There are a number of factors that go into this decision, such as your release date, when your manuscript will be ready to be read, available ARC dates, etc.

Most authors want reviews to appear as soon after a book is published as possible, so for pre-release books it is best to plan ahead by scheduling an ARC date that falls approximately a week or two prior to your go live date to ensure that reviews will be ready right as your book hits the stores (many readers can read a book within a week or two, although some are faster and some take longer). For example, if your book was scheduled to be published on April 15th, then the ideal date to send it out to our ARC readers would be between about April 1st to the 8th.

Note: You can schedule a book to be sent out with even longer lead times, however we don’t recommend sending it out a month or more before it can be reviewed. Otherwise, readers may start to forget what they read, given that many of them will have read many other books in the meantime.

For many genres, our ARC calendar fills up months in advance, so it’s best to book a spot early. You don’t need all of your information when you book with us, as long as you know your date and how many readers you’re looking for, you can lock in a slot via our online booking calendar. But remember that the deposit you leave is used to hold your spot, and is non-refundable, so only reserve a date if you are sure.

Quick Tip: When you schedule your ARC, there are fields on the order form you can use to indicate that you are looking for an earlier waiting list date. If ones comes up within the range you’ve indicated, we will email you asking if you want to switch (and sometimes we will need an answer quickly and have to offer it to multiple authors, with the spot going to the first one to reply). However, there are no guarantees that an earlier date will become available, so only book a date that you are willing to use, even if no other earlier one is offered.