#7: Transform Your Book Launch Strategy with NetGalley
The Best Kept Secret in Book Promotion: Why You Need NetGalley
In this episode of "Author's Edge," Allison Lane reveals the best-kept secret in the world of book promotion: NetGalley. If you're an author gearing up for a book launch or someone who loves discovering new reads before anyone else, this episode is for you. Learn how NetGalley can help you gather early reviews, connect with industry professionals, and strategically position your book for success—all for free! Allison walks you through how to set up your profile, request digital copies or audiobooks, and share your reviews across major platforms. Don't miss out on this game-changing resource!
Key Takeaways:
- What is NetGalley: A powerful platform that connects authors and publishers with readers, reviewers, and industry pros.
- Benefits for Authors: Early reviews, industry insights, and strategic positioning for your book launch.
- How It Works: Step-by-step guide on how to set up your profile, request access to books, and share reviews.
⭐⚡📗Resources Mentioned:
- NetGalley Website: https://www.netgalley.com
Freebie Mentioned:
- Get access to Allison's exclusive list of favorite tech tools for authors: https://lanelit.com/tech
Transcript:
The best kept secret in book promotion publishing, launching your book, getting early readers and reviews. If you don't know about this, you are going to lose your mind. This resource that I'm going to tell you about is free.
Welcome to the Author's Edge. I'm Alison Lane, helping you find your edge as an author. Now let's get to it.
Today, we're talking about the best kept secret in book promotion publishing, launching your book, getting early readers and early reviews. And if you don't know about this, you are going to lose your mind. This resource that I'm going to tell you about is free. It's free, it's easy. You can use it to identify other authors that you might want to collaborate with. You can get industry perspective on covers and titles. Here's the resource. It is called NetGalley N-E-T-G-A-L-L-E-Y com dot com.
Netgalley is a platform that allows members to share reviews and champion books. If you're a bookseller, a professional in publishing, if you're an educator, a librarian, a reviewer, a journalist, you're in the media, an author, you should have a NetGalley membership. It is so crucial to me and I love it. Here's how it works. Crucial to me and I love it.
Here's how it works. Publishers and authors offer free digital books and audiobooks to the NetGalley community and you, as a book advocate or an industry professional, can click a couple boxes and tell NetGalley what you like to listen to or what you like to read. If you're into young adult novels, romance or, like me, nonfiction, self-help, business books, children's books, it doesn't matter. Fill out your profile, tell them who you are and how you interact with books. You request access and then the publisher or the author will select who to give those to. For every 10 I request, I might get access to four. You'll get access to the digital copy or the audio copy. Sometimes they'll send you the book, but most times it's the digital copy or audio copy.
You read it If you like it, you review it, and the way you review it is so, so simple. You review it inside the NetGalley platform and then they make it really easy for you to click a button and copy and share that review on Goodreads, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, wherever, and your reviews and your feedback are also shared with the publisher, with authors, with other readers, and it helps the books succeed. My personal view is if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. Nobody needs my three-star review of anything, so I keep that to myself. Gosh, some of these books are amazing.
I'm going to share one with you today that I learned about through NetGalley, that I never would have known about. It is called the Art of the Interesting and NetGalley will ask you why are you interested in this book? Is it the title? Is it the cover? Is it the author or is it the description? So those four things. So the Art of the Interesting.
If you can see the cover, if you're just listening. The interesting, if you can see the cover, if you're just listening is a tree that also has it looks like an ostrich. So the tree there's a graphic of a tree that has two trunks that look like ostrich legs and then the ostrich coming out of the you know the sort of round foliage of the tree and it's freaking interesting. And the subtitle is what we Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and how to Cultivate it. Well, who doesn't want a good life and who doesn't want to cultivate that? Yes, check, check, check. I just love how it made me stop. It made me wonder what was in it. I thought the subtitle was super clever and they sent me the book, which I love. Thank you for that.
The cover itself says advanced reading copy, not for sale, so I can't sell it, which I won't. It has the back cover copy that will appear on all covers, but also has a big section that explains what the publicity and the marketing plans are for this book, and that, as a podcaster and as a publishing professional, is interesting to me because I want to be showing up where this author is. I also would love to interview you, Lorraine Besser, Ph.D. I don't know you, but I'm pitting it out there. Your publisher has to submit your information to NetGalley. There is a cost, but those early reviews are crucial and also the feedback to the publisher of are people stopping in their tracks because of the cover, or are they not? That's interesting.
What's also really crucial, strategic, about NetGalley is that you can scroll and take a look at what the other covers are that are coming out at maybe the time that your book is coming out, and you might see, wow, there's really a sea of light blue covers that might indicate that you want your cover to be bright yellow, or there's a sea of covers that have really long subtitles, so maybe you want to go the other way so yours stands out.
In terms of looking at the competitive environment, having a NetGalley membership is truly, truly a strategic choice for somebody who loves books. I love being the first one who gets to read them. The other great thing I love about this tool is when they do offer you the digital copy or the audio copy or like this. They sent me the book. I got a little letter, a little love note from Grand Central Publishing. So, thank you.
Super easy to read and glance, and the whole letter might be a hundred words, I mean maybe. And it tells me exactly what I need to know in order to, when I do review it, to offer the review that actually matters and can be helpful to help the book succeed, which is that's my interest in providing a review. And it reminds me oh, make sure to share on Goodreads, social media and my preferred retail site. And it helps me tag the publisher, grand Central Pub, so I don't have to search Instagram for whatever their handle is. So thank you for that. Grand Central Publishing. Super. And they have a hashtag the art of the interesting, love it. That's a wrap for this episode of the Author's Edge, until next time.
