ARC reviews on Goodreads vs Amazon: rules, timing, and disclosure

ARC readers usually post in two places: Goodreads and Amazon. The platforms have different rules about who can review, when, and what a review can contain - and a reader who doesn't know them can lose a review to a takedown. Here's what to tell your team.

Side by side

From Amazon's Community GuidelinesAmazon and Goodreads' December 2025 guideline updateGoodreads, both checked October 2026. Amazon's release-day timing is how the review button works in practice rather than a written rule.

Goodreads: open before release, with new checks

Goodreads accepts reviews of books that aren't published yet, which makes it the natural first stop for ARC readers. In December 2025 it tightened the rules for pre-publication books:Goodreads

• Reviewers have to confirm they've read the book (or didn't finish it) before rating a pre-publication title.
• Advance-copy readers are asked how they got their copy - for example, from the author or publisher.
• Readers who've only shelved a book as "Want to Read" can't rate it until they mark it Currently Reading or Read.

For your team, that means one practical instruction: when Goodreads asks where the copy came from, choose the author or publisher option.

Amazon: from release day, with stricter eligibility

Amazon allows reviews of free advance reader copies from authors and publishers - the authors just can't require a review in exchange or try to influence the reader's opinion.Amazon Three other rules catch ARC readers out:

• The $50 rule. A customer must have spent $50 on Amazon.com with a credit or debit card in the past 12 months to post reviews or star ratings.Amazon A keen reader who mostly borrows from the library may not be able to post at all.
• Personal connections. Amazon doesn't allow reviews of products from authors the reviewer has a personal connection with.Amazon Friends and family on your ARC team are the most common cause of removed reviews.
• No outside links. Links to other Amazon products are fine; links to external sites - including a blog review or a Goodreads page - are not.Amazon

And timing: in practice, a Kindle book can't be reviewed while it's on pre-order, so Amazon reviews arrive from release day. Tell readers to post on Goodreads when they finish, and on Amazon in launch week.

Disclosure wording for both

The FTC's guidance is that someone who received a product free should generally say so in their review.FTC FAQ Give your readers the exact sentence so nobody improvises:

I received a free advance copy from the author.

Ask them to avoid "in exchange for an honest review". It's common, but it implies the review was required, which is exactly what Amazon doesn't allow.Amazon Our ARC reader agreement templatehas this wording built in.

What to tell your ARC team

Paste this into your invitation and your launch-day email. The full set is in our ARC reminder templates.

Tracking reviews across both platforms

A reader who posts on Goodreads in week one and Amazon in week four has done everything you asked - but it's easy to miss half of it. In ArcRoster, readers submit their review links (Goodreads, Amazon, and more) to the campaign, and each confirmed review counts toward that reader's reliability tier, so you know who posted where without searching both sites.