What is an ARC — and how can it help market my book?

If you’ve seen book bloggers and avid readers online talking about ARCs, you might have wondered what this means. An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy — of a copy of the book that is made available to certain readers before the publication date.

ARCs can be powerful tools for building momentum in your book marketing campaign, but only when they are used correctly. We take a look at the best way to use ARCs to sell more copies.

What is an ARC?

Advanced Reader Copies are free, promotional copies of the book. Often they won’t have the final cover artwork completed, or be missing some elements like a table of contents or the acknowledgment sections. Some ARCs haven’t even gone through the final round of proofreading yet.

ARCs will always have a disclaimer printed on them (or watermarked throughout for digital copies) identifying it as an ARC and not the official version of the book.

What is the purpose of an ARC?

Advanced Reader Copies are used in a couple of ways. They can sometimes be used to gather feedback on a book so changed can be made before publication. But more commonly, an ARC will closely represent the final version of the text, and be designed to build excitement around the title.

Reviewers

ARCs are often distributed to people in exchange for writing reviews. Authors and publishers send the ARC to influential reviewers within their genre (or more broadly) so they the reviewer has time to read the book and publish a review before the book is available to the wider public.

Bookstores and Libraries

You can also send ARCs to booksellers and librarians to give them a chance to read the book and decide to stock in their store or library. An advanced copy is a good incentive to put the book on the shelf.

Giveaways

Authors can build hype around publication date by offering readers the chance to win a free advanced copy. Social media and Goodreads are great places to run these types of promotions, which generate excitement and eventually book sales.