NetGalley is a website where reviewers, librarians, and other book professionals can access early copies of books, for free.
You create an account, fill in your profile and can begin requesting books.
You’re not guaranteed to be approved for a book (although a great place to start is the “Read Now” section, which are titles available immediately).
If you are approved, you are sent a digital copy of the book. Most are in eBook form but they do have audiobooks as well. You can link your eReader account to have them sent there.
Once you read the book, you provide feedback on the site. If you review other places, you can put links there, which is helpful to the publishers and marketing teams.
A few things to note and some tips.
- Advance Reader Copies (ARC) aren’t finally proofed. There may be formatting errors as well as slight grammar mistakes. I don’t usually make a note of them in my review unless they’re especially egregious.
- Don’t request too much too fast. You may get approved for too many and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Take your time and only request what you can reasonably read.
- Reviewers are given a “score.” Basically, how many books have you reviewed out of all the ones you’ve been approved for. The higher the ratio the better. I usually sit at about 65%, although I hope to get it higher. The recommended percentage is 80%.
- I always try to review before publication day. This is something that’s important to me, and it helps me not stay behind. I also think that the publishers like this as well. Part of why they send out these galleys is to build hype, and that matters much less if the book is already out.
- Don’t feel an obligation to finish a book. I try to get to at least 30%, or the inciting incident. I still write a review explaining why I put it down. I like to think this is useful information for the publishers.
- If you post about a book you received for free, add a disclaimer. Mine is “Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.”
Let me know if you have any other questions or comments and I’d be happy to answer.
Meg Loves Words 