Has anyone ever used Netgalley?

[Judy]

I know it has a steep price in general--$399 for an individual book. But it does seem to be the place for providing ARCs to book reviewers as part of a book launching strategy.

So has anyone used them before? What was the impact?

[C.P.]

Don't you need to have at least five titles to qualify? Or is there an individual rate?

[Judy]

They have an indie author/small publisher rate for a single title--that's the rate I gave. They have a monthly subscription package for publishers who release more than 10 novels per year.

[Lianne]

Penquin Ireland recently sent me a link to a Netgalley review copy of a book that would have interested me, just as soon as I got back from a vacation I was just leaving on the day they sent the link. But darned if I could ever find that link again amidst a thousand unread emails! See my point? Even if you purchase the service, there's no guarantee that a reviewer will jump through all the hoops to download and read the book. On the other hand, a hard copy, sitting on the desk next to me ... much more likely I'll read it.

It costs me $10.70, including production and postage, to send a hard copy of my POD novels or nonfiction to reviewers in the U.S. where I live and work. How many reviewers could I reach with a hard copy for $399?! I don't know that many.

Thanks for helping me think this through, Judy. When I was first approached to review that lost book by Penguin, I was impressed with the Netgalley concept and I, too, considered it for my small publishing house. That was before my recent mailing of POD copies. Not only cheaper, but more likely to be read; harder to lose or ignore, and likely to be shared or passed on down the road, which means yet another reader who might be "the one" who makes it famous. Netgalley isn't a wise choice for my size publishing house.

[Tara]

Can I bump up this question? I'm trying to make a decision on NetGalley myself. I write erotica - and I see a lot of people get ARCs from NetGalley. It's expensive, but seems like an easy way to get a lot of reviews, and then, hopefully, sales. Anyone have an experience using them, and did it give you any sales lift? (In other words, did you make enough on the book to at least make back the cost?)

[╟ ♫ Tima ♪ ╣ ♥]

My opinion might be unwelcome here but, as a frequent NetGalley reviewer, I wanted to chime in response to the comment about NetGalley links getting lost amongst flooded inboxes.

NetGalley occasionally will send an email saying we might be interested in a certain book based on our history. BUT, that is *not* how a majority of users find their ARCs to request. We generally browse genres and peruse the titles in our favorite areas.

I do most of my reviewing from books received from NetGalley and tend to find the quality, of reviews others post, pretty good. Return rate also seems higher, likely because our ability to receive new books is partially factored by our review ratio.

Personally, I've given more Indie authors a chance because of NetGalley versus random Amazon freebies.


:)