NetGalley Badges

 

I thought I should have a page telling a little bit about an awesome site called NetGalley which is where I get a lot of the e-books I read. The idea is to read them ahead of when they come out, but sometimes I do get a little behind when craft show season rolls around in the fall. I probably should control myself a little better in getting books from them during the summer, but it’s so tempting because I’m auto-approved by a few publishers.

You don’t need a blog to be a reviewing member, but I thought that it might have helped my cause in getting the auto-approvals (I didn’t know they even existed till they appeared, pretty cool!).

Reviewers do have to make a disclaimer when they post their reviews, (I usually do Goodreads and Amazon, which is the minimal requirement) stating that they received the book from the publisher via NetGalley. I always add that my opinions are my own.

Amazon is a little tricky these days. I wasn’t sure if they were tossing/taking down people’s reviews because they flagged the words NetGalley or ARC, but I still see reviews with that in them. I have had my reviews removed from Amazon for no apparent reason. It probably has to do with a computer algorithm and no human involvement. I’ve gotten them back each time, but it took a lot of persistence and online chats.

What I try to do is have a decent amount of verified reviews, meaning that I bought the book (or got it free, it still shows as a purchase). Amazon has a rule that people have to spend $50 per year to be able to leave reviews. Um, for me that’s not too hard, although in the beginning of the year I’ll have to watch it and just not post reviews until I’ve spent that amount. Yep, that happened to me last year. I hadn’t spent $50 yet–that was the first time they took them down. At one point, (I can’t find this rule now) Amazon said that during the course of a week (Sunday to Sunday) that five non-verified reviews were acceptable. It’s a little hard to limit to that amount sometimes when I’m power-reading and trying to get through some ARCs, but it’s doable. That’s when the quickie reads that I get for .99 or free come in very handy! But I read those other times too, since they contain hidden gems sometimes.

Anyway, I enjoy getting books from NetGalley, because let’s face it, it’s just fun to read something by a favorite author before anyone else does!