A Goodreads user asked Rachel E. Pollock:

I notice you have begun posting reviews of ARCs. How does somebody get to do that?

Rachel E. Pollock In my most recent cases, the first and foremost answer is, I know the publisher from graduate school (Bill Lavender of Lavender Ink/Dialogos). But, i think there are probably a few more factors involved than just that, and that there are things one could do to raise one's chances of being selected to receive ARCs-for-reviews on here. [Aside: ARC stands for Advance Reader's Copy, sent out before the book's released to build buzz.]

For one thing, establish a presence; it helps to be an active member of the Goodreads community. Do you add books on a regular basis to your shelves? Do you then subsequently rate them? Do you not only rate them but write about them? And do other readers Like your reviews? If you haven't added a book since 2013, you won't get ARCs from publishers for sure.

See, i use Goodreads as a tool for tracking my own reading. I rarely finish a book that i don't write at least a paragraph on my response to it. I like going back and seeing what i read over the past month, or season, or year, reminding myself of books i loved, books that disappointed me, surprised me, excited me, books i abandoned or books i loved to hate.

And i read fairly serendipitously--sometimes i'm reading for work (i read a lot of play scripts in this category) and while i was in grad school i read for classes, but nowadays i read on whim, usually several books at once. I always have a bedtime book, a commute book, a lying-on-the-couch book, all going at once. And i even also sometimes have a poetry book going, too.

So, from a publisher's perspective, all this makes me a pretty good prospect for reading and reviewing ARCs. I do read widely and frequently, across genres and types of books. I share what i read regularly, and i write about how the books struck me. Readers respond to my reviews, too, with Likes.

I think there are a few things to keep in mind if you do wind up reading ARCs on here.

I'll always start off acknowledging that i got the book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Full disclosure's a good policy on that. When i see reviews on a book that's not released yet and they don't state that kind of thing up-front, I assume they must be the author's family/friends, particularly when they're all five-star raves.

Which brings me to the point that you then need to give that honest rating and review. Did you love it five stars worth, really? Would you love it five stars worth if it hadn't been free? If you didn't know the publisher, or the author, or the subject of a CNF book, or whatever?

And, recognize that Goodreads is basically a social medium for book-readers--you are not writing a book review for the Times here, and if you put up a review for a book that reads drastically differently than, you know, every other book review you've written about the non-ARC books you've read, your friends and followers will notice and wonder WTF's up.

For example, i normally write about books in terms of how i felt about them--did i like the book, the characters, the pacing, the plot, the voice, the writing itself. I also tend to write about technical elements about the book--i like looking at books as physical objects, the font choices, the layout, the graphic design, any illustrations, and I also leap on copy-edity things like when a book is peppered with homophone errors. So, if i rave-reviewed an ARC that was full of typos but didn't even mention that? My friends and followers who are familiar with my reviews who then read the book based on my rave might wonder how honest my review was if i omitted that. And i tend to write my reviews in conversational vernacular, as if i were just holding forth my thoughts on the book at a coffeeshop or bar. I cuss and drop slang and make jokes, and so when i review an ARC, i don't suddenly pretend i'm writing an analytical paper for academia. If i thought, "This book blows chunks," or "This book would be better off recycled into toilet paper," then i'll probably put that, verbatim, in my review. Though so far, i haven't had an ARC that i thought was asswipe material, thank every single star.

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