Founding 100 full · Charter Members now open
Be one of the first 500 to join
The Early Shelf.
Readers get early access to new books before anyone else, always free. Authors get a dedicated team of ARC reviewers before launch day. The Founding 100 are in — Charter Members (#101–500) are joining right now.
Founding 100 is full — Charter Members (#101–500) are now open.
Inside the Shelf
Everything the platform gives each side
One shelf, two ways to use it. Here's what authors and readers each get from the moment they join.
For authors
Authors
Upload in any format
PDF, DOCX, or EPUB — we normalise and paginate every manuscript the same way.
Build ARC & Street Teams
Recruit advance readers and street-team promoters, each with their own workflow.
Reusable reader roster
Keep a roster of trusted readers and invite them back to future campaigns in one click.
Vet before you approve
Every application shows the reader's reputation, completed reviews, and current streak.
Automated reminders
Stalled-reader nudges and expiry alerts fire on their own — no chasing required.
Campaign health dashboard
A live health score per campaign — spot at-risk books before they stall, and track progress over time.
Private, honest feedback
Collect feedback that's never tied to a star rating, plus review verification and dispute tools.
For readers
Readers
Read before everyone else
Get early access to upcoming indie books, weeks before they reach the shelves.
A fair reader reputation
Only decided books count — in-progress reads never drag down your score.
Earn achievements
Unlock badges for reviews, ARC completion, streaks, and Street Team participation.
Join reader groups & book clubs
Discover teams, form book clubs, and apply to campaigns as a group.
Read in-app or aloud
Track your progress page-by-page, or have the app read chapters to you.
Customize your reading
Adjust fonts, themes, and line spacing — including a warm eReader mode — and take notes as you read.
Refer friends & share your stats
Grow the community with a referral link and a downloadable shareable stats card.
Reader teams
Build your reader community before launch
Read before everyone else
Discover upcoming books from indie authors. Join ARC Teams, read early, give honest feedback, and build your reader reputation.
- Join ARC Teams
- Read early
- Give honest feedback
- Build your reader reputation
Help great stories get discovered
Join Street Teams for authors and books you believe in. Share, recommend, support, and discover.
- Share approved content
- Recommend books you love
- Support indie authors
- Discover new stories
For authors
Build your early reader team
Find readers before launch
Create an ARC Team and get your book into the hands of engaged early readers.
Build a Street Team
Recruit fans to help generate awareness around your upcoming release.
Collect honest feedback
Receive private, honest feedback from readers — never tied to review ratings.
Invite trusted readers
Build long-term relationships and invite your best readers to future campaigns.
Who it's for
For any indie author — debut or backlist
Whether you're launching your debut or have a backlist of published titles, The Early Shelf helps you reach dedicated ARC readers who want to discover, review, and champion your work.
Indie authors
Pre-published or with a backlist — if you want more visibility, you belong here.
Self-published authors
Gather honest ARC reviews for re-releases, sequels, or titles that deserve more eyes.
Authors building reader relationships
Connect with dedicated reviewers who'll champion your work long after launch day.
Learn more
Everything you need to know
Detailed guides to how The Early Shelf works — whether you're writing books or reading them.
For authors
How to get early reviews on your book, the 20% share, manuscript protection, ARC teams, rosters, and everything else you can do.
Read the author guideFor readers
How to read books before release, leave honest reviews, build your reputation, join teams, and climb the leaderboard.
Read the reader guideHow it works for authors
Your manuscript stays yours
List a book — debut, re-release, or backlist title — protect your work, and gather honest reviews from engaged ARC readers, all on your terms.
Step 1
Upload privately
Your manuscript is uploaded privately — it's never downloadable or shared directly, even with approved readers.
Step 2
Choose how much to share
Pick 20%, 50%, 75%, or 100% (default 20%). You control exactly how much of your book readers see.
Step 3
Protected in-app reader
Readers access your work only through a protected in-app reader — no downloads, no copying, and no original file ever leaves your account.
Step 4
Watermarked & logged
Every reader copy is watermarked and logged, so you always know who read what — and can trace any leak back to its source.
Step 5
Countdown, links & caps
Set a release countdown, add your Amazon or pre-order link, and cap how many advance readers you accept.
Step 6
Structured early reviews
Get real, structured reviews from engaged readers — ratings, guided prompts, and proof of review, whether you're pre-launch or building buzz post-release.
How it works for readers
Read books before everyone else finds them
Discover new voices and backlist gems, read early, and become a reviewer authors trust.
Step 1
Discover the undiscovered
Browse books before they're widely known, by genre and release date — from upcoming debuts to backlist gems.
Step 2
Read & review in-app
Request early access, read in a clean in-app experience with custom themes, fonts, and read-aloud — then leave honest, guided reviews.
Step 3
Build your reputation
Earn badges and trusted-reviewer status as you review more — and unlock more books along the way.
Step 4
Follow & get notified
Follow books before release and get notified when new chapters or your next read drops.
Now on the shelf
Books awaiting readers
A Cage of Gold & Embers
by J. L. O’Gradey
She was never meant to be caged. For six years, Lyra has lived beneath the palace of Ashrune, imprisoned by a ruthless king who seeks to control the fire running through her veins. Believed to be the last of her kind, she has become something far more valuable than a prisoner. She is a weapon. A secret. A power the king will do anything to possess. Kael is a thief with a talent for finding trouble and an even greater talent for escaping it. When a daring heist leads him into the depths of the royal palace, he expects to steal a priceless jewel. Instead, he discovers a young woman locked inside a gilded cage, and makes a choice that will change both their lives. Their escape sets an ancient power stirring, drawing them into a world of forgotten kingdoms, dangerous magic, and secrets buried long before either of them was born. As war looms and the truth of Lyra’s heritage begins to unravel, she must learn to control the fire she has spent years fearing. But freedom comes at a cost, and the closer she grows to the thief who risked everything to save her, the more she stands to lose. Because some cages are made of gold. Others are made of destiny. And some flames were never meant to be contained.
View book →
The Gaffer's Crush
by Astrid Billings
Lily Everett and Hamish Allen are both very good at loving people without asking for anything in return. Lily, a family therapist at Louisville’s children’s hospital, is everyone’s calm place to land. Hamish, head coach of Bluegrass Union Football Club, Louisville’s favorite hometown soccer team, is “the gaffer” to his players and puts family and duty before everything, including himself. After eleven years of friendship, each is sure the other deserves more than they can give. So they keep their distance, even as the pull between them grows impossible to ignore. A slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance about caretakers who finally learn to let themselves be loved.
View book →
What The Boy Carried
by Rose Ellery
He had no name, no birth certificate, and no record that he’d ever been born. Philadelphia, 1976. Social worker Nora Kessler is called to a shabby rooming house where a young mother has died in the night, and finds a nine-year-old boy keeping watch beside the bed, a worn Bible in his lap and a battered gray toolbox at his feet. He knows her name before she tells him, then three nights later, he walks out of a locked children’s home and vanishes into the snow. Over the next three years he crosses America, appearing in the lives of strangers at their darkest hour: a baker's wife who has stopped praying for a child, a veteran haunted by the war, miners trapped beneath a mountain, a blind widow, and a little girl lost in a blizzard. One by one, they begin to heal. But every healing comes at a price, that the boy pays himself, and he is always gone before anyone can thank him. Nora follows him from city to city, always a few days too late, carrying a grief she has never spoken aloud, until she begins to understand that he was never running away at all.
View book →
Going for the Keeper
by Astrid Billings
A neighbors to friends to lovers slow burn sports romance
View book →
What Remains of a Father
by Michael J Tunney
A father’s relationship with his children doesn’t end all at once. It disappears piece by piece. A missed holiday. An unanswered call. An empty chair. Until one day, there is nothing left but silence. In What Remains of a Father, one man looks back on the choices, conversations, and fractures that brought his family to this point. He knows what happened. Or at least, he knows his version of it. As memory collides with regret, love, anger, and the things left unsaid, the line between explanation and justification begins to blur. A deeply personal story of family and estrangement, What Remains of a Father asks a deceptively simple question: When a family falls apart, who gets to decide what really happened?
Ready or Not
by Nia Sterling
HALLE You know how in horror movies, the heroine is being followed by some masked villain and ends up fighting for her life? She runs—he chases. He catches her—she meets a tragic fate. Yeah. This is not one of those stories. This is more of a she found out she had a stalker, and he found out the hard way situation. Because this isn't a cat-and-mouse game. This is Cat x Cat. And he wants to call me kitten? Fine. But he's going to find out pretty damn quickly that this kitten has claws. Because if he thinks he's winning this game, he's deeply mistaken. He may have made the first move, but I'll be making the last. So, he wants to play? Bet. Game on, bitch. 🖤 STALKER ROMANCE 🖤 MUTUAL OBSESSION 🖤 ENEMIES TO LOVERS 🖤 MASKED HERO 🖤 OBSESSIVE HERO 🖤 PROTECTIVE HERO 🖤 SECRET IDENTITY 🖤 DANGEROUS MAN / SOFT FOR HER 🖤 CAT X CAT 🖤 UNHINGED BILLIONAIRE 🖤 TOUCH HER AND DIE 🖤 MORALLY GREY MEN 🖤 OTT/JP
View book →Reader reputation
Meet the top readers
Every honest, on-time review builds a reader's reputation. These are the advance reviewers earning trust across the shelf.
Jack
Trusted Reviewer
Andy
Active Reviewer
Alison
Newcomer
Marleen
Newcomer
Jessiereviewsbooks
Newcomer
Built for trust
Protection, in plain language
We built The Early Shelf around one promise: your manuscript stays under your control. Here's how that works — no jargon.
Choose how much to share
Pick 20%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of your manuscript to share — your full file is never handed over, even at 100%.
You set the dial — share as much or as little as you're comfortable with.
No downloadable files
Your manuscript is never offered as a file download. Readers can't save or export the original — there's nothing to take.
Nothing to lose sleep over — there's literally no file a reader can walk away with.
In-app reader only
Reading happens inside The Early Shelf, in a clean, book-styled view. There's nothing to copy or print.
Your book stays inside The Early Shelf. No copies, no prints, no forwarding.
Watermarked
Every page carries the reader's identity, so any leak points straight back to where it came from.
Every page is quietly traced — so if anything ever leaks, you'll know exactly where it came from.
Access logs
You see exactly who opened your book, when, and how much they were allowed to read — all in one private log.
A private log shows who opened your book and when. You're never left in the dark.
19 authors already building their ARC Team
Early days
Be among the first to share a story — or find one.
The Early Shelf is just getting started. Join now and help shape a community where early readers and authors grow together.