Hi, I’m Jenny. I’ve published around 50 nonfiction books since 2012, most of them books for kids, and a few for grown-ups too. I was there when CreateSpace was a thing and most of your reviews would be from your mum (and Amazon didn’t care). However, the landscape has changed a lot since then – and even more so in the past year or so.

The problem is simple. Almost every ARC site out there was built for novels. You sign up, and the first thing it asks is whether your book is romance, fantasy or thriller. If you’ve written a book about earthquake preparation, kitchen gardens or small business tax, you’re left scrolling for a box called “Other”.

So I went through the main ARC sites with nonfiction in mind: what they cost right now, who the readers are, and whether a nonfiction book actually stands a chance there. I have personally tested them all over the years with little ‘wow’ factor. Prices were checked in October 2026.

Full disclosure: I run AuthorWing ARC Readers, a free ARC service just for nonfiction, and it’s in this list. I’ve tried to be fair to everyone, including the ones I’d happily recommend over us for certain books.

The quick answer

Site	Best for	Cost (Oct 2026)	Nonfiction fit
AuthorWing ARC Readers	Nonfiction authors who want readers matched by topic	Free during beta	Built only for nonfiction
BookSirens	Memoir, true crime and popular topics	$100/year, or $10 per book + $2 per reader	Depends a lot on your topic
Booksprout	Authors building a review team over many releases	$9 to $59/month	OK, but fiction-heavy
NetGalley	Books for libraries and schools	About $575 (US) for 6 months	Good, but pricey for one book
StoryOrigin	Delivering files and swapping promos with other authors	Free basic plan, $100/year for reviewer tools	Mostly fiction
Pubby	Authors happy to review other authors’ books	Monthly subscription	Reviewers are other authors, not your readers
BookFunnel	Sending files (it doesn’t find readers)	From $30/year	Works for any book

Now the longer version.

What matters when you’re choosing an ARC site for a nonfiction book

Fiction readers tend to read across a whole genre. Nonfiction readers don’t. Someone who loves books about World War II is not going to pick up your book on sourdough, however good it is. So for nonfiction, a few things matter more than the size of the reader list:

• Topic matching. Can readers say they want books on history, animals or business, and only hear about those? A list of 20,000 readers is useless if 19,950 of them only read cookbooks.
• Who the reviewers are. Real readers in your subject, or other authors working through a queue?
• Amazon’s rules. Free review copies are fine. Demanding a review, paying for one, or getting reviews from friends and family is not. A good ARC site keeps you on the right side of that.
• Protecting your file. Nonfiction gets pirated too, especially anything practical. Who can download your book, and can you trace a leaked copy?
• The real cost per review. Not the sticker price. What you pay divided by the reviews you actually get.

AuthorWing ARC Readers

Yes, this one’s mine, so take this section with the right amount of salt.

I built AuthorWing ARC Readers because I wanted it for my own books. Readers join for free, pick the nonfiction topics they love (things like history, animals, science, business, health and children’s nonfiction), and we approve every reader personally before they can claim anything. Authors list their book, readers who chose that topic claim a copy, and they have 21 days to post an honest review.

A few things I’m proud of:

• Every copy is personally stamped. Each reader’s email and a tracking code are printed in the ebook, and they can only download it three times. If a copy ever turns up online, we know exactly where it came from.
• No review swapping. Readers are readers, not authors trading favours.
• Readers can only have two books open at a time, and they can’t claim more while a review is overdue. That keeps copies going to people who actually read them.
• It’s free for authors during the beta.

The honest downside: we’re new. Our reader list is much smaller than BookSirens’ or NetGalley’s, and I can’t promise a number of reviews. If your book is in a popular topic and you need 50 reviews by next Tuesday, we’re not there yet.

BookSirens

BookSirens is one of the best-known ARC sites for indie authors. Readers sign up for free, choose their genres, and get a weekly email of new books. Reviewers are vetted using their Amazon and Goodreads profiles, and you can send copies only to readers with good review records.

Pricing in October 2026 is an Author plan at $100 a year (unlimited ARCs for two pen names), or a pay-as-you-go option at $10 per book plus $2 for each reader who downloads it (source). BookSirens says about 75% of readers who download a book review it, averaged across all books.

For nonfiction: this is the interesting part. BookSirens’ own team has said nonfiction is hard to predict because topics are so specific. Memoirs and true crime do very well; parenting and gardening, not so much (TCK Publishing). So if you’ve written a memoir, BookSirens is a strong choice. If your book is about bees, I’d test it with a small reader cap first.

Booksprout

Booksprout is built around readers following you as an author, so you build up a review team over several releases. You can open a free author account, and paid plans run from $9 to $59 a month depending on how many campaigns you have running (source). Booksprout’s own FAQ says to expect about 8 reviews for every 10 readers.

For nonfiction: it works best if you publish regularly in one area, say a series of language learning books, because readers who liked one will come back for the next. For a one-off nonfiction book, a monthly plan is harder to justify.

NetGalley

NetGalley is where traditional publishers send their review copies. Its readers include librarians, teachers, booksellers and journalists, which is a big deal if your book could end up in schools or libraries. Children’s nonfiction especially.

It’s also expensive. A six-month listing is about $575 in the US or £495 plus VAT in the UK, and you need an ISBN (source). Co-ops that share a NetGalley account between authors cost much less, roughly $45 to $75 a month. Reviews aren’t guaranteed.

For nonfiction: worth it if libraries and schools are your market and you have a few titles to rotate through. For a single self-published book, I’d start somewhere cheaper.

StoryOrigin

StoryOrigin is a brilliant free tool for delivering ebooks and doing newsletter swaps with other authors. The free plan includes unlimited file delivery. The reviewer tools (vetting readers, automatic follow-ups) are on the Standard plan at $10 a month or $100 a year (StoryOrigin pricing).

For nonfiction: the community is mostly fiction authors, so it’s better as a delivery tool than as a place to find nonfiction readers.

Pubby

Pubby works differently from everything else here. It’s a community of authors who review each other’s books. You earn “Snaps” by reviewing other members’ books, then spend them to get reviews of your own (how Pubby works). It’s a paid monthly subscription; check their site for the current price, as it has changed.

People like it because it’s fast and you can time reviews around a launch. The trade-offs: your reviewers are other authors rather than readers who chose your subject, earning enough Snaps takes a lot of reading time, and authors argue about how review exchanges sit with Amazon’s rules (one author’s pros and cons). Pubby says its system is designed to be compliant. Read Amazon’s guidelines and make your own call.

For nonfiction: a review from someone who’d never normally read your topic is less useful to you, and to shoppers, than one from a reader who picked it.

BookFunnel

BookFunnel isn’t an ARC site, but it comes up in every conversation about ARCs, so it’s worth a mention. It delivers your ebook to readers and helps them get it onto their device, and plans start at $30 a year for first-time authors (BookFunnel’s 2026 plans). It doesn’t find readers for you, though. You still need one of the sites above, or your own mailing list.

So which one should you use?

• Children’s nonfiction: NetGalley if you can afford it (teachers and librarians), and AuthorWing for parents and readers who picked the topic.
• Memoir or true crime: BookSirens. Those topics do really well there.
• A series in one subject: Booksprout, so readers follow you from book to book.
• Niche topics (bees, tax, a particular bit of history): somewhere readers choose topics, not genres. That’s exactly why I built AuthorWing.
• You just need to send files to your own list: StoryOrigin’s free plan or BookFunnel.

And you don’t have to pick just one. Plenty of authors use one site for readers and another to send the files. The one thing I would avoid is piling every option onto one launch, because a sudden flood of reviews from all directions can look unnatural.

A quick word on Amazon’s rules

Giving away free review copies is allowed. What Amazon doesn’t allow is requiring a review, telling people what to say, rewarding them for it, or getting reviews from close friends and people in your household (a good summary of the wording). Readers should also say in their review that they got a free copy. Any decent ARC site builds these rules in. If one doesn’t, that’s your sign to walk away.

I’m an author, not a lawyer, and Amazon updates its rules, so always check their current Community Guidelines before a launch.

Questions authors ask me

Are ARC sites worth it for nonfiction?

Yes, if the readers actually read your subject. Ten honest reviews from people who love your topic will do more for your book than fifty from people who skimmed it to earn credits.

How many ARC readers do I need?

Not everyone who downloads will review. Even the best sites report something like 75 to 80% on average, and nonfiction can be lower. If you want 15 reviews at launch, aim for 20 to 25 readers.

When should I send ARCs?

About four to six weeks before launch. That gives readers time to finish, and their reviews can go live in launch week. Reviews can usually only be posted on Amazon once the book is out, so tell readers when the page goes live.

Can I use an ARC site for a book that’s already published?

Yes. Lots of authors use them to get reviews on books that launched quietly. Your readers just won’t be “early”.