How to Run an ARC Campaign

A book with zero reviews on launch day is a hard sell. Readers hesitate, some promotion sites turn you away, and the first week's momentum goes to waste. An ARC campaign fixes that by getting the book to readers early, so reviews are waiting when the buy button goes live.

The mechanics are simple. The hard part is the follow-through: most ARC campaigns don't fail because nobody wanted the book, they fail because half the readers forgot. This guide spends as much time on the second half of the campaign as the first, and follows one example throughout: Delphine Arkwright's campaign for The Moth Orchard, a gothic romance she self-published on March 3, 2027.

1. Set a Goal and Work Back From Launch

Pick a number. “Some reviews” isn't a goal; “25 reviews by the end of launch week” is. The number decides how many readers you recruit and how hard you need to push. Delphine aimed for 30.

Then count back from your release date. Readers need about a month to fit your book into their reading, and you need a few weeks before that to find them. If your launch date is soft, set a firm internal deadline anyway. A campaign without a date drifts.

A timeline that works for most books

Long fantasy or a doorstop thriller? Add a couple of weeks. Readers will need them. The self-publishing checklist shows where the ARC window sits in the rest of the launch plan.

2. Prepare the ARC File

Send the edited book. An ARC doesn't need to be proofread to the last comma, but readers review what they read, and a structural problem you already knew about will show up in the reviews. If you haven't had a developmental read yet, manuscript analysis is a quick way to find the big issues before readers do.

• Send an EPUB and a PDF. Kindle readers can load the EPUB through Send to Kindle.
• Put "Advance Reader Copy, not for sale" on the title page, and note that the text may change before publication.
• Include the release date and your retailer links in the front matter so readers know where to post.
• Make each copy traceable to its reader, with their name on the PDF pages or a personalized page in the EPUB. It won’t stop a determined pirate, but it discourages casual sharing.

If you are formatting the book yourself anyway, format the ARC from the same file as the final edition. Familiar's book formatting exports the EPUB and print PDF from one manuscript, so the ARC and the published book match.

3. Work Out How Many Readers You Need

Not every reader will post a review. Some won't finish; some will finish and forget. Many indie authors see somewhere between a third and two thirds of readers deliver, with readers from your own list at the top of that range and strangers at the bottom.

A reasonable planning rule is to recruit twice as many readers as the reviews you want:

Delphine offered 100 copies and approved 52 readers for her goal of 30. Of those, 49 downloaded the book and 42 posted reviews she could verify: 81%, well above the planning rule, because most of them came from her own newsletter and she approved each reader by hand. A campaign recruited mainly from strangers should expect closer to half.

Track your own rate. After one or two campaigns you'll know it, and you can stop over-recruiting for readers who were never going to review.

4. Find Readers

Work outward from the people who already like your books. They finish more often and review more kindly, and they cost nothing to reach.

5. Set Clear, Honest Terms

Before anyone gets the book, tell them exactly what you're asking for. A good ARC invitation covers:

• The review deadline, ideally launch day or within two weeks after.
• Where to post: Goodreads before release, Amazon and other retailers on or after launch day.
• That you want an honest review, including a critical one.
• That they should mention receiving a free advance copy in the review.
• Your content warnings, so readers can opt out if the book isn’t for them.

Stay on the right side of retailer rules. Don't require a review as a condition of getting the book, don't ask for a positive one, and don't offer gift cards, prizes, or swaps for reviews. Amazon removes reviews it believes were incentivized, and an author account flagged for review manipulation is a much bigger problem than a thin launch.

6. Send the Files and Instructions

Make the delivery email boring and complete: the files, how to open them on Kindle, Kobo, or a phone, the deadline, where to post, and a way to reach you if something goes wrong. Readers who can't get the file onto their device often just give up without telling you.

If you are sending to more than a handful of readers, use a tool that gives each reader their own download link. You'll know who actually downloaded, which tells you who to nudge first.

7. Remind, Then Remind Again

This is the step authors skip, and it's the one that matters most. People mean to review. Life gets in the way. A friendly reminder doesn't annoy a reader who took your book; it helps them keep a promise they wanted to keep.

• A few days after sending: a check that the file opened. Nudge anyone who hasn’t downloaded.
• One week before the deadline: a reminder with the retailer links.
• The day before, or launch day: a last note that the book is live.

8. Track Who Reviewed

Ask readers to send you the link to their review, and check that it's live. Retailers sometimes hold or remove reviews, and you want to know which readers delivered, not which ones said they would.

That record is the most valuable thing the campaign produces after the reviews themselves. Next launch, invite the readers who delivered first, and you'll need fewer strangers to hit the same goal. Delphine's 42 reviewers are the first people she will invite for her next book.

Common Mistakes