Plan and manage advance copies
Create a digital review-copy plan
Decide how digital advance copies will be distributed (which platform, who approves requests, for how long) and who is responsible for each part.
Authors often hire help with this: publicity or marketing.
Why it matters
Most advance reading now happens digitally, and reviewers expect a copy within days of asking. A plan means requests are answered quickly and by the right person, the book is available during the months when reviews are being written, and nobody sends the same reviewer a copy twice. Without one, requests pile up unanswered and the window quietly passes.
Your part
- What you do
- Ask. Someone else normally owns it. Get an answer, then record it.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher and Author and Publicist. Publisher or publicist usually runs it; author confirms and contributes names, or runs it when self-publishing
- When
- About six months before publication, before the galley exists and review submissions begin (Plan and manage advance copies: twelve to six months before publication, ahead of every review deadline)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Digital review copies are the main way most reviewers, librarians, booksellers, and bloggers read books before publication. They are usually distributed through a review copy platform (NetGalley and Edelweiss+ are the widely used ones in the United States trade) or as a watermarked PDF sent directly. A plan covers which platform, when the title goes live, whether requests are approved automatically or by hand and by whom, how long the copy stays available, and how requests and feedback are tracked.
Find out who owns the listing and what it covers. At a publisher, the book is usually listed on one or both platforms and the publisher handles approvals; ask when it goes live, who approves, whether the listing is open to everyone or restricted to invited readers, and whether you can suggest reviewers or see the request data. With a hybrid press, ask whether a listing is included and for how long, because some include it, some charge extra, and some do not offer it. If it falls to you, the choice is between a direct listing for a fee, a shared co-op listing through an author organization or service, and hand-sent PDFs, and each has its own cost and reach.
Record the plan in the Book Identity Sheet and put the go-live and end dates on the calendar.
Common mistakes
- Listing the book and never checking the request queue.
- Approving everyone or no one, rather than deciding criteria.
- Taking the listing down at publication, when many reviews are still being written.
- Sending unwatermarked PDFs to strangers.
- Assuming a platform listing produces reviews on its own; it distributes copies, and that is all.
Identifiers for Create a digital review-copy plan
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All book identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| NetGalley The main platform for giving reviewers, librarians, and booksellers a secured digital review copy before publication. | This decides who can read your book before it is out and how early, and feedback posted through it frequently reappears as reviews on Goodreads and retailers around publication. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally ask whether the book will be listed, when the listing goes live, how long it stays up, and who approves requests, and a hybrid author should confirm who is paying. If you publish the book yourself, this is a real expense you choose, and it needs an approval plan, a plan for reading the feedback, and enough lead time, typically three to six months before publication, to be worth anything. Record the listing dates and check that the description and review file match the book you intend people to read. | Add your NetGalley listing link | |
| Edelweiss+ The digital catalog where booksellers, librarians, and reviewers see forthcoming books, months before publication. | Buyers deciding what to stock and librarians deciding what to buy often see your book here first, so the description, the author biography, and the comparison titles in that listing do their work long before anyone has read the book. It displays what the publisher's feed and catalog team supply, so it is a downstream view rather than a source, and a mistake in it came from upstream. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally ask which catalog the book sits in and to see the listing before buyers do, and a hybrid author should confirm the publisher has an account at all; a self-published book appears only if a distributor lists it, and titles published through IngramSpark don't appear automatically. Check the listing against your own record, especially the description, biography, comparison titles, and publication date. | Add your Edelweiss+ listing link |
What done looks like
- The platform or method chosen, with go-live and end dates.
- Who approves requests, by what criteria, and within what turnaround.
- A list of reviewers, librarians, and booksellers to invite directly.
- A way to track requests, approvals, and any feedback received.
- A clear division of responsibility between publisher, publicist, and author.
- Costs recorded if the author is paying for a listing.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified