The free ARC tracking spreadsheet template (with reviewer scoring)
If you're running an ARC campaign out of a spreadsheet, you want one that does more than hold names. You want to see — at a glance — who downloaded, who reviewed, who ghosted, and who's worth inviting again. So we built that spreadsheet and made it free. No email wall, no catch.
↓ Download the ARC tracking template (.xlsx)Free · works in Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers · no signup
What's in the template
It's three tabs, ready to use:
- ARC Tracker — one row per reviewer, with columns for name, email, source, tags, invite date, and simple Yes/No dropdowns for downloaded, reviewed, on time, and leaked. Two columns fill themselves in: a reliability score and a status.
- Summary — live counts of invited, downloaded, and reviewed, your review rate (of everyone invited and of just the downloaders), and a headcount in each status band.
- How scoring works — the full rulebook and status bands, so anyone you share it with understands the numbers.
How the reliability score works
Every reviewer starts from a neutral baseline, and the score moves based on what they actually did this campaign — then maps to a status you can sort by:
- Downloading the copy is a small positive signal — they engaged.
- Submitting a review is the biggest lift; it's the outcome that matters.
- Reviewing before launch adds a further boost for being on time.
- Downloading and then never reviewing — the classic ghost — is the heaviest routine penalty.
- Never downloading at all is penalized too, but more gently than ghosting: they took nothing from you.
- A confirmed leak overrides everything and drops the reviewer straight to Blocked.
That fourth point is the one that matters. A reader who grabbed a free copy and vanished scores lower than one who never opened it — because the ghost cost you a copy and a slot. Scores sort reviewers into five bands — Trusted, Reliable, At risk, Inactive, and Blocked — so you can order your roster by status and let your next invite list write itself.
How to use it
- Open it in Excel, or upload it to Google Sheets (File → Import → Upload).
- Fill in the campaign details and paste your reviewer list into the ARC Tracker tab.
- As the campaign runs, set the Yes/No dropdowns for each reviewer.
- Watch the score, status, and Summary tab update themselves. Next launch, invite your Trusted and Reliable readers first.
Where a spreadsheet stops helping
This template will carry you a long way, and for a first launch it may be all you need. But a spreadsheet has two limits worth naming honestly. First, it forgets: next book, you start a new file, and last launch's scores don't follow your reviewers unless you copy them by hand. Second, it can't protect anything — the "confirmed leak" column records that a copy leaked, but it can't tell you who leaked it.
Those are the two things a spreadsheet structurally can't do, and they're exactly what ArcRoster automates: reliability scores that persist across every launch in a permanent reviewer CRM, and fingerprinted copies that trace a leaked file back to the reviewer it was issued to. Same idea as this template — just remembered between books, and with teeth. If you'd rather not rebuild the sheet every launch, join the beta and let ArcRoster keep score for you.