If you’ve been blogging about books for a while, you’ve probably come across mention of NetGalley. You may even use it, or choose not to. Since this discussion immediately follows my State of the ARC post, I figured it was time to talk about NetGalley.
NetGalley was the primary means for obtaining upcoming books for me when I started blogging. I’d use the library for all of my other reading, but I didn’t have a large enough following or consistent presence for publishers to start sending me physical copies. So I started using NetGalley and quickly discovered that I had just hit the jackpot. I browsed all of the offerings and requested way too many books. I then had to deal with keeping track of all of them, and to make sure I wasn’t requesting more than I could or wanted to read.
Every month, I promise myself I won’t request any NetGalley reads until I make more progress on the ones I already have. But every month, I lie to myself and request more than I can actually handle. Initially, I got a lot of rejections. But I’ve come a long way since 2019, and tend to get approved for a lot more books than get rejected. That doesn’t mean that a rejection is any less of a heartbreak, especially if it’s a book I really wanted access to. I’ve also learned how to keep track of the ARC I need to read on, yes, a spreadsheet.
I’ve gotten to the point where it’s just part of being me, where I’ll request more books than I can feasibly read and constantly feel like I am racing against the clock. Days where I’m not thrilled about an offering (or lack of offering sometimes) are easier for me to say that I might move away from using NetGalley, but I do really like the format and the offerings.
Over the years, I’ve stuck with NetGalley, even as I’m at a point where publishers send me physical copies of books. I like the way that there are audiobooks to request, and it works very well for me. One thing that I don’t love about NetGalley is having to use the app to read audiobooks and ebooks, and they disappear after the file is archived on NetGalley. Personally, I like having the copy to refer back to in the future, like the way the ebooks stay on my kindle when I’m reading on that device.
There are a lot of feelings that people have about NetGalley and I want to hear yours!
Categories: Sunday Bookish Discussion
Leah's Books 
I think things have changed regarding getting physical copies since you first started. I’ve not been book blogging very long but am able to get physical copies through promotion companies like JustRead. It does help to have an active Instagram account. What’s nice about NetGalley though is it’s low pressure. I belong to an ARC team now and the author wants us to post something on Instagram twice a week for a month. It’s not going to happen with me. It’s not authentic so I’ll just post when it’s natural for me to do so. With NetGalley, I’ll get to it when I get to it as long as I’ve downloaded the book.
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I haven’t heard of JustRead. But I do like the lack of pressure to post on social media. That’s why I stopped doing blog tours.
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Book tours don’t bother me. Launch teams are ridiculous though. I think it’s audacious the amount of work authors ask/expect readers to do. No thanks!
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I think I just struggle a lot with expecting too much from myself, especially around deadlines. And launch teams are super busy!
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My main issue with NetGalley remains that when you “request” and/or “wish” for a galley and it becomes available as “read now,” you cannot access the galley because your request is “still pending.” They need to fix that issue.
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Yes! That is the worst, and needs to be changed immediately.
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At this point, idk if my netgalley account is still open lol— it got very overwhelming. There was too much power in my hands and I was just requesting away. I may come back to it but for now I’ll leave it where it is 🙂
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I can absolutely identify with that!
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I’ve only recently recreated a NG account (I had one ages and ages ago, when I had my first book blog in the early 2010s), and am really limiting myself to what I request … I don’t want to start feeling that pressure that makes reading less fun, and I also don’t want to read too far in advance and lose some of the anticipation, if that makes sense. I know it’s way too easy to get sucked into everything “coming out in X months” and forget about what came out today/last month/last year/etc. So I’m trying to balance, and not go too wild. It is excellent for building my general TBR though 😀
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I hope your new NG account goes better than the last one did. It’s so hard to avoid the pitfall of thinking that it won’t be a problem since it isn’t coming out yet, and then all of a sudden I’m swamped with books 🤣
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