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Diamante
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Sep 18, 2015 12:18AM
I put my books on Netgalley and it resulted in 3 1 star reviews. Only the netgalley copies were reviewed with such low scores. I was wondering if any other authors had used netgalley and if so, what your opinion was of it. I don't think I'm going to use it for my upcoming book. It seemed to have formatting issues as all of the reviews from there mentioned formatting and editing...I'm really interested in hearing what everyone thinks?
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I've always had decent results with netgalley. My last book got 10 reviews from there, all 4 and 5 stars. As for formatting, I send an epub and the host I was working with uploaded it.They always put their reviews on Goodreads, but rarely on Amazon where I need them.
I had mixed results - three or four good reviews and a couple of stinkers. In general I didn't feel it was worth the (quite high) cost. I did quite like dealing with NetGalley, though - they were helpful and friendly.What I may do, in future, is go in with a NetGalley syndicate and get less exposure but at much less cost.
Mike wrote: "I had mixed results - three or four good reviews and a couple of stinkers. In general I didn't feel it was worth the (quite high) cost. I did quite like dealing with NetGalley, though - they were h..."I use Broad Universe. They charge $25 for members and $45 for nonmembers for one month on NetGalley.
http://broaduniverse.org/reach-book-r...
OK, just took a look. This could be a good group to work with for me too. They are quite right that the vast majority of requests come in the first month, and if you go with NetGalley direct, they don't offer a cheaper one-month option (which might be a mistake).
That (BroadUniverse) looks like a fantastic way to post to Netgalley. I have been looking for a more affordable option for Netgalley listings for months now. This looks perfect! Thanks for the info!
I am interested in getting pre-published reviews to gain blurbs for the cover. Broad Universe sounds good but only for published works. Correct?
W. wrote: "I am interested in getting pre-published reviews to gain blurbs for the cover. Broad Universe sounds good but only for published works. Correct?"My book wasn't published yet when I put it on NetGalley.
Thanks for the info Dotti. I think I'll try BroadUniverse next time. I did use a secondary company to upload to Netgalley and I think they goofed up the formatting for my book somehow. Not quite sure how...I joined Netgalley as a reviewer to try to see how my book showed up but haven't had luck quite yet...
Don't you have to pay a hefty fee to put your book on NetGalley?
Hi Justin, I'm leasing a month's spot from a cooperative of authors, where the group is listed as a "publisher" on NetGalley, even though we're all self published authors. The cost is similar to Broad Universe. I've finally started to get some reviews and am pleased so far, although I do fear I'm essentially giving away free copies of my book - lots of NetGalley reviewers have placed requests for literally thousands of books, and only left feedback for a handful. I already gave away free copies at Amazon and didn't see any reviews or boost in sales from that, so I'm nervous about repeating the same mistake, but so far so good (about 10% of the folks I approved to download the book through NetGalley have already reviewed it, and that's just day 4). Hope that helps.
Oh and Diamante, sorry, just to go back to your original comment about low score reviews - I've had one star ratings too, where no review was left, so I've no idea why the reader didn't like it. I also had the opposite - I had one person leave a very positive comment on NetGalley (it was on the NG site itself, they removed part of their comments before posting on GoodReads) saying they DEVOURED my book in one night and couldn't put it down. It was music to my ears. Then they rated it 3 stars and I thought, hang on, if you loved it that much, why??? I stewed on that for nearly an hour!I haven't had anyone mention formatting issues but I'll post back here if that crops up because it would be interesting to compare experiences. Edited to add:
Someone in my NetGalley coop has had formatting problems when people download from NG to Kindle, but when reviewers download it to their computer, it turned out perfectly. Not sure why. But very frustrating when it results in poor reviews.
I've compiled some best practices for using NetGalley, culled from Broad Universe's 2 years of posting books to NG (disclaimer: I belong to Broad Universe and head the committee that manages BU's NetGalley account). The article is titled, "Making the Most of Your Time on Netgalley" and can be found on the BU website at: http://broaduniverseorg.dreamhosters....Semi-annually BU also compiles and analyzes the statistics on the results of posting books to NetGalley. The 2015 analysis just came out and that can be found here: http://broaduniverseorg.dreamhosters....
And, of course, if you want to post your book to NetGalley via BroadUniverse you can find that application on our website as well :-)
I hope the information is informative and helpful!
I read through net galley ALOT and I review both good and bad. If I don't like it and it is bad enough not to finish I let the publisher know why. I also have rated books very highly. My problem is sometimes getting approved, so if you aren't doing your own approving I would suggest somehow being able to. Also, through net galley the only place to review right away is goodreads until the book comes out so if it is 6 months from now you need to remind the reviewer and include a link to review the book on the site. You want that process easy for the reviewer and having to keep a calendar of when to go back and review books gets tedious. I love my authors/publishers who send me quick email letting me know it has hit the shelves. Lastly, formatting has been a problem but if find that net galley can fix that within hours. I have contacted authors directly when it's too bad and it's a good book. Hope that helps.
