A Staple of the Pre-Publication Process
Insights on Digital Galleys; and also, Happy Summer Friday!
Happy Summer Friday! Whatever the company policy or the current state of your endless to-do list, do yourself a favor and prioritize finding a way to take advantage of and carry on this wonderful concept that is a publishing tradition — essentially getting a head start on the weekend by setting work aside and leaving the office in the early afternoon on Fridays.
In that spirit, I’ll make this newsletter a quicker read.
Last week, I wrote about galleys. For the most part, I was focusing on the physical galley — their many uses and finite quantity. Some great comments were posted, so be sure to take a look at that string.
In tandem with physical galleys are digital galleys (or e-galleys, or digital ARCs, or e-ARCs). The dominant service for digital galleys is NetGalley. It’s widely used by the entire industry — publishers, librarians, booksellers, reviewers, content creators, bloggers, and more. It’s a staple of the pre-publication process.
I wanted to point out a few helpful things to know about NetGalley:
— Publishers can control the flow of digital galleys, requiring that a request be approved before a digital galley is released. This keeps the people who are getting access, for the most part, confined to established booksellers, librarians, reviewers, etc. Note that publishers can create an auto-approve list, allowing known contacts to bypass the need for an approval.
— There is a NetGalley “widget” link, which allows access to the galley without approval. This is a helpful link to share with known or established people you are pitching for coverage or programming. Your publisher can provide you with a NetGalley “widget” very easily — it’s just a web link. This is not something you should post on your site or social media or share in a newsletter — only to be used in correspondence.
— The number of requests and reviews for a book on NetGalley is a good early barometer of pre-pub interest and momentum. Tons of requests and reviews — good sign! Not many requests and very few reviews — this title needs some attention. Caveat here is that the more popular genres tend to have more overall NetGalley activity, so that should be factored in when analyzing the data.
— Publishers get data and the contact info for the NetGalley members who download/request a digital galley — fantastic insight into the interest, and an opportunity for follow-up.
— Reviews on NetGalley will be some of the first that an author will see about their book. As with all reviews, this can be both a blessing and a curse. Consider it a helpful emotional warm-up.
— Many of the people who post reviews on NetGalley will also post on Amazon and Goodreads.
— NetGalley does offer some promo opportunities, which are pretty affordable. These promos help get the NetGalley offering for a specific title in front of their members (homepage and category/genre page spotlights, newsletter banners, dedicated eblasts, etc.) This is something the publisher handles, so worth suggesting if your book on the site is low on reviews and not getting much traction. There is also a way to nominate a title for a spotlight on the homepage or in a monthly post highlighting top book covers. This is free to do, but nominations do not guarantee being selected, of course.
— Booksellers can nominate a title for Indie Next via NetGalley. Nominations can be made in different ways, but this is a helpful option for booksellers, since many use the platform. (I wrote a whole series on Indie Next campaigns — read it here.)
— Starting back around 2020, NetGalley’s platform expanded to include audiobooks. Not every publisher participates, but if yours does, this is a great way to be able tot share an audiobook for review. (Sending audiobooks for review has always been a bit of a challenge, in terms of seamlessly delivering an easy-to-listen-to experience when operating outside of the usual ecosystems, like Audible).
— In terms of the Publishing Timeline, your digital galley will be available around the same time, or just before, your physical galley — usually six months before your book publishes. As soon as you’ve got the widget link, start including it in your outreach to reviewers, event programmers, booksellers, librarians, etc. Remember that your outreach target list should be well underway, something you started in the 12+ before your book’s pub date.
That’s it for now. This is essentially primer on yet another functional aspect of a book campaign. Book campaigns are made up of a whole series of things like this, which are connected and moved forward by process, nuance, and creative x-factors. My philosophy is that the better these things are understood, the easier it is for you to make the most of them, leading to an overall stronger and more impactful book launch.
GREAT INSIGHTS & ADVICE ON CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
shared an invaluable post on residencies — she breaks down the different types and the kinds of things you should look for and be aware of to find the right one for you; offers tips on applying; and provides advice on how to plan and make the most of a residency once you land one. Check out the post here:
Also, Raksha is teaching a class on developing a book proposal. It starts on July 14. More details about the class are here.
has posted an excellent primer on writer conferences (and residencies), sharing thoughts about when they are worth it. These programs are big time and money investments, so you want to make sure you are thinking it through and investing wisely when deciding which ones to attend. Read the post here: makes the case for why you should definitely go to a writers conference, especially if you are working to get published. Alma has attended many conferences, but she just got back from StokerCon, the annual conference of the Horror Writers Association, and gave it very high marks. Give it a read here:
And with all this talk of conferences, I would be remiss if I did not mention that ThrillerFest is underway right now in NYC.
, an author I am very fortunate to be working with right now on the campaign for her forthcoming book Keep This For Me, will be in attendance and presenting on a panel. Her latest newsletter shares all the details:
As always, thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing. If I am doing things right later today, I will be offline and sitting in a cool and dark theater (with empty seats surrounding me, hopefully), eating popcorn, and watching a summer flick (maybe 28 Years Later…) Have a wonderful Summer Friday!
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ABOUT THE WRITER OF THIS NEWSLETTER
I’m
, an author and longtime book publishing professional who has held leadership positions at publishers such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Blackstone Publishing, and Abrams Books. Currently I’m working directly with authors and publishers as an independent marketing and publicity consultant to grow their platforms and successfully launch their books. Visit my website to learn about the book marketing and publicity services I provide, and how we can work together.
I have a forthcoming book and it's been available on NetGalley for a while, but has very few reviews or attention. I'm less than eight weeks out from my pub date and wondering if it's worthwhile to ask my publisher for the widget or inquire about NetGalley. They don't seem focused on generating attention there, as they haven't updated it with starred reviews or new info. As a debut author, it feels like there are so many things to worry about! My book doesn't have many reviews on Goodreads or NetGalley but it's been mentioned in the NYTimes and has received two starred reviews, so when I read something like this I'm not sure what to think!
Thanks for the mention, Jeff. I didn't know all of this about NetGalley. My experience has been "here's the widget, now go do things with it" and I've never been able to get a sense of if there's a way to really use this. As with so much in publishing, I think the folks inside the industry sometimes forget that those of us new to it don't know how all the pieces work. This is very informative.