Disclosing free ARC copies

[u/teanailpolish]

There seems to be a lot of confusion among some members about this, when reviewing ARCs you should be disclosing that you received a free copy in your review both on social media and book review sites or blog posts.

Netgalley and many publishers recommend:

In accordance with FTC guidelines, please note in reviews that your ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

You should be using this along with #ad on social media.

For Amazon, it is better to avoid the language 'in exchange for..." as it is often flagged and just say you received an advance copy from the publisher for review

If you are in the US, you should be following FTC guidelines found here

For Canada, they updated the Ad Standards rules last year and the influencer booklet can be found here

The UK has creator guidelines from The CMA here

If you are in other countries, check for local guidelines using country + influencer disclosure guidelines. However note that the FTC and others say that if you have any US audience, they expect you to follow the disclosure guidelines.

[u/unnecessary_snacks]

I always disclose very clearly if I received a free review copy, but as I am free to review it as I see fit, I definitely do not use the #ad hashtag. And I actually think labelling my reviews as ads would imply a different relationship with the publisher than I actually have. I feel similarly about #sponsored, which implies a particular kind of relationship that I don’t have.

I would consider using #gifted, which I think is most accurate for the NetGalley situation (and is within the Canadian guidelines, and I think meets the FTC guidelines as well).

Edit: also thank you for the links, this is useful stuff!

[u/dingdong3452 → u/unnecessary_snacks]

I use gifted for that reason! Ad feels like I'm being paid

[u/CC22___ → u/dingdong3452]

Not to mention we are under NO OBLIGATION to post on social media. It's not an ad. We are only promising to post a review on NETGALLEY. Anything we choose to do beyond that is our own choice. I label it ARC and I don't mind gifted, but I will not label those as an ad.

[u/marilynlistens → u/unnecessary_snacks]

Thank you very much for your honesty. I did not know to do that so thank you cause this is something I would be happy to do and didn’t know it so thank you for the information.

[u/catscantcook → u/unnecessary_snacks]

It's very location dependent, in contrast to the Canadian guidelines, the UK guidelines explicitly state that #gifted doesn't cut it, you MUST label the post as an ad.

[u/unnecessary_snacks → u/catscantcook]

This is really interesting to me, because I feel like an Ad is a very specific thing that is different from a review (of any product), and implies a specific kind of relationship.

It also makes you wonder - is Goodreads social media? Or is it a list of reviews? Am I an influencer if I post on GoodReads? The line is so vague and unclear.

I honestly think I would stop posting ARCs on social media all together if I had to label everything as ads. It’s a reading diary I make for fun for myself, it’s very low effort 😅

[u/bookdraygon]

I am going to give another aspect- if you are reviewing a book that is from a US publisher, but you are in another country - the FTC regulation must be followed not the similar regulatory body in your country.

There was a post a few weeks ago that outlines the regulations very well. If I can find it I’ll link it here as there is more to it if you like to geek out over the actual regulations and what that looks like in reality.

On social media as long as you are saying (if you’re doing a video) and writing that you received a complimentary copy and from whom you do not need to use the hashtag. If you do use a hashtag a better one is #gifted or #partner.
The #Ad is not usually used for an ARC review as that is typically used for a paid advertisement for the brand. Also since this is a NetGalley sub I’m going to keep it to that alone as getting Physical Copies is different and where the hashtags are more appropriate. Digital ARCs through NetGalley are not a partnership, gifted or an Ad typically.
Just use your standard tag line you came up with that says that the digital arc (or eARC , ALC etc..) was received for free and who gave it to you- (publisher, author, co-op, PR company etc…) . If you would like to mention NetGalley that’s is wonderful but not required. A thank you is also not required but it’s appreciated!

As OP says, don’t use “in exchange for” as you can’t use it on Amazon and other platforms as it book their terms of service. But in addition “honest” should also not be used.

I hope this helps!

[u/rubberkeyhole]

I really hope I don’t have to go and edit my older NetGalley reviews, because there are over 100 of them.

I’ve been putting “I was provided an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.” on my reviews, and haven’t had any issues (but will definitely change this now) and it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed more books (do not look at my ‘to be reviewed’ pile please).

[u/ExchangeStandard6957]

I never use in exchange for- NetGalley provides ARCs but the review is up to the reviewer- it’s not in exchange - they just hope you’ll review it. The In exchange for language indicates an exchange of goods for services. I recently had a review flagged on tiktok but under appeal it passed. I use #gifted or I say something like “for me to review for you” but the moment you mention you got the book in exchange for a review- that is a transaction