It’s me again, the anxious author. Today, I’d like to share my experience with NetGalley to help other indie writers decide if it’s right for them.
Prior to my book launch, I had no online presence and a small advertising budget. After hours of research, I decided to try out NetGalley, even though some author’s reviews of their experiences were not favorable.
For those of you who don’t know, NetGalley is a site where authors pay to upload their eBooks, to get feedback—often on advanced reader copies (ARCs)—from librarians, booksellers, educators, media professionals, and reviewers.
Once I uploaded my book, I had the choice to grant access to requesters on a case-by-case basis or let anyone download it. I chose the former—fearing those who don’t like my genre would download it and give me unfavorable reviews (something I read happens in other authors’ blogs).
As of today, here is a screen shot of my NetGalley feedback:
The positives:
- I’m at a roughly 11% request rate. My understanding is 10% is normal for an author (through unconfirmed research, so I’m pleased to be slightly above that)
- I received only positive feedback on my cover (45 thumbs up)
- My description was the reason most often cited for requesting my book, which makes me believe my synopsis is catching people’s attention
- My limited feedback from all types of reviewers has been positive and my average rating is a 4.6
- I met two fabulous authors through this site (they reviewed my book and I connected with them on Goodreads). Both were instrumental in helping me create my Instagram account, which has been such a wonderful support system
The concerns:
- My feedback ratio is SUPER low at 7%. From what I read, around 30-40% is average. Here comes my anxiety; this makes me worried many reviewers read it and hated it, but refrained from giving me a one or two star review.
Final thoughts: At this point, I hid my title from receiving new requests. I can't justify continuing to approve requests unless something changes with my feedback ratio. In fairness, some of the reviewers have only had the book two weeks, so I am hoping to receive a few more reviews.
I'm giving NetGalley another month before I call it an official success or failure, but honestly, as a debut author with no following, I’m pretty sure I would do it all again even now. Besides giving me a few reviews that were also posted on amazon and goodreads, it’s given me some invaluable feedback and connections I never would have had.
Publishing a book is a bit like ripping out a piece of your heart and sharing it with the world. It's terrifying, but it's also exhilarating. Each day brings its own challenges, but also good, and I am so happy to be on this journey.
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In my next post, I will share my honest feedback on my Goodreads giveaways (spoiler alert: they've done worse than NetGalley in terms of return on investment).
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