N S Ford

Tag: NetGalley

  • 100 reads for NetGalley!

    I have now read and reviewed 100 books for NetGalley. In case you’ve not heard of NetGalley, it’s a website where reviewers can request advance copies of books from the publishers. My statistics are: 100 with Feedback Sent, 15 ‘Will Not Give Feedback’ (i.e. I abandoned reading them because I either really disliked them or there were format problems) and 7 Declined Requests (i.e. the publisher did not want me to have a copy for whatever reason). These are pretty good stats! If my main source of books was NetGalley, I would probably have read 500 by now, but I limit the number I request because I mainly get new books from the library.

    I enjoy reading books for NetGalley because I like the variety of genres and publishers and how easy it is to download books and give feedback. Sometimes I read reviews on there and there are some excellent reviewers. Some I feel are not really into the spirit of it, with a 1 sentence review or simply copying over a summary of the book.

    Here are my top 10 books which I have read for NetGalley, from 2018 until the present:

    In Miniature by Simon Garfield

    The End of the Road by Jack Cooke

    Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

    Out There by Kate Folk

    Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman

    The Image of Her by Sonia Velton

    Simply Vegan Baking by Freya Cox (one of the cakes I made is shown below)

    The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

    Nightshade Revenge by Anthony Horowitz

    We Can Be Heroes by Paul Burston

    Book cover of 'We Can Be Heroes' by Paul Burston

  • The pros and cons of NetGalley

    NetGalley is a website where reviewers can request advance copies of books. I have been a member for about two years. I’m no expert on NetGalley but I have enough experience to sum up the advantages and disadvantages of this resource.

    Pros:

    • Access to new and upcoming titles for free, which allows you to read the latest work from some of your favourite authors, genres and publishers, as well as to discover new ones.
    • In my experience, most requests are likely to be approved by the publishers. After all, the more reviews they get, the better.
    • You can see what other reviewers thought of a book, which can help you decide whether to request it, and of course the reviews you write will help others decide in turn.
    • For every milestone, you get NetGalley ‘badges’ which you can display on your blog by copying and pasting the image code they give you.
    • There are lots of publishers on there. Many of them regularly update their titles, so if you check back every month or so, there will be something new and interesting.
    • Once a publisher has approved your request, it’s easy to download the title from your ‘shelf’ on your NetGalley profile. I find that it sometimes takes a few minutes to appear in my Kindle library.

    Cons:

    • Many of the advance copies are uncorrected proofs. This means they can have a weird format, typos and missing text. It can make for an annoying reading experience.
    • If a publisher rejects your request, there is no reason given and it’s hard not to take it personally. I have only had three requests rejected so far.
    • There is nothing to stop you going on a request frenzy and ending up with too many books to review, all with publication dates close together.
    • You have to give a star rating when submitting a review. I don’t do star ratings on my blog as I find them problematic.
    • Some titles are there for you to browse but when you attempt to request them, you are told that they are not available in your country.
    • I seem to remember that it was a little confusing and time-consuming to join NetGalley and set up a profile. It was worthwhile, however.

     

    Here are some of the best books I’ve read via NetGalley:

    In Miniature by Simon Garfield

    Critical by Matt Morgan

    Who Did You Tell? by Lesley Kara

    Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke

     

    Some I had mixed feelings about:

    Sweet Dreams by Dylan Jones

    Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

    The Switch by Beth O’Leary

    Five Days of Fog by Anna Freeman

     

    And here are the only ones I thoroughly disliked:

    The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray

    The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

     

    In summary, NetGalley is a very good source of new books for reviewers but self-restraint is required to avoid requesting more books than you can manage.