How I found my ARC Team and Why I'm so Grateful to Them

My heartfelt gratitude to my early readers.

Finding the Right ARC Team

When I first started looking for advance readers, I wanted people who loved stories, shared honest opinions, and were as excited about the process as I was. I reached out through my social media and reading communities like Goodreads, inviting readers to join and help shape each book before publication.

What surprised me most was how difficult it was to find readers. Not because no one wants to read, quite the opposite, there are lots of communities on many social media platforms where ARC readers and authors can connect. The issue was just how saturated the market is with new books from traditional publishing streams to indie authors. I also noticed, for those that are not sure what to write, romantic fantasy seems to be huge right now. Most of the posts I saw were romance or fantasy or a combination of the two.

I used BookSirens to find readers. Booksirens is a service that authors can use to tap into their distribution channels. I’ve been featured in their Thriller writers’ ‘bundle’ three times, for January, February and March this year which is sent to their subscribers. What I liked was that I could see how far my ARC invitation was being sent.

As you can see from the snip below, that wasn’t the problem. I thought perhaps it was my blurb, but then I started asking the ARC Reading and author communities and what I learned was that getting good conversion rates from clicks to readers is very low and not uncommon. Please don’t misunderstand me, this is not a criticism of the service. I chose the option where I only pay per reader. It also allows you to limit the number of readers so for me I felt like I had more control.

Another service I used was StoryOrigins. I’ll be honest I didn’t find that as user friendly, but I did get three readers through them. It seems to be that StoryOrigins may work better if you already have your own list of supporters. What I do like is that they have a ‘beta reader’ option so with my next novel, I’m going to give that a go and see how it works.

Another service I’ve used to receive ARC reads, because I do ARC read myself, is Bookfunnel. I didn’t use this service to promote my ARC’s simply because each of these services comes with a cost and I have a limited budget. However, with the next novel, can’t believe I’m saying that already, I’ll try some different approaches.

I also leaned into my network of beta readers and writing connections. Two published authors very kindly reviewed my work. One to help me give it the final ‘once over’ grammatically, and the other is in the process of reading and will hopefully, provide a review.

The results so far. Reviews range from 5 stars to admittedly a DNF. I’ll talk about DNF’s in another post, but suffice to say, that I understand that The Watcher’s Prey may not necessarily be to everyone’s taste. As the links have only just ‘gone live’ in the last few days I’m hopeful those reviewers who have already taken the time to provide me with their reviews will upload them to their preferred platforms. This is not something I have control over.

What I learned

I learned that I need to be more active and build my 'brand' and 'audience' through my social networks. This is NOT something that I'm good at. However, I'm doing it. Slowly but surely. It's hard for me to put myself out there but what I do know is the more I do it, the easier it gets (not by much mind you). I'm also reminded of the people who are quietly, and not so quietly, supporting me, encouraging me, interacting and sharing posts, and honestly, are the reason I'm so glad that I finally took this step.

Why I’m Grateful

My ARC team isn’t just a group of early readers, they’re collaborators, cheerleaders, and friends. Their support reminds me why I write: to connect with people who feel the stories as deeply as I do.

Knowing that a community of thoughtful readers stands behind each project is something I’ll never take for granted. Their encouragement keeps the creative spark alive, even during the toughest writing days.

Want to join the ARC team and be among the first to read future releases? Sign up through my website or connect with me on Goodreads.