How to Create an ARC Sign-Up Form for Your Book

An ARC, or advance review copy, is a free copy of your book given to readers in the hope of an honest review. The sign-up form is the small, unglamorous piece that makes the whole thing work. It turns "that sounds good" into a name, an email address and a format, so you know exactly who gets a copy and how to send it.

A good form is short, says clearly what readers are agreeing to, and doesn't put anyone off before they finish. This guide walks through the tools, the questions, the ground rules and the Google Forms settings, then how to put your finished form in front of readers on IndieFiction.

Pick where readers sign up

Four tools cover almost everything an indie author needs. They differ in one big way: whether they only collect names, or also deliver the book and track reviews.

• Google Forms is free and collects readers' details. You send the copies yourself. It's the easiest place to start, and the step-by-step below uses it.
• BookFunnel delivers the ebook. On every plan, including the entry-level one, you can make a private download page with a download limit and an expiry date. Higher plans can ask for the reader's email first and watermark the file (BookFunnel's ARC help).
• StoryOrigin runs the whole round: readers apply and say where they'll review, you approve who gets a copy, and it delivers the book, shows who has reviewed and sends reminders. It doesn't come with readers of its own; most requests come from authors' own lists (StoryOrigin's review copies page).
• Prolific Works has a free account. Add your book, create a giveaway, set it to private, and share the giveaway link with the readers you've chosen.

For a first round of ten to thirty readers, a Google Form plus a BookFunnel download page is plenty. You can always move to a tool that tracks reviews once your list grows.

What to ask on an ARC sign-up form

Every extra question loses a few people, so ask only what you'll use. These cover most books:

1. Name and email address. Both required: you can't send a book without them.
2. Which format they'd like: EPUB, Kindle, PDF, or audiobook if you have one.
3. Where they'd post a review if they write one: Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, a blog, Instagram or TikTok.
4. A link to a recent review or a reading profile. Keep it optional; it helps you spot real readers without turning anyone away.
5. The genres they usually read, so the book reaches people who'll enjoy it.
6. For a series: have they read the earlier books?
7. A tick box agreeing to the ground rules in the next section.
8. A separate box, unticked, if you'd also like them on your newsletter.

Leave out anything you don't need. A home address only matters if you're posting paperbacks, and there's no reason to ask for a phone number or a date of birth.

Write the ground rules into the form

Put a short paragraph at the top of the form, after a two or three sentence pitch for the book. (If the pitch is giving you trouble, how to write a book description that sells works just as well for a form as for a book page.) The ground rules save a lot of back-and-forth later. Cover:

• What readers get, in which format, and roughly when you'll send it.
• The publication date, and when you'd love reviews to go up.
• That a review is welcome but never required, and an honest one is exactly what you're after.
• A polite request not to share the file.
• A request to mention in their review that they received a free copy.

The last two points aren't just good manners. Amazon lets authors give free or discounted copies to readers, but not require a review in return or try to steer what it says, and offering anything beyond the book itself, gift cards included, gets reviews removed (Amazon KDP on customer reviews). In the US, the FTC expects reviewers who get something free to say so clearly, naming who gave it, so a line such as "I received a free copy of this book from the author" does the job (the FTC's endorsement guide).

Never ask for a positive review. Ask for an honest one, and mean it. A lukewarm review from a real reader does your book more good than a five-star review that gets taken down.

Set up an ARC form in Google Forms, step by step

1. Go to forms.google.com and start a blank form. Title it with the book's name and "ARC sign-up".
2. In the description, add your short pitch and the ground rules from above.
3. Add the questions. Mark name, email, format and the ground-rules tick box as required.
4. In Settings, under Responses, turn on Collect email addresses and choose Responder input, so readers type their own address.
5. Leave Limit to 1 response off. It makes every reader sign in to a Google account before they can open the form, and that stops some people at the door.
6. Cap the numbers before you share it: under Accepting responses, set a close date or a response limit, so you never promise more copies than you can send.
7. Click Publish. Readers can't open a Google Form until it has been published (Google's help on publishing a form).
8. Copy the responder link, and tick Shorten URL for a tidy forms.gle address. That's the link to share. The address in your browser while you're editing is the edit link, and readers can't use it.
9. Open the responder link in a private window and fill the form in once yourself, then delete your test response.

Sending copies and following up

Once responses come in, choose your readers and send the copies within a few days, while the book is still fresh in their minds. If you use a download page, set a download limit and an expiry date so a shared link doesn't travel far. A week or so before publication day, send one friendly reminder with the date and where reviews help most, then a thank-you after launch.

Not everyone who signs up will finish the book or post a review, and that's normal. Invite more readers than the number of reviews you're hoping for.

Treat readers' details with care. Use them for this book and nothing else, add people to your newsletter only if they ticked that separate box, and delete the responses once the round is over.

Share your form with ARC readers on IndieFiction

Once the form is published, IndieFiction can put it in front of readers who've asked for free review copies. List your book (listing is free), then request ARC readers from your account. Paste your form's responder link, add a short note to readers, tick the formats you offer and say whether you used AI for the cover or the text.

Once approved, your request sits on the ARC page for 30 days, and ARC readers hear about it in our Friday email. Your first two requests are free, and extra requests are $10 each. Google Forms, BookFunnel, StoryOrigin and Prolific Works links all work.

A form only collects the readers you send to it, so the other half of the job is finding them: how to get ARC readers for your new book before launch covers where to look and how many you really need.