Joined NetGalley

I recently joined NetGalley which is a free to join website that helps audiences such as librarians, booksellers, educators, reviewers, blogger or media get their hands on copies of books to read. Obviously each of those categories are going to have a different need going in. I fall into the reviewer and blogger categories.

The first tagline on the website is what drew my attention. “Use NetGalley for free to request, read, and recommend digital review copies before they are published. Your reviews and feedback are essential to publishers, authors, and other readers!” As with many readers I certainly have no shortage of material to read. However, I really liked the idea of getting to read some books before they are published and either give my feedback of what I though they may be able to work on in the future, or just help build the hype train for a book that I may have really enjoyed as they prepare to release it.

Obviously this site can be beneficial to readers but also publishers and authors depending on which side of the story you are on.

As I was new to NetGalley, I immediate began browsing the “Read Now” books to see what looked interesting that was ready for immediate download. A couple of tips I would give from my initial experience is, look over the selections a bit before diving right into adding it to your shelf. The first title I grabbed ended up being a graphic novel. I wasn’t disappointed as it was a really good selection. But if you aren’t expecting that and are suddenly faced with a short 62 graphic novel someone might be disappointed.

Another tip is to check what format you are getting. If you don’t like reading on Kindle you might not want to get the .mobi format titles. Finally, watch the dates your feedback is due. I ended up having to shuffle around the remaining four titles I picked up to spread them out enough but still meet the deadlines.

At this point I’ve finished my first two selections and enjoyed one and was a bit shocked on the second. I’ll have reviews for both of them coming to the blog here soon.

All in all, I am very excited to find and mix in some selections from NetGalley to see if I find some newer authors I really enjoy and help build some hype for them going forward!