Netgalley

[crispsinasandwich]

Hi there - does anyone review books on Netgalley?

How do you get accepted for books. I am a customer reviewer - not in the industry- do I stand a chance?

TIA x

Anyone? Bumping for evening crowd

Hiya,

Yes, it is quite easy to do. The more reviews you do the more you stand a chance at getting the bigger/more in demand.

The thing I love the most is I’ve read some great books I probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for NetGalley

Yes, you stand a chance. Their policies vary a lot and some really want people in the industry and very committed and high profile bloggers, others will give more people a chance.

If you already review or post about your reading somewhere put the links - some publishers are wary of amateur reviewers and social media posters but I think others realise that books, especially by less well known writers etc, can build up a readership that way.

I've reviewed with NG for seven years and at first it was difficult to get approved. It's a chicken and egg thing - they like you to have several reviews under your belt before they give you books to review, but you can't write reviews unless you've been sent books to review!

I found connecting a Twitter account on which I share my reviews helped, as did having a blog (nothing fancy, just somewhere I post my reviews). Being scrupulous about sending reviews promptly and posting to Goodreads, Amazon and Waterstones on publication day, too. And keeping my bio up to date/stating all my literary interests in it.

I've reviewed over 500 books now and have made some lovely friends because of it - a couple of authors thank me in their acknowledgements regularly

It's a brilliant hobby, good luck with it.

there are lots of read now books available. Read and review these to get some books behind you. Ive had a few really popular books approved now. I still get excited lol. Also dont apply for too many at a time unless you are sure you can review them at the right time. Some books have specific review requirements too.

It can take a while to build up reviews and in the early days I was refused by a few larger publishers, but as a pp said, you can review published books to add to your list.
Don’t just leave them hanging - if you didn’t finish a book tell them why under the No Review option (but use this sparingly). I’ve had a couple of truly awful books, which I gave 1 star but I said I wouldn’t publish my review as I probably wasn’t the target audience and had chosen badly.
Review ratio they want is 80% so keep that up.

Because they are proof copies there can be some horrible layouts on the page, which can really throw you out of a good story, so do be aware of this if it might be an issue for you.

Layouts and errors can be an issue but some are very well set out with no problems whatseover.

While publishers may save money on postage and have more target data, and Netgalley fits in with the importance of social media (which has really grown over the last 10 years and even over 15-20 years, they do pay to put books on Netgalley and I think if a book is really not readable it might be worth ppinting it out, especially if you have a good record of reading and posting.

I'm far from a model reviewer to be truthful, but I do have a good idea how tit works - and I think I have actually recommended some books/writers read via Netgalley or review books from other sources to quite a lot of people.

I meant a good record of reading and reviewing promptly, generally. Wish I could correct MN posts!

@ClaireFraser
Where can I find your blog to read your reviews? I'm being nosy. I don't mind if you think my question is best answered by private message, if that facility is still available here.