Let’s talk about anything bookish!
For those of us who review books, we are very familiar with Netgalley. What struck me one day was a conversation I had with one of my friends who said that her Netgalley feedback ration was soooo low, and how could she raise it higher?
On Netgalley, the suggested feedback ration is 80% or higher. This means that you get a higher chance of getting approved when you request galleys. This also means that you have sent reviews/feedback on the books that you have requested.
My current Netgalley feedback ratio is 86%. But it wasn’t always that way! At one point, I was really struggling. And even if I mostly got approved whenever I requested but I hated looking at the 40% ratio.
But how do you even get it at 86%? Here is my secret!
Limit your requests
I used to request multiple galleys at the same time. So I would request between 3-5 at a time and I usually don’t finish reading them in time. I am a mood reader so requesting a lot of books at one time does not work for me.
I have learned to limit the galleys I request. I only request galleys that I know I can read. This means that I don’t visit Netgalley all the time. I usually visit once every other week to see if there are any titles that interest me.
If you see the number of galleys that I got approved, you will see that it isn’t a high number. This is because I was able to reign in my requesting fairly early and learned quickly that I shouldn’t request a lot. So in about 4 years, I have only requested that much.
Review even if you didn’t like the book
One of the misconceptions is that you shouldn’t write negative reviews. To be honest, negative reviews are very easy to write (this is just me, though). This is because I usually have more feelings when I don’t enjoy the book I was reading so I can actually craft a longer review. The same can be said for positive reviews. I think it is the meh books that are harder to review.
As long as the review is about the book and not the author, there shouldn’t be a problem with it.
Review even if they are DNFs
Another misconception is that DNFs can’t be reviewed. This is not true. I think that if you can articulate why these books were DNFs for you and why it didn’t work for you, then this can be your review.
A review can be short and sweet
You don’t have to write a novel when you review. Keep it short. Keep it sweet. You don’t have to write a summary of the plot. You don’t have to make it VERY detailed.
Some of my reviews have been only a paragraph which can be between 5-6 sentences articulating why I enjoyed or did not enjoy the book. Yeah, quick reviews are fun to write!
Review as soon as you finish reading
I TRY my best to review the books I read immediately after I read them. I know it’s not always possible but it helps get things out of the way pretty fast.
One of the things I learned is that if I don’t review the books as close to the time when I finished it, I usually end up not reviewing it.
How is your Netgalley feedback ratio? Do you have any tips on keeping it higher than 80%?
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I’m currently struggling with 46%, and although I’ve always posted DNF and negative reviews too (just keeping them short and sticking to Goodreads only), I have this problem of having downloaded like 70+ books RIGHT after signing up for Netgalley. I wasn’t even a blogger then! And I absolutely didn’t know that there even WAS a ratio!! Almost a year and a half later, I am still struggling with the ratio, cause I’ve got all those tons of “Read Now” books that I’m not even interested in anymore. It’s so bad that I even made a Goodreads group for people like me, and it turns out there’s like a hundred of us 😀 (at least I’m not alone!)
So I think I’ll get there eventually. But the hardest part for me is actually NOT GOING to Netgalley, especially because you have to post reviews there, and you just end up peeking 😀
Evelina @ AvalinahsBooks recently posted…Not Watching Doctor Who? Read It Then.
That is true too. I think the read now books don’t get counted in your shelf unless you download it.
I think the thing that you should remember is to NOT request a book that is hyped or you’ve seen a lot of in the blogosphere, and only request those that you will REALLY read. Also requesting only a few books at a time is key.
I have been really picky now and only request books that I CAN’T WAIT to read. So now, when I visit Netgalley once a week, I probably will request 1-2 books only 🙂
Fantastic advice! I find that the biggest thing I’ve done is not overwhelm myself with requests. I’ve got my ratio up to 85% and I plan to keep it there!
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted…Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham: A Dual Review with AJ @ Read All the Things!
Me too, Nicole! I do not go as crazy as I once did!
This has been really helpful ! I over requested when I started blogging 6 years ago and I’m still trying to get to that 80% ! Right now I’m at 59% and slowly chipping away by requesting and reading one book at a time.
I totally understand! I was the same way and that was only 4 years ago! Try going back to your old requests and see if there are those that you reviewed already and just post those reviews to increase your health.
Look back at old ones to see if you have those that you read which you haven’t reviewed yet.
Glad that this post helps!
I am happy to report that my current NG ratio is above 80% as well. I’m fairly new with using NG and I’m lucky enough to learn early to not get zealous in requesting.
The bits about writing DNF review and short and sweet reviews are super helpful for me. I’ll try to apply those in the future.
Happy to help, Jennilyn! 🙂 A lot of people think that DNF reviews don’t matter, but they actually do!
Great tips on improving your NG rating. I believe mine is 87% but a couple of years ago it was under 50%. And really all it took was changing out I handled ARC’s. What I started doing was only requesting books I would buy on my own…so it would be books I would know I would LOVE to read. And also going back through those books I hadn’t reviewed, but had reviewed on my blog and posted my reviews. Sometimes I would just forget to do that. It did take a little while to get it up to 80%. But I noticed that I got approved way more often once I got above 80%. Now its rare to be declined because I always read and review books pretty soon after I get approved.
Lover Of Romance recently posted…Book Review-When The Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke
Yeah, that is a good plan! That is also what I did…I only requested what I was interested in reading… and also going back to post the reviews on those that I forgot to post on their site 🙂
Reviewing as soon as I finish the book is the most important thing for me. If I wait too long, I feel overwhelmed, and then I never review the book. I am so guilty of requesting a bunch of books though. I can’t resist. I don’t get approved for every request, so I like to submit the request and see if I get it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained in my mind.
Sam@WLABB recently posted…Review: Warcross – Marie Lu
That’s a great idea, Sam! I do limit the number of books I request, as seen by my profile snapshot and basically only requesting a little over 200 books in 4 years… LOL