I received a comment last night asking for information on how to find publishing contacts to ask for ARCS and I thought I would share that information here for everyone! And I'm going to go a step further and give you some advice on how to write those emails!

First, the contacts! Here is a website for each of the big five, where you can find a list of general media emails for each of their individual imprints. As you reach out, and begin to work with them, you will develop a list of specific contacts with the imprints you work with. Once you have those, reaching out to your direct contacts will usually be a better bet! But these emails are a great place to start!

Harper Collins: https://corporate.harpercollins.co.uk/hc-media/contacts/

Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/media-queries/

Simon & Schuster: https://about.simonandschuster.biz/media-contacts/

**Hachette Book Group: **https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/press-publicity/

Macmillan: https://us.macmillan.com/contact#:~:text=For%20general%20Macmillan%20inquiries%3A%20press.inquiries%40macmillan.com%20Please%20note%20that,job%20openings%20for%20Macmillan%20can%20be%20found%20here.

(BONUS: get ARCS from Bindery: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdu_uo3kq9cTdGuezr0Nx6DxJp6opy9LLqP7HENyZ1rBfKqSw/viewform)

Now for how to ask for books!

A lot of people don't reach out for free books because they are afraid that their follow count won't warrent it. But I want to say right up front, having a smaller follower count won't stop you from being appealing to publishers! Obviously, larger platform are easier to sell, but it's not the only metric that matters! Appealing to publishers is all about selling YOUR platform. What makes your platform useful. Is your audience engaged? Do you specialize in a specific type of genre? Do you have a book club? Have you sold a lot of books for a specific author? Are you consistently posting about specific types of books?

There is something about your platform that makes you very useful to authors. Don't be afraid to highlight that!!!

Here is a quick look at what a typical email from me looks like:

Good evening,

My name is Michael LaBorn. I am a bookish content creator on TikTok with a platform of around 100,000 dedicated readers (tiktok.com/@michael.laborn). My content primarily focuses on highlighting marginalized voices and talking about books that center Black and brown characters and stories. Additionally, my audience is primarily Black and brown and respond very well to conversations about books that highlight their identities.

I am reaching out because I am very interested in reading a copy of (book title). My audience responds very well to books like this and I would love to be able to expose them to the book early. And if there are any opportunities to work with your company to promote and/or talk about the book more officially, please don't hesitate to consider me for promotional campaigns.

In the hope that you will be able to accomodate this request, here is my mailing address:

Your email doesn't have to be as wordy as mine, and it doesn't have to highlight the same things, but it does have to have the following elements:

• A link to your platforms (so they can verify you actually talk about books)
• Information on why you want a copy of that specific book (if you can show that you're familiar with the book, they are more likely to see you as a great fit for the book)
• Your address (they will not always follow up. Sometimes they just send the book. So if you don't provide your address in the initial email, you may lose opportunities to get books that you are after).
• A realistic promise. (Once publishers begin sending you books, you can guarantee more are on the way. It can get overwhelming. So do yourself a favor and never promise to give ARCS/books extensive promotion if you don't fully intend to do that. Obviously, it is good practice to show every book you receive to your audience and to tell them about them, but you don't want to promise that you will read and promote every book in a timely manner, because chances are, you won't be able to do it. Especially when alot of books start showing up. If I am very excited about a book and KNOW I will read it IMMEDIATELY, I make that promise. But typically, I only promise to expose my audience to the book, that way I can do an unboxing and share it with them, and then read it when I have time, while meeting the promise I gave.)

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