How to Build Your Dream ARC Team
It’s the ol’ chicken and egg debate, catch-22 scenario:
As an indie author, how are you supposed to get reviews for a book that isn’t even out, yet?
You might know you need a team, but is it an ARC team, a beta team or a street team that you need? Where and how do you recruit these dream team members in the first place?
You might know there are various ways and platforms from which to launch your book baby into the loving arms of your team, but where and how do you go about doing this, especially when there’s no money from the sales of said book to fuel this launch?
Let’s take a look at what is needed to get reviews for your new book, thus fueling your book marketing strategy!
Building an ARC Team: Book Marketing for Indie Authors
Indie Author Support Teams:
They’re out there. Your people. Wanting to help you succeed.
While this post focuses on how to go about building your ARC team and their value in helping to market your books, let’s take a quick look at all the MVPs in your book marketing journey. Some members can be exclusive to a certain team, while others can span across all three, each team having a specific purpose in supporting you and your book’s launch.
ARC (Advanced Reader/Review Copy) Team
In advance of your book’s launch, your selected ARC team members receive a free copy of your book in exchange for an honest review. Their purpose is to build credibility and exposure within a given timeframe of its launch. More on the selection process, tech and timeframe below.
Beta Team
Beta team members read and give feedback on your book, either as you’re writing or upon its completion. You then incorporate their suggestions as a means of improving your story.
Street Team
From day 1 of your book’s launch, your street team members are poised to promote it. Usually through social media posts, your street team’s main purpose is to hype your book and boost sales.
Why Reviews are Necessary:
As an indie author, you are a one woman show. You not only write the books, but now you have to market them, too!
Especially if you’re early in your author journey, you need others to engage with your stories. For authors, this engagement comes in the form of book reviews.
Collect and showcase amazing reviews to build social proof!
Collect and showcase amazing reviews to build social proof!
Whether it’s on Amazon, Goodreads, or another platform, the presence of positive reviews and star reviews makes a difference to potential readers.
Where to Find ARC Team Members:
Your email/newsletter list
Facebook
Instagram
Put sign up information in the back matter of your books
Authors in your genre
Email book bloggers, bookstagrammers, booktubers, and booktokers and offer them an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Paid Options: NetGalley, BookSirens, Booksprout, Booktasters, Hidden Gems Books
PLEASE NOTE: Be sure to familiarize yourself with each platform’s most recent rules about reviews!
Amazon and Goodreads are popular platforms. Although they are owned by the same company, they are operated separately, and so are their reviews.
Please also be sure to familiarize yourself with the current FTC rules.
ARC Team Considerations:
The ability to send ebooks, rather than physical books, to your ARC team has made this process much more accessible for indie authors.
Even if you don’t have an author personal assistant (PA) to help, sending out an electronic copy of your book to your team is manageable and cost effective.
Gone are the days of additional time and money spent guessing on the number of books to have printed, let alone having to allocate time and funds to package and mail to each of your ARC team members.
Readers clamor to get ARCs; however, you want to be selective and make sure they’re wanting to take the time to read and to review your book in a thoughtful way. Shoot for 10-50 reviews.
While authors employ various timeframes when it comes to finding, communicating with, and ensuring your ARC readers understand expectations and how to review, beginning the process 3-6 weeks prior to release will generally allow enough time for the steps noted below.
Communicating with Your ARC Team:
Select your ARC team
Create a Google Form to determine interest in joining your ARC team.
Not only does this serve as an easy way to collect names, email addresses and other relevant information, but it also helps both you and your potential readers to understand what’s involved and to have clear expectations around the process.
Define what an ARC reader is, and discuss the critical role they play in your author journey.
Be clear about what your team members will receive (e.g., an ebook copy), as well as what they will not receive (e.g., no payment will be received), if they sign up: a free copy in exchange for an honest review posted within a certain timeframe after the book’s release.
Let them know that ARCs are limited, their receipt is not guaranteed, and they will have an increased chance of being accepted if they carefully follow instructions.
Let them know by which date they will be notified if they’ve been selected to receive an ARC and how they will receive their copy (via the free Kindle app on your phone or computer; there’s no need to own a Kindle).
They will need to let you know their Kindle email address for delivery, so be sure to include instructions for how they can find this.
They will also need to approve you as a sender, so be sure to include instructions on how to do that, as well.
You may wish to ask if they’ve read any of your books (with no worries if they haven’t!).
Ask on which platforms they review books and to check all that apply.
To build hype and to gather initial readers, you can even upload an image of your book and/or share the blurb.
As you receive responses through the Google Form, the data is funneled into a spreadsheet. To stay organized, you’ll likely want to also track who has responded, including any specific information, the dates of communications, the date the ARC was sent, the date they posted a review, and such. Future you will be so thankful you did this.
Note: You can send books out anytime, not just prior to release!
Share the Google Form link 🎉
In your bio
On your website
Share on social media
Send out in a newsletter/to your email list
Remember this is YOUR release, so you can be selective and/or define a certain number of readers.
PLEASE NOTE: While most people are honest, please be aware that piracy does happen. You may wish to use a paid ARC delivery service, such as BookFunnel, whose services include an imbedded invisible watermark.
3. Create an ePUB file
Make an account with Draft2Digital to create an ePUB file. Although you do not have to publish with them to make an ePUB file, they do offer ebook publishing services to various online vendors.
Click on My Books
Add a New Book
Upload Word doc
Skip layout page
Preview book to make sure everything looks good
Can add letter headers, etc., if desired
Download ePUB to get your ARC file
Send it to your Kindle email address (the app is sufficient; no Kindle required)
4. Send the ePUB file to your ARC team 📚
To each member’s Kindle email address.
As the sender, use the “approved sender” email address that each of your ARC team members approved as part of the Google Form application process.
This is why it’s really helpful to include such explicit instruction on the Google Form. If this isn’t done correctly, your ARC readers won’t receive the ARC 😢.
Attach the ebook ePUB file.
Make sure there is NOTHING in the body of the email nor in the Subject line.
TIP: Make sure you’re using the “approved sender” email, and send to one ARC reader at a time, rather than via a bulk send. While definitely less efficient, doing so helps ensure each reader’s ARC is received.
5. Email instructions on how to access your ARC
After sending each ARC reader their copy, send an email to the entire ARC team (this can be a bulk email) to let them know they’ve received the ARC, and give them instructions to access it.
Use your author email address as the Recipient, and Bcc each of your ARC team members to respect their privacy.
Let them know if it hasn’t received its final editing and to please keep that in mind as they read.
You may wish to include your Goodreads link, so they can add it to their TBR, and share the link to online vendors.
You might also wish to reiterate instructions and give a reminder of expectations to please read and review.
One Week Later:
Since Goodreads allows reviews one week before your book goes live, send a reminder to review and post on Goodreads.
Since your ARC team isn’t able to leave a review on Amazon and most other vendors until your book is live, remind them that they can simply copy and paste their review from Goodreads onto Amazon.
Provide your team with the relevant links and thank them 😊
As Soon as Your Book is Live on All Retailers:
Send the live link to your ARC team with a friendly reminder that this is time sensitive. Plus, if they’ve already reviewed on Goodreads, they can simply copy and paste that onto Amazon. The more reviews on release day, the better!
If no review or response . . .
Consider sending an individual email with a third reminder, checking in and asking if they’ve had a chance to read your book, or do they need a little more time?
Emphasize how much their reading and reviewing will mean to you, and give them detailed instructions, along with links, on how to do so.
If they’ve read and reviewed . . .
Send them an email expressing your gratitude, and let them know how much their support means to you, especially as an indie author!
If their review contains constructive feedback, let them know how much you value their thoughts and that you take it seriously.
A few weeks after launch, send your team an email sharing a breakdown of how everything went, and how their contribution was instrumental to its success! You can also share what didn’t go as well and any thoughts on future launches. Tell them about your next book:
They’re YOUR ARC Team, and they want to be a part of your journey 💪🏻
If finding, building and managing your ARC team feels like just one more thing on the never-ending to do list, Mint Copy Services is happy to take that off of your plate!
If you’re not sure if you’re ready to hire a PA, or if you’d like more information on what needs to be considered when hiring a PA, download:
It’s free and provides detailed, actionable steps to finding and hiring your dream PA!
When you’re ready, check out my PA services page to learn more about how I can help get your books into readers’ hands!
In the meantime, know that your readers and your new ARC team appreciate you and are so grateful to you for sharing your stories with us! ❤️
Your supportive side character,
Lisa