Publication Dates, ARCs and NetGalley ~Do I have to post by publication?~When is the best time to talk turn in our EGalleys?

Posted on March 27, 2018 by

72 Comments

Hey my fellow book enthusiasts!😍 I hope everyone is having a fantastic day and gets to snuggle up with an awesome read today!

I know it’s a Tuesday and you might be thinking “Not her rambling, I’m too exhausted” but “We got this!” We are bad mama jammas and whatever is going on in your life I’m sprinkling some glitter on you because I am just majestic like that! You guys have seen those cute fat fluffy unicorns that are the trend with their majestic ways. That’s it, that’s me! Well if course to make it more like me it better have a supreme pizza 🍕, an assload of books, and is majorly behind on her reviews but you get the picture!😍 No doubt about it, I’m majestic. Now you may think what does that have to do with NetGalley and my ARCs? Well honestly, not a damn thing. I have issues and I’m very random. I frequently burst out with random rambles but my therapist encouraged me to “let it all hang out on my blog or wherever, balls and all!”. Well… she said just be who you are if they don’t like it that’s okay but just be all of you unapologetically but potato/po-TOT-toe. So that’s me a fat fluffy unicorn who’s going to tell you about ARCs, NetGalley and Publication Dates. I completely understand if you don’t trust my credibility and want to exit my page! It’s all good but the information I am sharing comes from personal experience and publishers that I have asked directly about these sort of things! The publicists professionals asked me not to quote them directly because all publishers are different but they said if anyone has any questions they can message me and I can give you their info for any further questions. I talked to professionals with different questions at Penguin Random House and Kensington Books. I am posting based on the information they provided me. Anything that is a mistake is from my translation and not on the publishers I have asked. The choice is yours but I am going to stop running my mouth and get to the topic at hand.

What is NetGalley?

When I was new to blogging and to NetGalley, I had no idea what I was doing. To be honest I’m some ways I still don’t but to make things better I have lots of Books on it! Anyways I had so many questions about NetGalley what is it first of all and I kept seeing everyone post these “Thank yous” to NetGalley so it had to be something good.

NetGalley is a place where you can get free books but you are expected to give an honest review for said books. Everything is electronic at NetGalley. So you can read on your phone, kindle, other ereaders, tablets, and computers. Unfortunately, they do not directly offer print copies but from my experience when I started NetGalley and turning in EGalleys it opened up a lot of opportunities for me. After five months of having NetGalley, I have publishers write me personal e-mails and offer print copies. I also can get the publishers info and send them requests and they send me print copies by seeing how reliable I am on NetGalley.

For Beginners

  • You can join NetGalley when your blog has just started.
  • You are also able to join NetGalley as a reviewer on Goodreads or another site only. To be honest, you must likely won’t get approved for big titles unless you have shown that you have high credibility, high following or what not though.
  • Even as a new blogger or a Goodreads/other Reviewer you have access to the Read Now copies! There is a large selection of “Read Now” books and there not just unknown or books people haven’t heard of.
  • I would say currently 1/4 of my NetGalley books are from the “Read Now” selection. So it’s a way to get in the front door and get free ebooks. This also gives you the possible opportunity to meet publishers, authors and/or other book related shenanigans.
  • The”Archive Date” is when the publishers take down the title so you are not able to download the title anymore.

  • I choose the Kindle option everytime because I don’t have to worry about the title expiring. I found that when I used an epub or pdf format with Aikido that the title was only available for about 60 days.
  • If you use other formats besides Kindle, I would suggest going back to the title on NetGalley and re-downloading it before the archive date.
  • With kindle format you can have the title in your cloud forever. You can also use Text to Speech! Which I love because it helps me read along with my mild dyslexia and if I need to do something I can play the audio and listen to the TTS while I do daily activities. It’s a very handy thing for people with reading disabilities as well and there is no extra charge like with most audiobooks. The only difference I found is that every once in awhile the digitised voice may say some words funny but overall I love having the kindle format and you can have it on about any device.

  • If you would like to use kindle format on any device you have then you can download it for free here:

Amazon.com – Read eBooks using the FREE Kindle Reading App on Most Devices

For my awesome U.K. friends visit: Amazon Kindle App Download For U.K.

*Anyone who is outside U.S. or U.K. can click on any of the links and select their country because I don’t have accounts yet for other locations yet but you are still awesome and count the same!😊*

I have to tell you guys that if you download the kindle app using my link in the pic it helps me as an amazon affiliate but it costs you zip! So it’s a win-win!

  • I also have to share because I love free stuff that kindle has thousands of free book offers and you can find new ones daily! I have like 800 titles in my library that are free from kindle! Woot! Sorry back to the topic at hand. I get carried away about free stuff. If its free than its for me! Back to NetGalley!
  • Your profile is very important on NetGalley. You would want to list info about you, info about being a professional reader/whatever you do that benefits the reading community (book reviewer, beta reader, media professional, bookseller, educator, librarian and/or associates/assistants)😁📚❤ and your stats.
  • If your stats are low and you are new, you can show off other good qualities you posess like examples of your book reviews, lists of your different social medias and share about your passion of reading.
  • Where it says company name on your profile, do not leave that section blank! For some reason this gets many bloggers turned down! Your company can be your blog name for example mine says: Touch My Spine Book Reviews. I also added the library I volunteer at and the bookstore I work/volunteer at.
  • If you are a part of any associations, it’s very beneficial to add that as well.

There is other questions I have asked publishers here and there over the last two months. The biggest questions that I faced as a newbie and other friends/new bloggers have asked me is..

  • When is the best time to turn in our eGalley review for NetGalley?
  • Do we need to turn our NetGalley reviews in before publication?
  • Is our ratio that important? Will it effect our chance at getting reviews?

So here’s the answers that I received when asking different publishers such as Penguin Random House, Kensington and etc., asking on the NetGalley blog and putting all the information together.

  • When to turn in your review depends on the publisher’s preference. If you go to the publisher’s page on NetGalley, you will see a preference section when you click it sometimes it will say the approval preferences and when they expect reviews to be turned in. Go by those guidelines when possible.
  • If the publisher’s page does not have their preferences listed you can contact them by looking up the company and you would want to go to the publicity contact for that company. It would look like publicity@entangledteen.com as an example.
  • When you cannot and/or do not wish to contact the publisher, from the advice I was given it looks good to post your review around a week or even within the month before the publication date. Anytime before publication or within a week after the publication is the best but if not just do the best you can!😁
  • Publishing companies understand shit happens. Now they didn’t say it like that but a publisher completely knows that sometimes people are not able to review the book or that their review is late. It’s Life and Shit Happens! We all have our lives to live outside of the blogosphere.
  • So try not to stress yourself if you can’t meet publication and your worries about your reviews are piling up. I know, I know easier said than done! I am guilty of stressing about this myself quite frequently but I want you to remember this whole reviewing books and book blogging shenanigans is supposed to be fun! “Don’t stress, you got this!” Remember you are a Book Reviewing Rock Star!❤😁📚🤓💃
  • The preferred ratio for NetGalley is 80%. You want to strive for this ratio but if you are not there don’t fret you can still get good titles at a low percentage. Like I said before, it all depends on the publishers. I have a 60% ratio and I get approved 9 out of 10 times. I’m not saying “screw it, it’s not important”. What I mean is that whatever your ratio may be there is going to be opportunities out there for you. If you don’t want to deal with requests in the beginning, there is always the “Read Now” selection which is pretty darn good at times and I usually can find a few great titles in the “Read Now” section at a given time.😁💯📚

a48d7b8c27fb287436657645121953e2--reading-is-sexy-modern-pin-up1118283092.jpg

*Couldn’t help myself, I had to add a sexy lady reading to this post!😂*

My Advice About NetGalley to New Users

  • I know it’s tempting but when you first start out try not to request 30 titles because you are scared you will be denied and are tempted by all the cover porn and opportunity of free books. I know it’s pretty hard to resist. I did this and ended up with 28 books as a new user with publication dates that are not too far away!😨 Many of users have told me they made the same mistake.
  • Try to avoid the addiction of clicking request too much!! I know it’s so hard! I will admit, I am a Netgalley addict and man it can be overwhelming!

  • Try and be mindful of the publishing dates and see what best suits your schedule but don’t worry if it’s too much. As I said earlier, all of us are behind at one point or another and publishers understand we are not perfect.

  • You can turn your reviews into the publisher through NetGalley and then send all your links later when you get the time or when you schedule your reviews to go live. The reason I mention this is I got this advice from the NetGalley blog and found it really helpful. Sometimes we are freaking because the publication date is around the corner and you don’t want to post all your reviews at once. Well, you can post your reviews on NetGalley and come back and edit your feedback to add your links later at a better date for you.
  • Do not stress about the publication dates so much! We can’t be perfect all the time and many authors understand and want there coverage to be spread out. You can always contact them to let them know it will be late if that makes you less stressed!😁
  • What counts the most is regardless if your review is late, early or whenever, is that the review is turned in. I was told that when the publicity contacts are viewi ng your profile they just want to see that you are consistently turning them in.
  • As long as you are reading and turning in your reviews, everything will be fine and handy dandy!
  • You got this and I love seeing everyone’s NetGalley reviews!

Sorry about all that rambling and hope that I made sense! I missed you guys and I am going to try and be more active! This post was mostly done sitting in my drafts and I have been fretting about my reviews so I figured I should post it and take my own advice! I also have to mention as a new member to NetGalley that I wouldn’t have made it through without the help of my bloggy friends Kim and Carrie’s help! They are the bee’s knees and gave me so much support and advice as well!

~Do you have any advice as a veteran user that you would like to add to new NetGalley users or new bloggers who are interested in eARCs? Was this post helpful to any? Do you love NetGalley? Are you interested in joining?

Thanks for reading my post and I look forward to your feedback! I lost someone close to me and have been grieving but I am working on catching up with all my bloggy friends! You guys are the BEST and have missed yoyr faces!

Category: amazon, amazon kindle, ARC, authors, bibliophile, blessed, blogger babes, book, book blogger, book lover, book nerd, book nerdigans, book obsessed, book reviewer, book-blog, bookish, egalley, free ebooks, free kindle books, I follow back, kindle, library, literature, netgalley, new books, new releases, professional reader, sales, synopsis, thankful, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

72 Comments on “Publication Dates, ARCs and NetGalley ~Do I have to post by publication?~When is the best time to talk turn in our EGalleys?”

  1. Thanks for all the background info, Dani. I am (not ) ashamed to admit that I kept returning to the sexy lady in the stockings, reading a book and playing with herself. (WOW, that was a corker!)
    As you know me well, that is no surprise at all. But I did also read the text (at least up to her picture) honest! 🙂 🙂 xx
    Best wishes, Pete. x

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  2. I KNOW you put that picture there just for Pete!
    On reading the whole article (and moving swiftly past the porno totty) I have come to the conclusion that reviewing books for Netgalley is a stressful full time job that only mad people take on. 😀 Good luck little munchkin! 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

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  3. I am so glad someone did a blog on NetGalley that explains it. I wish I had something like this when I discovered them a couple of years ago. I try to stick to publication dates and if I miss them (which I do constantly), I send a note in explaining why and when they should expect the review. I have gotten nothing but great feedback from the publishers/authors about my level of communication.

    Also, another thing, make sure to put your blog’s stats in your biography. Unique visitors, how many posts published that month and how many followers you have. Try to update once a month. The publishers do look at that too :).

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. Hi Dani!! thank you for all the awesome advice! I’ve been eagerly waiting for this post, hahaha!! I was quite anxious at the beginning when I started using NetGalley and felt so horrible every time I got a “declined” email (luckily they don’t send those anymore). Guess what? I’m also a fluffy unicorn who just had yummy pizza \o/ although lately I have been called a slothicorn because I sleep so much hahaha!! Hugs sweetie

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Hey Dani, really sorry to hear that you’ve lost someone recently. Hope you’re OK sweetie *hugs*

    This is a really good, clear post – it took me a while to get to grips with Netgalley, I wish you’d been around to explain it when I first started blogging! X

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. This was such a helpful post, Dani! Thanks so much for posting it! I haven’t tried NetGalley yet, but I’ve thought about it and been baffled by it, and I might have to try it soon!

    Liked by 1 person

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  9. I love your posts so much, Dani!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have been so curious about NetGalley, but also somewhat confused by it as well, so this was so helpful!!! Definitely good to know that I shouldn’t go crazy with requests if/when I do give it a try! haha!

    I am sorry to hear that you lost someone recently. I am sending all the comforting, loving vibes to you. ❤ You are the best fluffy unicorn ever!!

    Liked by 1 person

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  11. Love this post! Definitely has some good info for people who aren’t used or are simply new to NetGalley!
    One thing I figured works brilliantly for myself is keeping a list of when my ARC’s are being published. I simply keep it on my NG profile because it works best for me – and publishers can also see that, even when my ratio is low, I can still handle the reading “load” if the book I requested is due for August and my current open requests are for May / June / July for example. It also helps ME to keep track and see whether or not I could handle adding one more in the mix or not. 😛

    Like

    Reply

    • That’s some awesome advice Ms. Munchies!😍 I thought my post was lame even though I asked different people the questions. I had it sitting in drafts for a couple months! I am so cuckoo! Thanks so much for sharing your feedback with us and that’s a great idea to keep a list on your profile. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing, lovely.😍🤗❤

      Liked by 1 person

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    • Thanks so much, Inge!!!❤❤❤ I am so glad you think so! That means so much coming from a talented blogger like yourself!😁 I am still working on the whole trial and error thing that’s why I started asking people because other newer bloggers started asking me questions and I honestly didn’t know what I was doing!😂😂😂

      Liked by 1 person

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  14. Great advice! I was sadly one of those who went click happy when I first signed up to Netgalley… I’m STILL getting approved for books and I haven’t requested any for a couple of months because I was getting behind. Lol!! So, definitely good 1st time advice to not go crazy!! Lol!

    Liked by 1 person

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  17. Hi Dani! Thanks so much for posting this..I have a love/hate relationship with Netgalley and this definitely helps sway more to the love category! Question-do you ever have galleys with red font (kindle app on iPad) and if so, do you know if it means anything? Thanks so much!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I don’t have the kindle app for the IPad and haven’t heard of that hon! That’s something I would like to know too if I was you. Hmmm.. Do you have a highlighting option because on my kindle I have certain texts underlined because they are texts that have been highlighted by other users or it could be quotes? But those are all guesses. I can try to ask around and see. That is interesting indeed!😊 Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback.😀 I am so glad you liked my post and thank you for stopping by.😊

      Liked by 1 person

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  18. This was really useful! I have used Netgalley since the end of last year and I admit I knew very little about some of the stuff you covered here, so thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

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  19. I love + appreciate this post, so much. I joined NetGalley before I even started my blog and did the thing where I requested many books, way too fast. I have felt bad about not getting to all of them before their publication deadlines, but I’ve definitely learned from the experience. Thank you for this post and explaining more of the ins and outs of NetGalley!

    – Alexis

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thanks so much, Alexis!!!!😍 It makes my day that you love this post! Yay! I just wanted to let fellow book lovers know because so many of us get too excited by so many BOOKS for free!!!😵 I’m so glad you think this is a good post! Woot! I appreciate you stopping by and on on my blog! Yay!😍💖💙💛💜

      Liked by 1 person

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Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆

Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆

Hey everyone! I'm Dani and I am a free spirited bibliophile!💖 I love meeting new people and being a part of this community. I have met the best people in the world being a book blogger and love them as family.😍 Here's some words that describe who I am in a nutshell: Book Nerd Girl, Custom-Made, Hippie Chick, Empath, Open Minded, Spiritual(but doesn't push), A Random Rambler, Loves Humor, Pansexual, Poly, Animal Lover, Book Molester, Life Coach, Psychology Major, Dyslexic That Was Self Taught With Books, Inspiring Author, Loves Others to a Fault!💖😍 The only thing I ask for on this blog is respect! Craziness and dirty joking welcome.💯 Discrimination and disrespectful comments can hit their asses with the door!💯📌📝

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