Lauren’s ARC Group

If you enjoy my books, I hope you will consider joining my ARC Group!

What is an ARC Group? Well, ARC stands for Advanced Reading Copy…
An ARC Group is a hand-picked list of readers who, in exchange for honest reviews, will receive free copies of my books. Sometimes these books will be actual advanced reading copies, delivered before a new title comes out, so the book can have reviews posted on its release day. Other times these will be previously released books that haven’t yet accumulated a sufficient number of reviews.
Why do you want an ARC Group?
Reviews help new readers discover books! The more reviews a book has, the more often online stores will display the book in search results. For this reason, I treasure every review, no matter how long or short!
Is your ARC Group membership limited?
Yes, because it can hurt a book’s credibility if most of its reviews come from people who were given the book for free. For this reason, I have to limit this group to 30 readers. If you qualify but the group is full when you apply, you will be placed on a waiting list. Then when someone else opts out, my ARC Group leader (the fabulous Melissa) will contact you to let you know you’ve been added.
My first language isn’t English. Do you have ARC Groups for other languages?
Yes! Most of my books are already translated into Italian, and translations are in the works for German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. We would love to have a group of 30 ARC readers for each language. You must also be able to read and write English, though, because all of our communications with group members are in English.
Do you have rules?
Of course. (I bet you’re not surprised!) We have 10 rules, and here they are:
  1. You must have reviewed one of my books to apply to join my ARC Group.

    You don’t have to have reviewed one of my books in the past—it’s perfectly fine to review one today and then paste a link to the review in the application form below. The reason for this? Before we accept you for membership, we need to see that you’re actually one of my readers (not just someone looking for free books), and we need to see that you are willing to write reviews.

  2. You must have access to a device on which you can read ebooks.

    Our ARCs are ebooks, not printed books. Ebooks can be read on most smartphones as well as tablets, laptops, desktop computers, and—of course!—ereading devices.

  3. I want honest reviews.

    I understand that not everyone will love all of my books. If you feel a particular book is not a 4- or 5-star read and you’d rather not review it, please let us know and indicate if you’d like to stay in the ARC Group and read the next book. If, however, you stay in the group and then find yourself hesitant to review a second book, we’ll probably need to assume my books aren’t your cup of tea.

  4. I want you to read only the type(s) of books you enjoy.

    I write sexy historical romance on my own and sweet historical romance with my daughter Devon. When requesting reviews, we will alert you to the type of book we’ll be sending out and ask if it’s a book you’d like to read. If you’d rather skip it, just say so. We will keep you in the group and ask you again next time.

  5. ARC Group members are expected to post their reviews on a minimum of three websites.

    This means you must have accounts on at least three websites that feature book reviews. Choose your three from the following list:

    • Amazon (Kindle)
    • Apple Books
    • Barnes & Noble (Nook)
    • Kobo
    • Google Play
    • Goodreads

    It’s not necessary to have purchased books at all three places—most sites will allow you to review a book whether you purchased it there or not. You just need to have at least three accounts so you will be able to post three reviews.

    You don’t need to post at the same three places every time, as long as you do choose at least three each time.

    More choices may be added in the future, but you will never be expected to post your reviews on more than three sites. (Although if you want to post your reviews more places, of course that would be perfectly wonderful!)

    Please note: Reviews for books in languages besides English may be posted at other sites. If you sign up for a non-English ARC group, you may be given a different list of sites to choose from when we send review requests.

  6. Your reviews must follow minimum guidelines.

    • Most important: No spoilers, please!!!
    • Most sites require a headline and at least a few words. Barnes & Noble and Goodreads require at least 20 words. You are welcome to write more, but please don’t feel obligated—I don’t want to make this difficult for you!
    • As a reminder, 5 stars is the highest rating, which means that you enjoyed the book very much. 1 star is the lowest rating, which means you didn’t like the book at all.

  7. You will have deadlines.

    Under most circumstances, you will be expected to post your reviews within 14 days of receiving a book, or, if the book is not released yet when we send it to you, within 7 days of the release date. (Most sites won’t let you post a review before a book is released—Apple Books is one exception.)

    If your life is too busy at the time you receive a request, please decline rather than risk being late. You will not be penalized if you decline, but accepting a free book and then failing to review in time may jeopardize your membership in the ARC Group.

    Once your reviews have been posted online, send the links to Melissa at melissa@laurenroyal.com. This will qualify you to stay in the group and receive the next book we send out.

  8. Feel free to opt out at any time.

    Just email Melissa at melissa@laurenroyal.com with your request to leave the group. No hard feelings, I promise! We will replace you with someone from the waiting list.

  9. Please make sure your review is legal.

    Reviewers who receive free books are required by the FTC to add this line to the end of their reviews: “I received a free review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.”

    Note that the above statement is 15 words. That means that for those sites that require at least 20 words (Barnes & Noble and Goodreads), your actual review could be as short as five words, for example something like: “I absolutely loved this book! I received a free review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.” …and it would fit within their review guidelines. See, we’re not actually asking much. ;-)

  10. You will have ample notice before we send you a book.

    We’ll contact you a week prior to let you know we’re getting ready to send out review copies. If you need to opt out, please reply to our email promptly. We’ll keep you in the group and contact you for our next review opportunity, unless you request otherwise.

Please note: We will remove reviewers who fail to post their reviews on time or fail to follow the rules above. Apologies in advance, but many readers want spots and we have limited space, so we hope everyone will understand.

So…are you interested? Yes? Then please fill out the form below!

Whether you decide to join my ARC Group or not, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support!

Hugs,

Lauren (& Devon) Royal

Back to top ↑