How To Get Approved On NetGalley
I love NetGalley, they have so many amazing books and I love listening to their audiobooks while at the gym, it’s the right kind of motivation that I need! If you have no idea what NetGalley is, take a look at the post below which will explain everything to you and you’ll be creating an account in no time!
I wanted to talk about NetGalley a little more and let people know how they can maximise their chances of getting approved for books on NetGalley, they have so many amazing titles it’s important to get everything right on your account so that you can get access to many more books.
Who Approves Books On NetGalley?
It’s important to note that NetGalley is the hosting company, they do not approve books and this is left to the publishing house, author or whoever is uploading the books onto NetGalley. They pay to have their books on there and they pay to pick who reviews their books. This is why it’s so important to make yourself stand out from the crowd so that you look like an amazing reviewer and they want to pick you!
Find Out What The Publisher Wants
On NetGalley the book owners will share what they’re looking for in a reviewer. If you click on their page you can see what they’re looking for through the “view Approval Preferences” area. This gives you an idea on if you’re more likely to get approved for the book or not. It also means you’re less likely to get your hopes us on a book if you’re not what they’re looking for and this in my opinion is a good thing.
How To Get Approved On NetGalley
Don’t want to spend a fortune on books? Would rather listen to audio books and leave amazing reviews online? NetGalley has everything you’re looking for trust me. Some huge authors have started off on NetGalley and now you’re probably seeing them at book signings, in the papers and on the front cover of magazines.
Thankfully, everyone can make an account on NetGalley so that’s not difficult at all. You just need to make sure that you look like someone who an author or publishing house would want to read and review their book and there are many ways to go about this.
Creating The Best NetGalley Profile
If you’re looking at getting approved on NetGalley you’ll need to make sure that you’ve filled out your profile as much as possible. I know it can be rather boring to fill it all out but the more detail you put in your profile makes you look better to perspective authors and publishing houses when it comes to them giving you books.
Make sure you connect all of your social medias that you might put book reviews on and if you haven’t already, make a bookstagram account for NetGalley. You’ll also want to make sure you have a Goodreads account because you can automatically post your NetGalley reviews onto Goodreads!
Reviewing Your Books On NetGalley
You want to make sure you’re reviewing everything, there’s a well known issue with NetGalley which is a big shame. You can log that you are unable to read a book for several reasons, technical issues, archived before reading etc. However, if you do this it will go against you in your overall review score which makes it look like you don’t actually read and review the books. Authors and publishing houses hate this and they don’t want to give a book to someone who isn’t going to review it.
I found this out the hard way and I want people to avoid doing so. I have seen people leaving reviews stating that they couldn’t finish the book for whatever reason and I would advise doing this otherwise it will go against you. It’s a known problem that I feel NetGalley need to sort out because there are issues out of the reviewers control and this is one of them and the fact it goes against a review is unfair.
If you have this issue I would suggest putting the reason in the review, state that you won’t be sharing it on any social media and make sure the review does not post onto Goodreads. That seems to be the common fix that most reviewers use as NetGalley doesn’t have their back. As you can see below, I had some issues over time with books and it’s gone against me which is a big shame.
How To Leave Reviews On NetGalley
It is super important that you leave reviews on NetGalley and don’t have books sat around for months in your to be read queue. Yes us book lovers will have a huge TBR at home that we can neglect but the longer it takes you to review a book on NetGalley the worse it looks. Every time you get a new book it bumps your percentage of reviews down and makes you look worse to any perspective authors or publishing houses that might lend you a book.
It’s important to leave your reviews in a timely fashion and to also leave detailed reviews. It’s easy for anyone to write something basic and a lot of people do that, so put in enough detail to make you stand out against everyone else that is reviewing on NetGalley and you have more chance of being approved for books on NetGalley.
It’s also important to point out that the more books you take the worse it makes you look. It bumps your score down, so if you’re looking to get books on NetGalley, only take a couple at a time. Unless you’re a super fast reader and you’ll have 8 books reviewed in a week and in that case go for it and I envy you!
If you’re looking for examples of leaving amazing reviews, take a look at the post below which has all the information you need to getting approved for books on NetGalley!
Staying Active On NetGalley
It’s important to stay active on NetGalley. The more you review the better. Make sure you get books that you’re interested in and want to read, that way it helps you leave detailed reviews and you’ll have a strong opinion on the book and that’ll show. Staying active and reviewing also means your Goodreads account is getting filled out and more people will follow you on there and that looks amazing to any book owners out there and you might even get ARCs via NetGalley!
If you have any tips for getting approved for books on NetGalley let us all know in the comments! Tips are appreciated and NetGalley is a great place to get free books in exchange for a review! So keep reviewing and let me know what your favourite book you’ve got on NetGalley is!