Hello lovelies ! It has been a while since I last posted a discussion post, right ? Today I want to talk about Netgalley.
Netgalley is a website where book reviewers can read books before their official releases. They are usually called ARCs (for Advanced Reader Copies) or galleys.
Until a few weeks ago, I haven’t been interested in this website. Why ? Because you have a time limit to read these books. And I really don’t enjoy reading with a deadline. It’s feeling pressure over something that has always been a pleasure.
I think blogging is already enough pressure in itself haha ! I know you know what I mean !
Moreover, I am contacted via my blog or my bookstagram account so no need for another way, right ?
But lately, I’m changing my mind. I mean, I still don’t like feeling pressured while reading. But I now think that Netgalley can be really useful. It’s useful to us, bloggers, but also to publishing houses. It’s easier for them to contact book reviewers.
And it puts in light books that I wouldn’t have heard otherwise so that a plus !
But now that I have an account, I am struggling with it haha ! It’s not that easy to use !
flowlessbooks.wordpress.com 
I download the Kindle version of the ARC so it doesn’t expire. Then I try and read by the pub date but sometimes, okay most of the time, that doesn’t happen. My shelf there is over flowing with books I’ve been approved for and my percentage is only 47%. I’m also auto approved by 11 publishers.
Good luck, I hope my info shows you that you don’t need to sweat the dates!!
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I use NetGalley. I like it, but don’t always understand their approval/disapproval decisions.
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I use NetGalley and I love being able to get more books this way, but just like Deanna said above, I don’t understand their approval or disapproval decisions at times either. Still, I think it’s a great way for us international bloggers to get ARCs, ahah 🙂
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I use Netgalley and I stopped using it for a while and came back to it recently. (Never shut down my account just didn’t go on) I also don’t always understand their approval decisions sometimes but I guess it will probably be on your reviewing percentage and if you do have your blog on their then your blog following or type of reviews?
I always download them to my kindle. My biggest advice is don’t over request and bog yourself down. It’s so easy to get caught up in requesting until you then suddenly have 10 books you need to read and review.
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I love NetGalley but it requires some discipline to use it right, haha!
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I’ve yet to fully utilise NetGalley as well. Like you, I hate the pressure of having to read the book by a certain deadline, especially with how unpredictable my mood reading tendencies can be. Plus at the moment I don’t have the patience to sit and try and understand how to navigate the site haha.
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I love Netgalley – its how I get 90% of my ARCs, but it is a dangerous, dangerous thing sometimes. I work very well with deadlines, but sometimes I expect to not get approved for most of the things I request, and suddenly (like right now) I have 21 ARCs in the queue and it’s terrifying. It’s also great for finding new things that you might not have seen otherwise, particularly from smaller presses.
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