Advance reader hub

A beta project involves a beta version of a book. That means the book isn’t ready for publication yet and the author is looking for feedback to help them develop the story. Beta versions may not be perfectly formatted and may contain grammatical errors.

An ARC (advance reader copy) project involves an ARC version of a book. That means the book is pretty much ready for publication and the author is providing free advance copies with the aim of generating interest and reviews when they launch the book, as well as getting help with identifying any final quality issues. Sometimes, authors request ARC reviews even after publication if they have had difficulty getting reviews organically.

You must have access to an electronic device that will allow you to read the books in PDF or EPUB format. This could include an e-reader, a computer, a mobile phone, or similar. You will need to be proficient with technology to transfer the files to the device of your choice.

You must be a resident of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or any EU country. For ARC projects, you must have an Amazon account and be eligible to leave Amazon reviews (this involves spending requirements: check your Amazon store for details).

You must not have more than three strikes for the calendar year. Strikes are given if you sign up for a project but do not complete it, with limited exceptions.

You will need to read the book and provide feedback within two weeks of it being made available to you. This timeframe applies to most normal-length books, no longer than 120,000 words. If your project involves a book that is more than 120,000 words but less than 180,000, you will have three weeks to read it and provide feedback. If it is longer than 180,000 words, a bespoke timeframe will be proposed.

You’ll provide feedback via a form on the project listing page, responding to general questions and also, if applicable, specific questions asked by the author. Your answers should be detailed, considered, and of a sufficiently high quality. This usually means three or four sentences per answer, though some questions may call for shorter or longer answers, depending on context.

We will see your feedback. Your feedback will also be shared with the author. The author will then be able to share your feedback privately with people they deem appropriate, for example their editor or literary agents. However, to protect your privacy, we ask them not to share your name or other personal details with anyone or publish your feedback in any public forum.

Yes. Here are some tips:

1) Be honest but constructive. Don’t be afraid to be honest about the things you didn’t enjoy, but remember to always be polite and constructive in how you present your criticism.

2) Explain your reasoning. Don’t just say you didn’t like something. Tell the author why you didn’t like it. Equally, if you liked something, explain why.

3) The author wants your impressions as a reader. They don’t want technical details or theories on story structure – that kind of help will already be provided by their editor. They want to know how the book made you feel, whether you enjoyed it, and what parts worked well for you and didn’t work well.

4) Don’t just focus on the bad. If there are good things about a story, tell the author about them too. That will help them focus on developing what already works.

5) Avoid typos. Make sure you check your feedback at the end for typos. It might help to enter your answers into a word processor first before submitting.

6) As a general rule of thumb, three or four sentences per question is what we would expect for quality, substantive responses. But this will likely vary between questions, with some responses being longer and some shorter.

Please note, if we judge that your feedback is not of a sufficiently high quality because it is lacking in substance, depth, readability, or for any other reason, we will consider the project incomplete, which means you will receive a strike and will not be eligible for payment.

For ARC projects of a normal length (i.e. books of up to 120,000 words), we ask you to read the book within two weeks of it being made available to you. If the book is between 120,000 and 180,000 words, you will have three weeks. If it is longer than 180,000 words, a bespoke timeframe will be proposed.

You don’t have to provide detailed feedback, but we do ask you to notify us of any quality issues you encountered, such as typos or formatting problems. We will invite you to review the book on Amazon once it has been published. Reviews are not mandatory and must always reflect your honest opinion.

We advise you to state ‘I received a free advance copy of this book via The Niche Reader’ or similar. Please do not state that you have received a book in exchange for a review, as this is not accurate and violates Amazon’s terms and conditions. Reviews are not mandatory, so it is not an exchange.

Go to the listing for the project you want to join and use the form at the bottom. When you enter your email, make sure it’s the same email you used to sign up to our email list and to register your account, otherwise we won’t be able to process your request to join.

Once you’ve submitted the form, you will receive confirmation of your registration request. We will then contact you after the deadline for registrations to tell you whether you have been selected or not.

We share some basic personal details and other relevant information about you with the authors of the books you request to read. These details include your name, country of residence, biography, interests, genre preferences, your reasons for requesting to join the relevant advance reader team, and any history of involvement in previous advance reader projects, including strikes incurred. We do not share your contact information.

We share these details so that the authors know who is reading their book and also, if they wish, so that they can play a role in selecting their advance reader teams.

When you’re accepted on a project, we’ll give you instructions to gain access to the book files. You must complete this process within 48 hours. If you do not access them in this time, you will lose your place on the project and receive a strike, unless you provide a valid reason before the 48 hours are over.

All books will be sent in electronic format. We do not send books in hard copy. We will normally provide PDF and EPUB versions. This will allow you to read the books on your electronic devices, including your e-reader.

Once you have downloaded your book files, make sure you save them somewhere safe on your own device.

For reading on Kindle, you can use either PDF or EPUB files, but EPUB files usually make for a better reading experience. We recommend using Amazon’s Send to Kindle app to transfer your files (instructions for PC here and Mac here). Alternatively, you can use the email method (instructions here).

For reading on Kobo, follow this guide.

For reading on your computer, we recommend Google Play for EPUB and PDF files. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is a good alternative for PDF files.

Advance readers for beta projects receive a £10 GBP bonus as a thank-you for giving the author some feedback at the end of each project. The bonus will be a bit higher if the books are more than 120,000 words long.

Advance readers for ARC projects are not paid. That’s because the author does not require detailed feedback for ARC versions and because we invite ARC project team members to leave online reviews once the books are published. Any such reviews must be honest and not incentivised by payment.

No – being an advance reader with The Niche Reader is not a job, gig, or side hustle. It’s a voluntary opportunity for book lovers who enjoy early access to upcoming books and want to help authors by providing thoughtful, constructive feedback.

We offer free books and a small thank-you bonus for beta projects, but this is not a form of employment or freelance work.

Payment is made via Wise. You don’t need to set up a Wise account (although you can if you wish to), as you’ll be given the option to receive payment straight to your own bank account.

Payment will be made once your feedback for the relevant beta project has been reviewed and accepted by our team. Once we have reviewed it, we will contact you to let you know whether it has been accepted. Payment will then be made on the next monthly payment date, which is the 25th of each month or the following business day.

We review the feedback for each beta project together only after the corresponding feedback deadline has passed, and the review process takes time. Therefore, please expect a gap of several weeks between submitting your feedback and receiving confirmation of acceptance, and please only contact us to chase confirmation if more than eight weeks have passed since submitting your feedback. Please remember to check your spam folder if you are expecting to hear from us and haven’t.

Feedback must be received by the deadline you have been given in order for it to be eligible for a bonus payment. The feedback must also be of an acceptable quality.

When you are due payment, Wise will email you with a link to claim it. Please follow the instructions in this email, and make sure you claim within seven days of receiving it, otherwise Wise will automatically cancel the payment.

If you are expecting a payment on a particular payment date and think it has been missed, please ensure you check your spam folder. If you still can’t find it, wait 48 hours following the payment date before contacting us to chase it, as payments can occasionally be delayed for a short time.

If circumstances reasonably prevented you from claiming a payment when it was due, we will, at our discretion, allow you to claim the payment for up to three months following the original payment date. You can do this by contacting us.

Payments will be subject to Wise’s fees, which will be deducted from the money you receive.

Authors whose books you read have the option of requesting to add you to their ‘street team’ for future books, which means you will usually be given preference in selections for their relevant future advance reader teams. If an author wants you to join their street team, we will add you automatically, but you are not obligated to join their future projects.

Authors may have more than one street team if, for example, they have separate ARC and beta street teams. Membership of one street team does not entitle you to join that author’s other street teams.

Places on advance reader project teams are limited and many will be oversubscribed, so it’s likely you won’t always be accepted.

Make sure you are eligible for advance reader projects. See the eligibility requirements in this FAQ section above. If you are not eligible for the projects you’re applying for, you won’t be accepted.

If you have received a strike or strikes for previous projects in a calendar year, that may adversely affect your chances of being accepted on future projects in that year. If you receive three strikes, you won’t be eligible for any projects in that year.

If you sign up for a project, are accepted onto it, and then don’t complete it, you will get one strike.

There are limited exceptions to this rule:

The first exception is if you sign up for a project, are accepted, and then notify us that you do not wish to, or are not able to, complete that project within 48 hours of being sent the acceptance email. You will then avoid a strike.

The second exception applies only to ARC projects. If you sign up for an ARC project, receive the book, and then, within five days of the book files being made available to you, find that you are genuinely not enjoying it to the point you cannot continue, then we will usually grant an exception. Please make sure you provide a good reason why you are not enjoying the book, and remember, it must be within five days of the files being made available to you. This exception does not apply to beta projects because the author will want all feedback, both positive and critical, and because you are compensated for the effort of finishing.

The final exception, which we will make in very limited circumstances, is if none of the other exceptions apply, but there are nonetheless exceptional circumstances that mean you cannot complete a project.

We will apply these exceptions at our sole discretion and will not apply any of them if we judge they are being abused.

To ask for an exception, please email contact@thenichereader.com.

We have a three strikes policy. A strike can be given for a number of different reasons, including failing to complete a project by the deadline, failing to download the book files within 48 hours of being invited to a project, failing to complete the ‘Log your review’ form for an ARC project, and failing to provide feedback of a sufficiently high quality for beta projects.

If you get three strikes, you will ordinarily be given no further reading opportunities. Even gaining one strike will make it less likely you are accepted on future projects, so you should be confident you will be able to commit to a project and complete it adequately before signing up for it.

We appreciate all our advance readers immensely and understand that sometimes life gets in the way. However, this policy is necessary to ensure we consistently deliver the service our authors have asked for.

Please see ‘What happens if I sign up for a project but don’t complete it’ for information on exceptions to strikes.

If something goes wrong, just email us at contact@thenichereader.com and we’ll be happy to help.

You can review them here.

We will provide you with digital book files for your beta and ARC projects, and these are for your use only. You may not share them with anyone else. We have taken a range of measures to prevent book piracy, including adding digital watermarks to every book copy, linking it to the user that downloaded it. This means every book file you download will be traceable back to you. Thank you for your cooperation!