A friend on Instagram asked me the other day how I find the books before they are released in order to request them. (Referring to my ARC lists and “Out this week” posts.)

The short answer: I spend almost as much time scrolling book lists as I do reading.

The long answer: I feel like being a reader is a combination of hobbies:
-actually reading
-finding books to read / adding books to your TBR
-buying books
…not to mention all of the add-on hobbies you could collect: book journaling, shelf arranging and decorating, book clubs, bookstagram, BookTok, etc…

But, to answer the actual question, I have a number of ways that I find out about books before they are released.

My main way now is through influencer marketing. For the publishers who I am on an influencer mailing list for, some of them will send us catalogs of upcoming books that we can then request. (Which is basically my dream come true?) I add everything that looks remotely interesting to my Goodreads “Want to Read” – which is an exceptionally long list. I try to request a more reasonable number of books, to varying degrees of success.

Even if you are not on Influencer mailing lists, you can browse Netgalley, which is a free website where you can start reviewing books if that is something that you want to do. (I talked a little bit about Netgalley in my “Book Mail” post on January 4th –  but am happy to share more if y’all are interested!)

My other favorite way is, of course, from you! When my friends and other bookstagrammers post reviews/features/other posts, I add the ones that catch my eye to my TBR. 

Even more common than browsing are me & Dani’s ARC group chats. People are so amazing about sharing books as they get added to Netgalley or other places we can get review copies from. (If you want to join, we’re posting sign ups on Friday!) 

But, before I had those resources, I was still someone who tried to keep up with what was coming out. 

Goodreads has a feature where they’ll email you a list of books coming out in the next month by author’s you have already read. Which is kind of overwhelming, honestly. But I still click through it and make sure that I haven’t missed anything! 

I also look at lists that Goodreads puts out – they’ll often have things like “50 summer romances” or “Hot new Sci-fi and Fantasy.” And I add most of them to my Want to Read shelf. 

Hope this helps! What’s your favorite place to go to for book recommendations? (Feel free to shout out your own blog or a friend’s – I’m looking for more to follow!)