Advance Reading Copies

It’s been four years since I’ve had my last hardcover release, so getting ARCs for my January title, Shear Murder, is both a delight and a challenge. My publisher sends them to the major players, so it’s up to me to find other reviewers willing to read my humorous cozy mystery. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. I’ve put hours into visiting various sites online and following up on other author’s recommendations, then sending out queries to see who’s interested. Some sites require you to fill out a form online. Then there are sites that give an address for you to send your book, but they don’t guarantee it will get reviewed. It’s almost like that old adage: throw a lot of spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. And each time you mail a book out, it costs you the postage. You want it to count.

ARCs are good for contest prizes and Goodreads giveaways, but otherwise you don’t just want to hand out free books to anyone out there. You want to put the ARCs into the hands of people who will spread the word: reviewers, booksellers, and bloggers with decent followings. Hopefully this effort will garner quotes you can use in promotion.

There’s a site online, NetGalley, where publishers can post digital versions of books to be downloaded by reviewers. Have any of your books been available this way? For those of you who have received ARCs or who make your own, how do you meet the challenge? Do you prepare a list of review sites ahead of time? Have you been satisfied with the responses you’ve gotten? Do you find this process easier or harder than pre-digital days when we did everything via snail mail?