Early reads (ARC, beta, sensitivity, publishers)

An early read sends your book to a group of readers before it is out: advance readers who will review it, beta readers, sensitivity readers, or publishers and agents. Find it under Desk › Planning › Tracking, in the Readers and Early reads views.

These are your own readers, people you invite or who sign up through your link. To find readers among Inkbreaker writers instead, see Beta readers and Sensitivity reads.

Reader groups

Choose New reader group and pick a kind: advance readers, beta readers, sensitivity readers, publishers and agents, or your own group. In Group settings you decide who can join: anyone with the link, anyone with the link until a date, or only people you invite. People join through a sign-up form and confirm by email, so nobody is added without saying yes. You can add your own questions to the form.

Postal addresses

Ask for a postal address only when a group gets copies you post. Choose Email and postal address in the group’s settings and the form asks for one. Addresses are encrypted and only you can see them. Each one is deleted a set time after the read closes (30 days unless you change it), and an address left unused for 6 months is deleted too. Readers can remove their own address from their link at any time.

Fourteen days before unused addresses are deleted, you get a notification and a notice in your Desk. Choose Keep for another 6 months if you still need them. Either way, the readers stay on your list with their email.

Sending a read

Choose New early read, pick the book (a draft is fine) and the group, and decide how they get it:

• An EPUB to download. Imprint makes it from your book, with each reader’s name inside. Their link lets them download it up to 3 times.
• Read online, on a private link. They read it on Inkbreaker, in your page’s look, with nothing to download.
• A copy you mail yourself. You post it. Inkbreaker helps you keep track of it and prints an insert with their link.

Each reader’s link carries a one-use key that opens their copy and their form, and nothing else. If someone forwards it, the link shows that it belongs to someone else.

Feedback forms

Start from a template (ARC review, beta read, sensitivity read, publisher or agent) or start blank, then add your own questions: stars, short or long answers, choices, tick boxes, links, yes or no, or notes by chapter. What readers see shows the form the way they will. You can send reminders before the due date. Readers can change their answers until you close the read, and every answer comes back to the read’s page under View feedback.

Every copy is made for one person

Each EPUB copy is made for the reader who gets it. It opens with a dedication page naming them, ends every chapter with a line carrying their name and code, has the code hidden in the text, and names them in the book’s details. An online read shows the line at the top of every chapter. Watermarks are on for every read, and you can turn them off.

Found your book shared somewhere? Open the read and choose Who had this copy? Drop in the EPUB or paste a passage from it, and it tells you whose copy it was. The code is there even in text copied out of the book. A watermark leaves a trace of who received each copy. It does not stop anyone from sharing a book, and it is not a guarantee.

Online reads

An online read opens only on the first device the reader uses, and the page does not let them select, copy or print the text. For each reader you see how many times they opened it, how far they got, and any tries from another device. Choose Pause access to stop a reader’s access for now, and Restore access to give it back.

Mailed copies

Inkbreaker never ships anything. For a mailed read you post the copies yourself, and the read keeps the list for you: mark each reader’s copy as packed, posted and arrived, and their feedback ticks itself off when it comes in. Print what goes in the parcel makes a PDF of cards, letters or address labels. Each one carries the reader’s own code, which they type in to open their read.

Printed advance copies

To post printed books, choose Printed copies on the read. Imprint makes the print-ready inside and cover, marked as an advance reader copy and not for sale, for IngramSpark, KDP or any printer you like. You order the copies, and they go from your printer to you. The print-ready files come with a paid Pro plan.

A free ebook for readers

On your Creator Page or a book page you can offer a book as a free ebook. A reader gives their name and email and gets a link by email, so each copy is made for them and carries their name, like any early read copy. Only your public chapters go in it. For a free book in return for joining your letters, see Letters and mailing lists.

What it costs

Reader groups, early reads, feedback forms, watermarks and Who had this copy? work on every plan. The print-ready files for printed copies, and your Imprint book design inside a read’s EPUB, come with a paid Pro plan.