My Review of ARC Review Sites

Hot take: I don’t vet my ARC readers. For my first ARC campaign, that was by accident, not design. I had no idea what I was doing. I hadn’t even heard of ARC readers until I created a Reddit account a month before publishing my debut novel Ahelno. I launched the campaign on BookSirens three weeks before my release date and accepted any reader who requested the book.

It worked out fine, but I decided to take my time for a two-month ARC campaign for A.I. Human, which released two weeks ago. If you’ve followed my blog, you know I love to experiment and gather data, so I used that time to test the best-known ARC sites to see which resulted in the most reviews. This time, I made a conscious decision not to vet the ARC readers. First, I can’t control who will read my book once released, so it seems a more honest reflection of readers’ views as a whole. Second, I wanted to test each platform with as little interference from me as possible.

I signed up on several different sites: BookSirens, BookSprout, Pen Pinery, Hidden Gems, Knosit, and LibraryThing. I also signed up for BookFunnel and StoryOrigin, which are ARC management sites where you can recruit on your own through newsletter swaps and group promos.

Below is the data I tracked. But don’t stop there, because the raw numbers don’t tell the whole story.

BookSirens: 4.5 stars

BookSirens was definitely my top site for ARCs. I should note that while there were 24 readers, 16 were found by BookSirens, and 8 were recruited by me through social media. BookSirens doesn’t charge you for readers you refer. 

Only three out of the eight referrals left reviews (38%), whereas 13 out of the 16 BookSirens users left a review, which is a very impressive review rate of 81%.

The website is easy to use, and they provide you with full metrics on impressions, clicks, and downloads. You can upload and test different covers and blurbs (although file changes are reviewed by a human, so they prefer you not do this too often). 

The only downside is that, unlike BookSprouts or PenPinery, they don’t email you to let you know when someone has either claimed your book or left you a review. You have to check their site to see any updates. If it weren’t for that, BookSirens would get 5 stars from me. Note that BookSirens may turn you down if they don't have time/space for your campaign, and they also heavily favor romance books.

BookSprout: 3.5 stars

While six readers isn’t a tremendous number, five of the six left reviews, giving BookSprout the highest review rate at 83%. However, only two of those five actually posted their reviews on an external site like Goodreads or Amazon. 

That being said, the website is easy to use. I like that they email you when someone joins your ARC team or leaves a review. One disadvantage and a caveat--BookSprout charges you per month, so if you are planning a two- or three- month ARC campaign, this may be cost-prohibitive. I would give them four stars, but given the readers didn’t post off the BookSprout site, the ROI isn’t there for me.

BookFunnel: 1 star for ARC readers, 5 stars for newsletter growth

Following the advice of other authors, I created a Google Form with the intent of sending people the ARC through BookFunnel. I got only two signups, and then two more through a BookFunnel ARC promo, which resulted in no reviews.

I still had a few weeks on my BookFunnel subscription, so I switched my strategy to use my ARC as a reader magnet for building my newsletter. I had more than 120 people sign up for my newsletter through Bookfunnel promos to get a “free book” instead of agreeing to be an ARC reader. None left reviews, although I suspect some star ratings probably came from them. Still, they’re opening and engaging with my weekly newsletter at the same rates as readers who signed up through the bonus chapter links in my books. And only three have unsubscribed. That’s been a pleasant surprise.

I probably won’t depend on BookFunnel for a future ARC campaign, but will definitely use them for newsletter growth.

Social Media/Direct Email: 4 stars

With the lackluster performance of the ARC through BookFunnel, I switched strategies. I gathered an additional eighteen ARC readers by making the signup frictionless. For each social media post, I simply said “Comment below if you’d like this ARC” instead of directing them to BookFunnel or the Google Signup Form.

I DM’d commenters thanking them for agreeing to serve as an ARC reader,  asked for their email address, and whether they preferred epub or pdf. They gave me the info and I emailed them the ARC personally. It was more work, but 12 of the 18 people I emailed (67%) left a Goodreads review. It is more work to manage, but this was the second most effective method of getting reviews, behind BookSirens. I probably could have gotten more readers this way, but by the time I hit 65 readers, via all platforms I felt like I had a good ARC team and stopped actively recruiting. I was most successful on Facebook and TikTok.

StoryOrigin:  3 stars

StoryOrigin offers a similar experience to BookFunnel for authors to build your ARC team or newsletter through promos and newsletter swaps. Although I did get eight signups, only two left reviews.

I would rate StoryOrigin pretty much the same as BookFunnel except for one key difference: StoryOrigin offers ARC management similar to the other ARC platforms, allowing you to see if users have left reviews. BookFunnel instead gives you the email addresses of the participants for you to follow up, but there is no tracking system.

StoryOrigin will only give you a user's email address if they leave a review of at least 3 stars. I’d say you could use either BookFunnel or StoryOrigin, but I don’t think it’s worth signing up for both. Like BookFunnel, StoryOrigin charges its fee monthly, so keep that in mind if you’re on a budget.

Pen Pinery: 2.5 stars

You may wonder why I’m giving Pen Pinery any stars at all, when I got zero reviews out of the deal. Pen Pinery is a relatively new site (launched Feb 2026), so I’m giving them some grace in not having as many ARC reviewers on their site. Plus, the flat fee of $10 to list a book is the best deal out there.

The site is easy to use, and their customer service is top notch. Like BookSprout, they notify you when someone joins your ARC team or leaves a review, which is a great feature. The metrics are not as solid, but they do show you where referrals come from (Reddit, FB, Insta, etc) in case you’re posting their referral link on different platforms. This is a site that caters exclusively to romance books, and while it didn’t work for me, I’m hoping they do well.

Hidden Gems: 1 star

I know some people have had success with Hidden Gems, but I don’t know how. HG works on a different model: They don’t host your book on the website for the duration of your ARC campaign like the other sites. Instead, they email their subscriber list about your book on a day that you select. Email recipients then have only 48 hours to claim your book.

According to the HG website, paranormal romance ARCs typically have 10-30 signups. I had four. Of those, only two left a review (not meeting the 80% review rate they claim). 

The site is slower than molasses and looks like it was designed in 1997. Also, you get zero metrics, and you can’t see any info about the readers or their reviews. And finally, because they only send one email a day (I guess?) you have to sign up months in advance. Overall, a very disappointing experience. Would not recommend.

LibraryThing: 0 stars

Don’t bother. Seriously. LibraryThing’s “Early Reviewers” platform allows you to list your ebook for free for up to 10 readers (I think you can do 30 for physical books). However, even if all ten spots are claimed, LibraryThing will not allow you to distribute the book to everyone who signed up. They select “winners” based on how the readers ranked their choices and how many books they signed up for.

LibraryThing then lets you know who the “winners” were, and you are responsible for emailing them an ePub. It’s a very bizarre system, and I’m not sure why they don’t simply cap the number of books readers can request instead of culling through the list at the end of the month and deciding who gets which books. 

So in the end, despite eight people signing up for my book, LT only allowed three people to claim it, and I received no reviews. Customer service is also nonexistent. You can’t make any changes to your listing, and you see no metrics for impressions/clicks. Yes, it’s free, but I’ll never use it again.

Knosit: Not rated

Knosit’s ARC service just launched a few weeks ago, so I don’t feel it’s fair to rate them given how in flux things are. Mine was one of the first books on their platform, but they were still using a Google Form and manually uploading books at that time, and the service was free while they were trying to launch. I’m not sure what the true experience will be like for authors now or what the pricing model will be. There were a few hiccups, but the customer service was very responsive to feedback. Unlike some of the other sites, they didn’t seem very geared towards the romance genre, so this might work better for other types of fiction or even nonfiction.

The SPACE Network: Not rated

The SPACE Network is gaining a lot of traction on social media from ARC readers as a preferred platform for keeping track of their ARCs. I investigated their platform to see what the buzz was about. While I’m sure it’s a great reader experience, it’s much more expensive than other platforms:$163 for 20 guaranteed reviews. $340 for 40 reviews. 

Note these are guaranteed reviews, which is unusual. Most ARC platforms charge you for the administration of your ARC but don’t guarantee reviews, which could be viewed as a violation of Amazon’s ToC. Still, I know this might be an attractive option for some authors, especially those in genres where it’s hard to recruit readers, so I’m including it here. In the end, I spent $165 on activities that resulted in 38 reviews and 120+ newsletter signups, so their pricing seems too steep to me, but YMMV.

My next ARC campaign will likely be a combo of BookSirens and directly emailing readers recruited on social media. One of the surprising benefits of doing my own recruiting has been the connections I’ve developed directly with readers. I’m the one who sent them reminders and checked to make sure they had no issues downloading the file, so by the time they posted their review, I’d had several small interactions with them. This has resulted in a wonderful new community for me and my books. Some readers have signed up for my newsletter, posted about my book on their social media channels, and joined my Street Team. Does it take more effort? Yes, but it’s absolutely worthwhile. 10/10 would do again. Is there another site I should test for my next ARC campaign? Let me know in the comments!