New Blogger? Where You Can Find ARCs

Whether you’ve been blogging for a few days, a few weeks or even a few months. Chances are that you’re still looking for ways to find more ARCs, whether they’re physical proofs or e-arcs. The way I’ve been finding them has changed since I first started blogging. And though I can’t exactly help with what you should write in an email to ask for proofs, I’m still struggling with that myself. But there are plenty of places that you can look for arcs.

NetGalley

This is probably the most obvious one. There have been some issues with them recently. Things like them leaking people’s data and being slow about letting people know about it. But it’s the easiest way for anyone to get e-arcs. You don’t even need a blog to be getting books through them. You can just review on NetGalley, review on GoodReads or Amazon or wherever you like. As long as you have some kind of review ready, you’re good to go.

You just have to bear in mind not to request too many at once. Your score will drop, and then you won’t be able to get any books as publishers won’t want to grant books to people who aren’t reading them.

Readers First/Bookish First

Looking for physical books to get you started off with reviewing regularly? Readers First in the UK and Bookish First in the States are the sites for you. You won’t get a proof copy. You’ll get a finished copy of the book. But you’ll still get it before release to read and review. If you get a review up on Amazon on release day? You get extra points.

The way these sites work is that every week, previews for new books become available. You read the snippet, review it and can enter a giveaway to win a copy. For every snippet you review, you’ll get 100 points. Even if you don’t win the book, you can still review it if you wish after it’s published. For every review you share – both on the sites and links for any blogs or Instagram reviews – you’ll get more points. Once you have 2000 points, you can select a book to win for certain. Without having to risk the giveaway.

This is definitely a better option for the American folks. Readers First…doesn’t have great options anymore. Bookish First seems to have a ton of YA books that I’d love to read. Readers First seem to be a lot of sagas, literary fiction and thrillers. If they’re your sort of thing, great. If not, then maybe it’s not a great choice. But it’s definitely a good way to get books to review.

Keep an Eye on Social Media

Follow those publishers and the publicity departments for them. If you have an eye on when proofs are coming up, then you’ll know when and who to email. You might see giveaways and things that can allow you to show that you will review the books you ask for. This isn’t something you need to go out of your way to do, and it means you have an idea which publishers are publishing what.

Blogger Newsletters/Blogger Lists

I’ll start with blogger newsletters as they tend to be a little simpler. Anyone can sign up for them usually. You’ll get newsletters when they’re sent out with what proofs are available, and you’ll have the form or an email to respond to. You won’t always get the books you ask for from these newsletters. But it definitely allows you to start requesting. Harper360 and Little Tiger are two publishers that send newsletters pretty regularly, so it’s worth it.

The other thing is blogger lists. These are harder. You generally have to fill in a form or send an email with all your stats asking to be added. If the publisher doesn’t think you have enough of a following, you might not get added to the list. That’s okay though. You can always contact them again once you’ve grown more. Take a step at a time. One day you’ll get there.

Edelweiss

This is another site where you can get e-arcs. But it is a difficult site to get any ARCs from. I mean, publishers and authors still get rejected for books. This is supposed to be the professional site for reviewers. However, there are sometimes books on there that aren’t on NetGalley.

As well as this, sometimes the e-book copies you get from newsletters and publishers may be links to download from Edelweiss. So it’s worth at least making an account, even if you don’t request anything. If you choose to request a book, don’t be disappointed if you get declined. Just appreciate it if you do.

Which of these options have you tried? Any you want to try?