Choosing an ARC platform: what to compare, and where Booklabria fits
For authorsUpdated 2 min read
A plain checklist for choosing a place to run advance copies (tools such as BookFunnel, Booksprout and NetGalley are the ones authors usually compare): who finds your book, how the file is protected, how readers read it, what you can see, what it costs, and who owns the relationship. Booklabria's answer to each is listed.
The short answer
Authors usually look at a few tools for advance copies, often BookFunnel, Booksprout and NetGalley, and choose on a handful of things. This page lists them with Booklabria's answer to each, so you can compare against whatever you use now. We describe only Booklabria; check the other tools' own pages for theirs.
What to compare
| Question | Booklabria |
|---|---|
| Who finds your book? | Readers browse Free early copies and see why a copy fits them (their genres, tropes, language). You can also invite your own readers with a link (Delivery links, Inviting your readers). |
| How is the file protected? | Signed links that expire after fifteen minutes, five downloads or sends per copy, and a hidden watermark per copy (a code, never a name). Or keep the file on our servers with Read on Booklabria. See How to protect advance copies. |
| How do readers read it? | In the browser or app, as a protected download, or sent to their own Kindle. You tick the ways you allow; with more than one, the reader chooses. |
| What can you see? | Applications, approved, started, finished, reviewed, shared elsewhere and who followed you afterwards, as counts you can check (What the funnel shows). Never a rating before it is public. |
| Do you need honest reviews? | Yes: you ask for honest ones, readers say the copy was free, and nobody can reward stars (ARCs, stores and the law). |
| What does it cost? | Free during the beta for authors and always free for readers. The Author plan stays free; the paid plans are in Plans and the beta and what changes when the beta ends is in When the beta ends. |
| Who owns the relationship? | Readers follow you. You see usernames, never e-mail addresses unless a reader shares one with you (Sharing your e-mail with an author). |
| Can you move in and out? | Yes: you export your campaign's approved readers and their reviews as a CSV (Several campaigns at once). |
How to try it without moving anything
Run one campaign for one book. How to run an ARC campaign takes about fifteen minutes. Nothing is lost if you keep using your current tool for the rest.
Where this lives
Related
- How to run an ARC campaign, step by step: The short guide: pick the book and its EPUB, choose how readers get it (read on Booklabria, a protected download or Send to Kindle), say who it is for, set the dates and spots, launch, then decide requests and watch the funnel. Free during the beta; readers never pay.
- How to protect your advance copies from piracy: Booklabria keeps your file off public addresses, ties every copy to one reader with a hidden watermark (never their name), expires download links after fifteen minutes, limits each copy to five downloads or sends, and lets you keep the file on our servers with Read on Booklabria. Here is what each does and what to choose.
- ARC delivery and tracking: You choose per campaign how readers receive the book: Read on Booklabria (the file stays on the server, readers open it on the site or in the app, and the Reading tab shows progress by chapter, who finished and where readers stop, as counts), a Protected download (signed links that expire after fifteen minutes, five downloads per approval, every EPUB watermarked) or Send to Kindle (we e-mail the watermarked EPUB to the reader's own Kindle address, five sends per approval). Tick one or more; with two or more, each approved reader picks one. Upload the EPUB or PDF on the Delivery tab; reading on Booklabria and Send to Kindle need the EPUB. The Activity tab notes approvals, downloads and reviews as they happen; the analytics funnel shows how many downloads became reviews.
- What the campaign funnel shows, cross-posts included: Studio, Readers, Early copies counts every stage of a campaign: Applications, Approved, Downloaded (an approval, a delivery-link claim or a certified send each count as one reader), Reviewed, Cross-posted (as readers mark them, with a line per site), Kept following, with lines for DNF and held reviews. Counts, never names, each with its definition on the page. A giveaway has no funnel.
- Plans, and what the beta unlocks: Readers never pay; there is no reader plan and never will be. Writing here is free forever: books, series, the Journal and followers are never limited on any plan. What the plans are for is the launch: advance-copy campaigns, the readers who come with them, and the people who help. Author (free) has one pen name and one small campaign at a time (up to 25 readers, no delivery links); Creator ($9 a month or $90 a year) runs 3 campaigns at a time with up to 100 readers each; Pro ($19 or $190) is unlimited with 5 pen names and 2 collaborators; Publisher ($59 or $590) is the imprint, billed yearly by invoice with 5 seats. A $12 campaign pass runs one campaign (up to 100 readers) without a plan, valid for 60 days from the day you buy it. The 14-day trial needs a card and starts with your first campaign or delivery link, not at signup. During the closed beta nothing is charged and every author feature is unlocked.
- Delivery links, codes and certified sends: a protected copy to your own readers: A delivery link (or its QR code) hands a protected copy of your book to readers you already have, outside any campaign and with no review owed, on the Creator plan and above. From Studio, Advance copies, Deliver to your readers: choose the book, how readers get it (read on Booklabria, a protected download, Send to Kindle, or a choice of them), how many copies, how long the link accepts claims, an optional password, who can claim, and a note. Revoking stops new claims only; claimed copies stay readable and count toward the readers your plan allows. A campaign can also send certified copies to addresses you know; a send counts as a reader once it is claimed.
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