5 Ways to Get Free Ebook ARCs

7 June 201916 August 2023

Yesterday’s post was about the Book Expo/Book Con. Today’s post is about getting free ebook ARCs electronically.

To recap, ARCs are Advance Review Copies of books. These books are handed out prior to a book’s publication date. They are not completely finished, may contain errors, and the title or cover may change. Simply put, it’s the unfinished product, but the book is slated for publication.

At the Book Expo and the Book Con, people can pick up copies of ARCs in its physical form. There are ways though of getting ebooks of ARCs too.

Amazon

Not too many people know this, but you can get free ebook ARCs through Amazon. Authors, publicists and sellers have contacted me through Amazon based on the reviews I left for books and products similar to what they are promoting. How do they do this? You need to set up a profile on Amazon.

Login to your Amazon account.
Click on Account & Lists.
Click on Your Account.
Under Ordering and Shopping Preferences, click on YOUR AMAZON PROFILE.
To edit the information on the page, follow these directions.

Note that the more you review, the higher your ranking.

Publicists and authors will reach out to you via email to pitch their book they would like for you to review. They provide different ways to get the book to you. From hard copy to PDF to ebooks, all they want is just a review up on Amazon, because it helps boost the book’s ranking.

Please note that when you do leave a review, you must state in the review (as well as anywhere else you post the review) that you received this book from X in exchange for an honest or unbiased review. There are numerous ways you can state this, but it is a legal notice you must post. You must do this for any free item you receive no matter which platform you use to receive the books.

NetGalley

A go to source for everyone to get free ebook ARCs is NetGalley. You will need to register to become a member. After you register, you will need to setup your profile.

You will also need to link your device you plan to use to read the ebooks to your NetGalley account. Make sure to go through the Help page to understand how NetGalley works.

There are different ways you can go about requesting books. For those who do not have the numbers or the affiliations (e.g. libraries) to request books from the publisher, look through the titles available under Read Now. You can download the titles right away and don’t have to wait for approval.

If you have the numbers or the professional affiliations, you can request titles from the publishers. They will either approve or deny the requests. If you prefer a published ARC, you can send an email through NetGalley to the publisher to request (but keep in mind, these are not always approved).

After you read the title, you must post your reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You must also submit your review through NetGalley so that it will go directly to the publisher.

For bloggers, it is essential that you have all of your information up to date. Make sure that you list your current numbers in your bio.

Also, don’t do like I do and request a bunch of books. You need to have an 80% review ratio of reviews to requests.

Edelweiss

Edelweiss is my preferred platform to request titles. Publishers prefer NetGalley over Edelweiss though.

The process is similar to NetGalley. You can request books from the publisher. You can also immediately download titles under “To Download.”

With Edelweiss, your reviews go directly to the publisher. If you do a blog post, you will need to give them the link to the review. You will also have different options with which to submit your review. You can submit to the Publisher, Indie Next, SIBA and/or Libro.fm. When you request books, they also request that you explain why you are requesting.

As far as usability, NetGalley is much simpler to navigate. Edelweiss is a bit more complex. Also, publishers tend to monitor NetGalley requests more than they do Edelweiss. They may check Edelweiss once every few months.

Goodreads

On Goodreads, set up a profile. Review as many books as you can. Join the Reading Challenge. Review, review, review.

To get free ebook ARCs, under BROWSE, click on Giveaways. Here, they will list all of the different giveaways available. It’s not guaranteed you will win, but keep entering the giveaways.

Booktasters

Another place to get ebooks for free in exchange for an honest review is Booktasters. Follow them on Twitter @BookTasters (they list their titles daily and you request through the Twitter links). Like the other sites, you choose books and post reviews on the different platforms (GoodReads, Amazon, etc.).

Booktasters also made reviewing books a competition. The more points you score, the higher your chances at winning prizes.

Frugal Fridays: Earning Cash & Gift Cards

27 May 201623 May 2016

Want to earn some extra cash? Try these apps to earn gift cards toward purchases. Bonus: Free E-book from a Major Financial Adviser

Want a way to earn a little extra cash and gift cards, especially for the holidays? Here are a few apps I’m using to earn gift cards and credits towards Google Play.

Perk

Perk comes with a few different apps you should download. First, you’ll need to download Perk Wallet. This is the app that will serve as the source where you can pool all of your points together from the various Perk apps to use them towards gift cards or cash. (Please note, as of now, there have been complaints about using the points to cash out, there are no complaints re: gift cards. Until the issue with cashing out is resolved, use all Perk apps for gift cards only.)

After downloading the Perk Wallet app, you’ll need a few apps with which to earn points (green tokens) that you can save up to use towards gift cards. There’s Perklinko, Perk Scratch & Win, Perk TV, and Perk Word Search to name a few. My favorite is the Perk Scratch & Win. All of the games are fairly simple to use.

In a get rich quick scheme world that we live in, many of you are going to be impatient and want to rack up as many points as you can as quickly as you can so you can get your rewards. Don’t waste your time doing this.

My strategy has been to play each day until I reach 50 points. After that, I turn off the game, because I have better things to do. The goal is to save the points to use at Christmastime, so I’m not in any rush to get anything now. It’s the equivalent of putting a little bit of savings away for the holidays. That’s roughly 1500 points a month…maybe more if I hit a jackpot of 100-1000 points (which has happened).

PROS: Win points to cash in for prizes. Easy to use. Games can be a lot of fun. Good way to come up with some extra money to purchase holiday gifts.

CONS: Takes a long time to rack up enough points for a good prize. Cash out has a lot of issues (stick to gift card option). A lot of ads.

BONUS: Get 50 bonus points when you sign up to PERK by using the code: 75c0b672.

Surveys

Google Opinion Rewards is a good way to rack up some money to use toward purchases on Google Play. It’s great to use towards games, books and movies. All you have to do is take surveys as they become available. You are only rewarded a few cents each time, but it can quickly turn into enough money to purchase items at Google Play. In the first week of using the app, I was able to generate a little over $10.

PROS: Free money to use towards Google Play. Surveys are short.

CONS: Only awarded a few cents per survey. Takes a while to rack up enough money to purchase items on Google Play.

The Panel App is a good way to earn points for gift cards by taking short surveys. You can save up your points towards gift cards, or you can use the points towards sweepstakes for bigger prizes.

PROS: Free gift cards.

CONS: Takes a while to accumulate points.

BONUS: FREE E-Book

My favorite financial adviser, David Bach, is now coming out with an updated version of his book “The Automatic Millionaire.” BUT good news! You can get it for free on his site. Even if you’ve read it already, you can also download a free copy of his e-book “Finish Rich Quickstart System.” It’s a good way to refresh your finances.

In all honesty, I think the last time I refreshed my financial records was the last time I read “The Automatic Millionaire.” This little refresher is a good reason to go through and update your financial records, reassess your goals, and plan for your future. Things have changed since the last book, especially for me, so this was a nice refresher.

HINTS

The trick to all of these apps is to remember that this is like creating passive income. It will take a while to earn those gift cards. But keep at it. Spend a few minutes a day on each app and then turn it off. Take the surveys as they come up. If an app isn’t working for you, try something else.

For those using the Perk Scratch & Win, the trick to winning coins and points faster is to use the scratch off that costs the most (1,000 coins per game). You win bigger in those games. If you’re low on coins, play the free scratch offs (one of the three that is for gift cards/prizes). Play until you get enough coins and then switch to the bigger payout scratch offs.

On Sundays, Google Play tends to offer a lot of surveys. It won’t always alert you, so go into the app and right above the dollar amount that shows your Google Play credit, it will say there are surveys available. Just keep clicking until there are no more. I earned $9 one Sunday over the course of 5 minutes.

Also another major hint: try and share the apps. You get more points when you share and others join.