May 25 – May 28, 2010
Welcome to my post for the Arm Chair BEA!  To see all the exciting posts and goings on, go to Arm Chair BEA
I often get asked by newer bloggers what ARCs’ and Galleys are and how to get them.

ARC= Advanced Reader Copy.  It is an uncorrected proof of a book that publishers send for review to get advance “buzz” going about an upcoming release.  Sometimes publishers send out finished copies of the book.  A Galley is the same thing, it just is a different name.
1. The number one way to get publishers to start contacting you with offers is to start a blog and review books that you have or books from the library, etc.  Be sure to have comments enabled so that you can receive comments from people.  Also, try to reply to everyone who comments.  At the same time, visit other book blogs and leave comments and start subscribing or following different blogs.  This is the best way to “advertise” your blog and get people to read it. 

Once you get known a bit, publishers will start contacting you and offer you review copies.  Be sure to include an email address in the profile of your blog so that publishers have a way to email their offers.

2. Also, the following is a list of places on the web where you can get ARCs.  This is not a complete list by any means:
  •    Subscribe to Shelf Awareness.  They send an email five days per week.  Publishers often advertise their galleys there.
  •   Join Goodreads.  This is a great place to keep track of books you want to read and review the books you have read.  There are different groups you can join including groups where bloggers post about books that they are giving away for free.  There is also place on Goodreads called First Reads.  This is a place where publishers advertise galleys up for grabs.  If you do get lucky and win a galley there, be sure to go back to Goodreads and post your review there as well as your blog.
  • Join Library Thing and go to Early Reviewers.  This is another place publishers advertise galleys up for grabs.  If you do get lucky and win a galley there, be sure to go back to Library Thing and post your review there as well as your blog.
  • You will most likely start getting emails from Bostick Communications.  They somehow found me before I even added my email address to my profile.  LOL! They offer review copies for mostly self-published books.  If you don’t start receiving email from them and you want to, go to their contact page and let them know that you are interested.
  • Hachette Books has several groups in Book Ning where you can get books for review and also sign up to host book giveaways on your blog.  These groups include:

                Early Birds ARC Review

                Reading Romance

                Hachette Audio Books

                Here, Help Yourself

                Host a Hachette Book Group Giveaway on Your Blog

  • There are also many other groups on Book Ning where you can get books.  Be sure to browse through the various groups and join the ones that are of interest to you.  Note, that coming up in July there are going to be some changes to Book Ning.  At this time, it is un-known how this is going to effect the various groups.

Another website I love is West of Mars – Win a Book.  They post a lot of the giveaways that other book bloggers host.
·         Another way to get ARCs in to participate in book tours, such as Pump Up Your Book Promotion and TLC Book Tours.  To participate in these, you will need to build your blog to get more readers (see #1.)

 NetGalley is another great place to get ARCs.  They come in the form of ebooks, so it is best to have an e-reader, unless you don’t mind reading off of a computer screen.

You can always try the direct approach to getting books to review as well.  Callista of SMS Book Reviews posted a great article called, Approaching Publishers and Authors.

Please note that many of the above options are only open to people who live in North America.  There are other places where international book bloggers can get ARCs.  Since I live in North America, I just don’t know them.

Do you know of any other ways to get ARCs that I didn’t mention here or do you know where international book bloggers can get ARCs?  Please leave a comment with a link.
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