. They’re not going to be mad. They will either not reply to your e-mail or politely tell you that they don’t ship to your country but can offer you an e-copy (usually). It happened to me with SOHO Press.
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Ah I see… most publishers sell their books in my country through particular bookstores so it must mean they do ship them here right? Thank you very much for your answers 🙂
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Hey Lola, I have one question: how many weeks/months in advance before the publication day do you have to send your request?
I’m so confused by that, how do you know when is the right time?
What if you ask too soon, do they put you on some kind of list?
and when is too late?
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It depends of the publisher. For instance, HMH doesn’t mind if you request, let’s say, Suffer Love, even though it was publisher at the beginning of May. If they still have copies, they’ll send them to you. Now, HarperCollins likes it when you request at least 3 months before the book’s publication, but I suggest request REALLY early and being put on a list, since it’s one of the most popular publishers bloggers request from. Other publishers work with newsletters, so you just have to choose which ones you’re interested in reading when you receive them. It just really depends, but try very early on! Or ask them, there’s not problem in doing that.
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Thank you so much. HarperCollins UK actually have two of my most anticipated releases coming out in October so I guess I should request them soon and try my luck.
I was so confused by this so thanks! 🙂
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Oh my goodness this is exactly what I needed because we just started our blog a little while ago, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about doing this! I just hope I can get more followers lol!!
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Thank you for this informative post. I plan on starting to request ARCs from about September. This is quite informative.
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Dear Lola, Thank you for taking the loveliest picture of my book and for requesting it. I really appreciate your interest. OH, and fantastic post. You’re a well of information! xoxo, erin
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So I see that you should have 300 followers to your blog, and I’m nowhere near that number. I was wondering if you have any tips to run a successful blog? If you could get back to me, I would appreciate it.
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This is brilliant advice, thank you for sharing it!
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Another option is to sign up for an ARC review service – I use hiddengemsromance.com. Despite the name, they actually send out free ARC books for all genres now. I love them.
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Reblogged this on chidmb400til40.
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I’m so glad that I found this post. I will definitely be taking what you have said to heart. Great information for new bloggers like myself. Have a great week!
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Thanks so much for the tips! As a new book blogger, these will seriously come in handy 🙂
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Thanks for posting this helpful post! (And for linking it to me on Goodreads.) I’ve been around the blogging platforms for a year so I am past that four month mark. My stats are just low though but I am amazed at the difference between here and blogspot. I can tell my stats are building over here. Maybe in a few months I can try to request physical copies. I have tons of content planned until the summer! Your blog posts are always so helpful and well thought out.
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