How I Started Receiving Free Books From Publishers
a mini resource from little ole me.
The Book Influencers Dream
When I first started on my book blogging journey, like everyone else, I was all heart eye emoji over the big influencer’s stacks on stacks of #BookMail. It seemed like every single day they were posting endlessly about all the new books they received from publishing companies, and these books weren’t set to be released for months. I wanted to be “those people.” Am I cool and popular enough to score the latest and greatest books every time? Absolutely fucking not. But I do have a steady stream of physical books landing on my doorstep a few times a week these days, and this is how I got started.
These are just a few of the books I have received straight from publishing companies over the past few months. Please pause here to appreciate my book model.
Before Getting Started
If you are like me and can’t wait to get your hands on some pre-release books, here are a few things you need to know beforehand. Advanced reader copies, or ARCs as we call them in the book world, are a limited number of book copies that the publishing companies send out for review, prior to their release date.
I would like to tell you that numbers don’t matter, but unfortunately, they do. The publishing companies are sending these books out to generate buzz and they want them to be seen as well as read and reviewed. Although there is no hard and fast number for how many followers and how much engagement you need on your page, you will want to have a high enough number to attract their interest. I started requesting books and spots in influencer programs when I had somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 followers, with very little luck. It wasn’t until I had over 3,000 followers that I noticed a significant difference. It isn’t just about the follower number. Publishing companies want to see engagement on your posts. That means likes, comments, saves and shares. It does them no good to be sending their book to someone who has 20,000 bot followers with posts that have only a few likes and no comments.
There will be later blog posts about how I have grown my following and engagement rate on my account.
Where Can You Get ARCs
There are a few main ways to get ARCs. You can request digital copies on websites like Edelweiss and Netgalley. I have personally never used Edelweiss, so I will not be of much help there. If you don’t have a Netgalley account, I highly suggest you start there.
The second thing you can do is apply to join book influencer programs (there are a few links below), where a lot of publishing companies will put you on an email list to receive monthly or quarterly emails with lists of upcoming books you can request from there.
The third option that I have surprisingly found useful is to just send an unhinged email, directly to the publisher, asking for a copy of the book. As scary as it sounds, this shockingly worked the best for me when I was just starting out.
Netgalley
I could write an entire dissertation on Netgalley. To keep it short and sweet, you set up a profile and start requesting digital early release copies of books. You are given a percentage (essentially your worth to them) which is the number of books you’ve been approved for and the number you have provided feedback on. You want to keep this number up if you want to keep being granted good books. I recommend starting out with a few of the “read now” books, so publishers see that you are actually reviewing the books you request. Consider yourself warned, it is VERY easy to dig yourself in a hole by requesting more books than you can possibly read.
Publisher Influencer Programs
I have a love/hate relationship with publisher influencer programs. If you can manage to get yourself into a program, they will pretty consistently send book offers. And the offers are just that... offers. You need to request specific books from their offering, and even then, there is no guarantee that you will get the book you want. Below is a list of a few of the programs with links that you can check out. Just be aware that you will probably hear crickets from them one way or another. I went back and reapplied to a lot of them after a couple of months went by without hearing anything. Eventually, I started getting emails with book request forms from some of them (which I assume means I made it…) One other tip is that a lot of smaller publishing companies don’t have formal programs you can find on their website, but it doesn’t hurt to email and ask. Most have their own little informal secret list of influencers they reach out to.
Book Influencer Programs to Check Out
Just Send Emails!
I can’t stress this enough, but sending unhinged emails was a great way for me to get my foot in the door. I would find a book that I really wanted, look on the publisher’s website for the correct person to send it to, and shoot off an email explaining who I was, linking my book account, and requesting the book to feature and review. I include fun random facts (usually about my dog) and talk about why I want this particular book and what I plan to do with it. This was a scary and daunting thing at first, but I can tell you that no one replied with an, “lol,” at least not yet. For the most part, the bigger companies ignore my requests altogether, but the smaller ones will usually send what I ask for, if they have copies available.
When sending an email directly, I recommend that you time it so the book is 3-5 months from being published. If you ask for a book that comes out next week, they likely won’t have any copies left. If you ask for a book that comes out any further away than 3-5 months, you will run the risk that they aren’t printed yet, and you are forgotten about when they finally come in.
I have a template that I use when I request books and would be happy to discuss it with anyone who wants to reach out to me on the gram @gofetchabook. Finding the right email address can be daunting but is usually fairly achievable by going to the contact section of any of the publisher’s websites. I recommend keeping a spreadsheet of all the email addresses, once you find them, so you can quickly find them in the future.
Caveat Emptor
Be careful what you wish for. My book bestie, Courney, recently wrote a blog post about how she regrets asking for physical ARCs. The publishing companies are sending these out to be seen and reviewed. There are usually no strings attached, and they won’t require you to post about the book, but one can assume they will blacklist you if you are consistently taking their books and not generating any reviews or publicity for them. Make sure you are asking for books that you are genuinely interested in and want to read. And give an HONEST review - for the love of god, do not potato rate the book because you got it for free. This isn’t fair to anyone using your review to decide whether they want to read the book for themselves. And this isn’t what publishers want. The phrase is - “thank you for this gifted book in exchange for an HONEST review.”
I hope some of you find this helpful, happy reading!
Conclusion
Thank you for reading! If you find this blog helpful or amusing, be sure to share with your friends. New posts drop on Wednesdays to get you through the hump. Join me in the upcoming weeks where I discuss topics such as - One Way Follow Train to Hell, The Laughable Raffle Scam, and How to Make Friends and Gain Non-Forced Followers.