Five Reasons Why I Love Netgalley!

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be doing a discussion post of sorts. Basically, I just love Netgalley and I want everyone to know! So down below are a few of the reasons that I adore the site!

1) It's approachable to small bloggers!

This might be one of my favorite things about Netgalley. When I was new to blogging, I wanted to get arcs, but didn't think I would be able to because I hadn't had experience and had a smaller follower base. But Netgalley has "Read Now" options! Any user can read those books, and it allowed me to have some experience and gain confidence! After reading some "read now" books, I felt like I knew what I was doing.

2) It's easy to navigate

Let me tell you, when I first started Netgalley, I was confused on their navigation. But after a week, I had it down pat. There's four main tabs on Netgalley: Dashboard, Your Shelf, Find Titles, and Browse Publishers. The last two are pretty self-explanatory, and allow you to pinpoint specific titles and publishers. The dashboard shows titles the blogger might be interested in, as well as favorite publishers and a space to review recently approved titles. There is also this section that gives you tips on what to do before requesting. Here is the link, it's super helpful! For me, I've never truly understood how to navigate Edelweiss+, so I normally never visit the site.  

 

 3) You can prioritize publishers and know their approval preferences

This is a technical part of Netgalley that I really love. Whenever I am interested in a book, I always check who the publisher is and look at their approval preferences. This has saved me from requesting books I know I would be denied. Most publishers I've seen just say that the acceptance is by a case by case basis, but some have minimum number of followers, page views, etc. that they look for. Knowing this allows me to know which publishers I won't be accepted by, and it allows me to focus on other releases that I might have an opportunity to read. As I got used to Netgalley, I started finding publishers that time and time again put out books that I enjoyed or loved! Netgalley has the option to "love" a publisher (you press a heart button). This allows the user to quickly navigate to that publishers page and see what is new. I have some favorites (Sourcebooks, Simon & Schuster Children's, and Entangled to name a few) and the favorite button allows me to easily navigate to their pages!

4) Getting books (duh!)

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. When I first joined Netgalley, I read books that were available to anyone or were from smaller publishers. Even though I might not have heard about these books before hand, it was amazing to think "I got this book...for free!" Of course, it's in exchange for a review and opinions, but I would be doing that anyway! Now that I've spent more time on Netgalley, I'm starting to get approved for books that I am genuinely excited for, and it has made me fall in love with the site even more. I'm able to read some of my most anticipated books through Netgalley before the release date. If that isn't any book-lovers dream, I don't know what is! 

5) A sense of validation

Now this might be a bit vain in comparison to the others, but it is one of the main reasons I love Netgalley. I've been a member for a while now, and I'll admit I didn't get the appeal of Netgalley for quite some time. But now that I'm in college, most of what I read is from Netgalley. I've been blessed to be auto-proved by Simon & Schuster Children's publishing, and getting that notification was so validating. I love blogging, but I don't have anyone saying "You are good. You are improving, and your blog is worthwhile." So getting auto-approved by publishers, or getting approved for an ARC that I didn't think I would get, makes me feel like someone notices all the work I've put into this blog.

So, those are some reasons that I love Netgalley! Do you like Netgalley, or do you prefer another site?

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!