How to get accepted for Thursday Pen Pinery ARC Spotlight
Every Thursday, Pen Pinery selects five romance ARC campaigns from our listed active ARCs and puts the full promotional weight of the platform behind them.
We call it the Thursday Pen Pinery ARC Spotlight and if you're a romance author looking for ARC readers, it's one of the best reasons to list your campaign with Pen Pinery.
What Is the Thursday Pen Pinery ARC Spotlight?
The Thursday Spotlight is a weekly feature exclusive to authors with active campaigns listed on Pen Pinery. Each week we handpick five romance ARC campaigns and give them a concentrated promotional push across every channel we have; email, social media, and our reader newsletter.
It's not a lottery. It's not paid placement. It's a curated selection of campaigns we believe are ready for readers, promoted by us on your behalf as part of being a Pen Pinery author.
What Does Being Spotlighted Actually Mean?
When your campaign is selected for the Thursday Spotlight, here's what happens:
Email blast to our romance reader community. Your book goes out directly to Pen Pinery's active reader base; romance readers who signed up specifically to find ARCs to apply for. These aren't casual browsers. They're looking for their next read.
Social media promotion to all our followers. We post about your campaign on our social channels and tag you directly. Most authors reshare the post to their own audiences, which means the Spotlight reaches well beyond our own followers.
All of this happens in a single concentrated push on Thursday, creating a surge of reader attention on your campaign rather than the slow trickle of passive discovery.
Who Is Eligible?
The Thursday Spotlight is exclusive to romance authors with active campaigns listed on Pen Pinery. You don't apply or pay extra; eligibility comes with listing your campaign.
Each week we review active campaigns and make our selections based on a few factors: cover quality, blurb strength, upcoming release dates, tropes (tags) and genre variety across the five picks. We rotate selections to give different authors and subgenres their moment, and we avoid featuring the same ARC in back-to-back weeks.
If your campaign is live on Pen Pinery, you're in the running.
Why Only Five Campaigns?
The limit is intentional.
Five campaigns means the Spotlight stays curated rather than becoming another list to scroll through. It means being selected actually means something. And it means every author who makes the cut gets meaningful attention rather than being buried among dozens of other titles.
For readers, five picks means a genuinely curated shortlist; something worth opening the newsletter for.
The constraint is the point.
What Does This Mean for Romance Readers?
If you're a reader, the Thursday Spotlight is your weekly shortlist of romance ARCs worth applying for. Instead of browsing every active campaign, you get five handpicked titles delivered to your inbox and social feed every Thursday.
Reading ARCs on Pen Pinery is always free for readers. The Spotlight just makes it easier to find the books most ready for you right now.
How Does This Help Authors Beyond the Spotlight?
Even authors whose campaigns aren't featured in a given week benefit from the Spotlight existing.
Every week the Spotlight goes out, more readers follow Pen Pinery's social channels and subscribe to our newsletter. More authors in romance communities see Pen Pinery being active and professional. The platform grows, the reader pool deepens, and every listed campaign, Spotlighted or not, gets discovered by a larger audience over time.
The Spotlight is a rising tide.
How Do I Get My Campaign Listed?
Head to penpinery.com and list your romance ARC campaign. It's $10 for a single listing or $10/month for unlimited listings; no per-reader fees, ever.
Once your campaign is live, you're automatically eligible for the Thursday Spotlight. We'll reach out directly if your campaign is selected for an upcoming week.
When Does the Spotlight Go Out?
Every Thursday. It hits our reader email list, social channels, and other platforms simultaneously, creating a single concentrated moment of attention rather than a slow drip.
If you want your campaign considered for an upcoming Thursday, get it listed before Wednesday each week.
The Thursday Pen Pinery ARC Spotlight is a weekly feature exclusive to active campaigns on Pen Pinery. Romance authors can list their ARC campaign at pennpinery.com.
A note on promotional consent: By listing an ARC campaign on Pen Pinery, authors agree that their campaign may be featured in platform promotions including but not limited to the Thursday Spotlight, our reader newsletter, and social media posts. This is part of how Pen Pinery works to get your book in front of readers.
A note on the Spotlight itself: The Thursday Pen Pinery ARC Spotlight is a voluntary, editorially driven feature. Pen Pinery reserves the right to modify, pause, or discontinue the Spotlight at any time without notice. Selection is at Pen Pinery's sole discretion and is not guaranteed for any listed campaign. Being listed on Pen Pinery does not guarantee Spotlight inclusion.
