How to Get ARC Reviews - The Ultimate Guide
The problem most indie authors share:
You finished the book. You uploaded it. You told everyone you know. You got eleven reviews.
Six were from people who already knew you. Three arrived in the first week and then nothing. One was three stars from a stranger who preferred a different book. One was your mum. Some got deleted after publication because they violated Amazon’s Terms of Service.
This is an author outreach problem. And it is entirely fixable, if you start early enough and reach far enough.
The authors who arrive at launch day with 80 reviews did not get lucky. They started months before publication. They built a list of hundreds of contacts. They pitched personally, followed up once, and tracked everything. They understood the maths: at a 5 to 10% conversion rate from ARC request to posted review, you need 1,000+ contacts to get 100 reviews. And they planned accordingly.
These guides are that plan. One for Fiction, one for Non-Fiction Books.
The Ultimate Guide to Getting ARC Reviews: Fiction Edition
For authors of romance, romantasy, thriller, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, women's fiction, young adult, horror, crime fiction, literary fiction, and speculative fiction.
Fiction ARC campaigns live and die on community knowledge. The right bookstagrammer in your subgenre is worth fifty generic accounts. The right Goodreads group has an organised ARC request thread that has been running for years. The right BookTok search terms surface the creators who are still actively building their reading list and genuinely excited to receive ARCs, rather than the established accounts whose inboxes closed months ago.
This 36-page guide covers the complete campaign with platform-by-platform search instructions for Instagram, TikTok, Substack, and Goodreads, pitch templates including comp title strategy specific to fiction, content warning guidance, a dedicated section for each of thirteen fiction genres, and a full chapter for authors whose genre is not listed, walking through a five-step process for finding the right reader community for any fiction category on any platform.
It also includes an honest, specific section on BookTok saturation in romance and romantasy, the two genres where ARC requests most consistently go unanswered, and exactly what to do about it.
Also included: a free ARC Outreach Tracking Google Sheet with 1,000 numbered rows, dropdowns, colour coding, and live dashboard.
Thirteen genres covered: romance and romantic comedy, romantasy and paranormal romance, psychological thriller and domestic thriller, mystery and cozy mystery, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, women's fiction and upmarket fiction, young adult, horror and dark fiction, crime fiction, literary fiction, and speculative fiction.
USD 17 — instant download
The Ultimate Guide to Getting ARC Reviews: Non-Fiction Edition
For authors of self-help, business, memoir, health and wellness, personal finance, parenting, spirituality, and true crime.
Non-fiction ARC campaigns run differently from fiction. Your reviewers are not primarily bookstagrammers and BookTokers. They are Substack writers in your subject area, LinkedIn professionals in your field, wellness practitioners with Instagram followings, and true crime podcast listeners who read voraciously. The communities exist. Most non-fiction authors never find them because they are looking in the wrong places.
This 28-page guide covers the complete campaign from six months out to four weeks post-launch, with step-by-step search instructions for Instagram, TikTok, Substack, and LinkedIn, pitch templates for every platform, a dedicated section for each of eight non-fiction subgenres, and the KDP Select soft launch strategy that generates verified purchase reviews before your hard launch date.
Also included: a free ARC Outreach Tracking Google Sheet with 1,000 numbered rows, built-in dropdowns, automatic colour coding, and a live campaign dashboard.
Eight subgenres covered: self-help and personal development, business and entrepreneurship, memoir and narrative non-fiction, health and wellness, personal finance, parenting, spirituality and mindfulness, and true crime.
USD 17 — instant download
What both guides include
Both editions share the same strategic foundation: the full ARC campaign timeline starting six months before publication, ARC file preparation, delivery tool recommendations including Free Books First for Substack distribution, the verified purchase soft launch strategy for KDP Select authors with exact KDP dashboard steps, follow-up sequences, and the free outreach tracking spreadsheet with 1,000 rows and a live campaign dashboard.
The difference is the community. Non-fiction authors need to find subject-matter-aligned reviewers in professional and interest-based spaces. Fiction authors need to find genre-specific readers in tightly organised subgenre communities. Each guide is built for the readers your book is actually trying to reach.
The free tracking spreadsheet
Both guides come with access to the same ARC Outreach Tracking Google Sheet. Download it using the link provided in the guide, make a copy in your Google Drive, and your campaign is already organised before you send your first pitch.
The sheet has 1,000 numbered rows, dropdown menus for platform, contact method, and response status, automatic colour coding that turns green when a review is posted and red when a contact declines, and a dashboard tab that counts your contacts, responses, ARCs sent, and reviews posted in real time.
The maths is built in. You can see at any point exactly how many more contacts you need to hit your review target.
About these guides
Published by Stacks Publishing, the indie author marketing and discoverability platform behind The Substack Bookstore, Free Books First, and Editorial Reviews. These guides were built from real ARC campaign experience across fiction and non-fiction, and from the data of running an active ARC platform for indie authors.
If you would like your ARC distributed directly to over 3,000 Substack Bookstore readers without managing the outreach yourself, visit freebooksfirst.substack.com/about
For author services including Amazon optimisation, book marketing strategy, cover feedback, and Substack platform support, visit stackspublishing.com