I’ve been using NetGalley as an Author for three weeks. In this post, I will share not only my experience and stats but also break down some tips and tricks that I use to help you optimize your time on the platform.
My book, “Mortal Tether,” has eight days left on NetGalley. If you would like to download this book as an ARC, you can request it here: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/305733
How Many ARC Readers / Reviews Do I Have on Netgalley?
As of this writing, 97 people have my ARC on NetGalley, which I find really exciting. 11 people so far have left feedback, but I know that many are still reading the book.
The demographics of people who requested my book:
- 8 booksellers
- 11 teachers
- 19 librarians
- 59 consumers
Netgalley Request Stats
On your Netgalley title feedback page, you’ll get information about why people requested your book. Of my 85 respondents, 36% requested because of my description. This shows that the work I’ve put into crafting my blurb over and over again paid off (I can make another blog post about that.) Coming in second is my book cover at 29%. I redid my book cover 7 times, so it appears that last time really paid off as well! My book title came in third place at 20% followed by me as an author at 10% and buzz I’ve been able to generate about the book at 5%.
I’m really happy with these figures and feel this is the best case scenario for me.
Pro-tip: Editing your approval email
In your Netgalley publisher dashboard, you’ll see a menu that looks like this. Click “edit approval email” and it will take you to the following page.
I edited the acceptance email, so when somebody was approved to download my book, they were also provided with a link to a page on my website purpose built for book bloggers to be able to easily access photos of my book they can use on their websites. It includes custom Twitter headers, Instagram posts, and banners. This makes it easy for reviewers to have visual content to include with their review. (View that page here.)
How Many Readers Can you Expect?
Not all the people who requested my book did so just because I put it on NetGalley.
I shouted out my Netgalley listing on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X. I also added it to my Link Tree.
NetGalley has many books, and your book is only on the top row for a few days. So, it’s crucial to promote it yourself. The bulk of my requests came in at the very beginning, and then it fell off sharply, so I had to push it out again continually to make sure people knew.
At this point three weeks in, I am seeing one or two requests every couple days. I expect if I extended my time on the platform, those numbers would continue to decline.
Does Genre Impact Results?
My book is YA and dystopian science fiction, and that genre may have had an impact on how many requests I received. If you write a memoir or picture book, you may have results different from mine – so it’s important to take that into account.
UPDATE: I spoke with an Adult Horror author who had a 2 month slot on Netgalley. During that time, they ran one genre-specific promo, but didn’t feel it was effective due to the timing of falling just after Halloween. Their total requests were 125, 100 of which were approved.
optimizing your title's page
Once you start getting some reviews in, you can choose to feature reviews on your public Netgalley profile. This is an excellent way to encourage Netgalley users who may be browsing the site to decide to hit that “request” button! Don’t skip this step!
When you click on the reviews tab, hit the blue plus arrow to the right of the review you want to feature. It’s that simple!
How Much Does Netgalley Cost?
I joined a Netgalley Co-op to help save on costs. If you join Netgalley with your own account, a 6 month listing can run you $550.
By joining a co-op, you share your costs with other authors. For one month, my total was $52.50.
Ultimately, some of my ARC readers indicated they would buy the books for themselves or for a family member. The librarians and booksellers who responded also indicated they would buy the book for their library/bookstore. So, there may be a possibility I might break even with these sales.
Would I use Netgalley again?
I would definitely use Netgalley again… in the co-op. For me, with the sharp drop off in requests, it wouldn’t be worth it to me to run a six month campaign. However, running a one month campaign as part of a co-op was very beneficial in my experience.
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