Many authors talk about ARC’s. Advanced Reader Copies. If Eventispress were a large publishing company they would send out copies to book groups and reviewers all over the country, sometimes in the ‘proof copy’ state.
What can those of us do who have not those seemingly limitless resources?
Limited Free Period
Many Indie authors have put their books for free for a limited period, especially in the past. How can you do that when KDP set a minimum price? I am told that, if you put the book on Smashwords for example, for free, then Amazon will price match. You can let me know if that’s true.
Author Copies
You can give author copies away to some of your followers for them to review your book. If they have not bought the book from Amazon then it is best for them to write ‘author copy given’ or copy given by publisher’ if it is a small indie press.
Use an Author Platform for the Purpose
I am sure there are many, but I discovered Booksprout a little too late for my last novel. Fortunately it is pretty easy to use.
How to Use Booksprout
~ Fill in your author details
~ Fill in the details of your book, including blurb and meta details
~ upload cover and PDF or epub version
~ once you have done that don’t think, as I did at first, that you have created an ARC; no, you need to click on ARC and Create ARC and voila, your book will be available.
Advantages of Booksprout
~ Your book will be available for folks that you don’t know to download for honest reviews.
~ You will also be given a link which you could send out to certain folks you do know, or in a specific list you might have for a special newsletter. You could send the link to certain Twitter followers too.
~ This can be set up a few weeks before launch, which will be the deadline to submit reviews.
But aren’t you losing certain sales this way?
Yes you are, but in today’s world of marketing you seem to need loads of reviews before your book is taken seriously and so you need to see this as an investment into the future.
If you try it do let me know how you got on.
If you would like to support me and try out Booksprout by reading a free copy of
Search for the Pearl Inside Yourself ~ Inspiration and Motivation for a Young Adult then click on the link below the cover
Diana Jackson's Muse, Views and Reviews 
I’m still learning this.
For my first book, I gave out a bunch of ARCs and got a few reviews in return. But I don’t think I did it far enough in advance of my publication date. I was too impatient to have the book out there so I could promote it, so I only sent out ARCs about a month in advance. That didn’t give people enough time to read the book and post a review. And many of them still haven’t. So my new promotion strategy is to just keep putting out the next book in the series. 😉
It is something we have not got the hang of either. In theory it sounds great. Time just seems to vanish doesn’t it!