ARC reading tips

Not too long ago, someone asked the authors in an ARC group for suggestions for readers looking to support authors by reading and reviewing their work. 

ARC reading is an integral part of the writing and marketing process. ARC readers help us. And as ARC readers, we receive an early release, or at least a free copy of a book to feed our insatiable appetite for books! 

Authors trust ARC readers to follow through on their commitment, to communicate, and most definitely - to NOT plug any or all of our work into an AI detector or form of software. We give you our hard work and trust you to not feed it into something that will help train AI. 

ARC readers trust authors to provide them with a quality product. They trust us to provide them with a product that has been edited and properly labeled, i.e. by genre. It's one thing to give our books to ARC readers while also in its final proofread, but we should never provide you with a rough, or at least early, draft. 

Some suggestions for ARC readers

Here is my initial response, though it's certainly not all-inclusive. My second response is noted further down.

Response #1:

1. Don’t summarize the entire book in the review. It’s not a book report. A sentence or two saying how you liked it is preferable to detailing the entire story so the reader of the review no longer has to bother reading the book!

2. Read the communication we send - where we want reviews to be posted, etc. I usually ask for 2 of 3 to be posted (GR, Zon, BookBub.) Everything else is gravy.

3. Don’t stress over the review itself. You’re welcome to copy and paste the same review on multiple locations.

4. If the book isn’t for you, or if you just don’t like it, that’s okay. Just let us know. A quick email saying it wasn’t for you and you’re going to DNF and not review is perfect. That’s all we need so we don’t have to bug you later. Writing is a business so it’s okay if our book doesn’t appeal to everyone.

5. A lot of times ARCs go out while the book is being proofread, so you might see some typos. If you’re comfortable, send a quick note to the author with the chapter # or a screenshot. Whatever you’re comfortable doing. Trust me - we appreciate it! We’re human and our editors are human. Nobody’s perfect!

6. Whatever questions you have, if you’re unsure about anything, just ask the author. Writing is a business. You’re doing us a favor by reading and reviewing our books and we just want to keep track of everything as best we can.

7. If you’ve never posted a review online before, don’t be upset if you don’t get chosen right away. If you’re looking to start writing reviews and become an ARC reader, awesome! Welcome! Start by writing them on Goodreads for books you’ve already read. That’s a great place to start. Then go from there. Make sure you have an account on Goodreads, BookBub, and Amazon as they’re common places where readers go so that’s where they’ll look at reviews. Other sources are good as well, such as Storygraph, BN, AppleBooks, Kobo, Smashwords. More authors are going wide and publishing in more spaces that will need your help with reviews. If it seems like a lot, go back to #3 above.

We appreciate you!

Response #2:

PS - don’t use AI to summarize our books.

Don’t use AI to create a review.

Don’t use AI by plugging in our blurb.

I’ll be honest - you do that and your name will be spread like wildfire to be blacklisted. And no amount of begging will get you off it.

We work hard to write our books and putting anyone’s work into an AI detector (the kind that thinks that the Declaration of Independence is 76% AI) is just beyond dirty.

Don’t do it. Ever.

Meta has already stolen a lot of our work for LibGen and other places to train AI without our permission, please don’t be like them.

And if you suspect AI? You’ll probably be wrong.

But if you’re stubborn, just ask the author directly. And then, take them at their word.


To the ARC readers and fellow authors out there, what do you think of my above responses? Is there anything you'd add? Anything you'd remove? 

Thanks for leaving your thoughts below. 

Happy reading! 

Heather


Find me online


Read all my stories on Inkspired


Learn more about Grant's Crossing