NetGalley Addicts Support Group discussion

Hi all. :)

I was looking at a publisher's Approval Preferences (for a book I was approved for) and this is stated:

-- Post your review no more than 4 weeks prior to the release date/on-sale date

I'm confused about what this means...

1- Do they want reviews posted within the 4-week period leading up to the book's release? The release date is June 24th, so... between May 26th and June 24th?

2- Or post before that 4-week period? Between today (May 11th) and May 25th?

Initially, I thought (wasn't 100% sure, though) it meant the first option, but after checking the title's page here at Goodreads, I see that someone else (who also got their copy from NetGalley) has already posted their review. So now I'm really confused...

Was hoping someone could help me out, please? Honestly, I feel a bit stupid, like I should be able to understand this, but for some reason the wording is really tripping me up. :(

Neyjour wrote: "Hi all. :)

I was looking at a publisher's Approval Preferences (for a book I was approved for) and this is stated:

-- Post your review no more than 4 weeks prior to the release date/on-sale date ..."

The publisher wants you to post the review between May 26 - June 24. Some publishers will ask you not to post the review any sooner than 2 weeks before the book is published. For a long time after I started doing reviews, I never got any requests not to post before a certain date but now I get so many ARCs that I end up with quite a few requests to post within certain parameters and I follow what the publisher asks me to do.

Some publishers won't keep approving books to reviewers who ignore the instructions so it's a good idea to follow them. You will still see reviews for the book outside the dates that publishers ask you to review the book. Maybe they didn't get the same instructions as you did...I just don't know.

The words are confusing but I do think you can substitute the word "sooner" for "more" and it sounds more understandable.

marilyn, thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it! :)

I'm brand new to NetGalley and didn't realize there was an "Approval Preferences" info section for publishers. I just happened to click on the link (in the book's description) and had an "oh, crap!" moment when I saw that. :P In the future, I'll have to remember to check those before requesting a book.

I'm guessing the person who posted their review here at Goodreads didn't look at the Approval Preferences... a mistake I would have made if I hadn't clicked that link by chance... Yikes.

Anyway, the book is off to a really great start, and if it stays that way, I'll probably be finished in a few days. I'll just write up my review when I'm done, and set myself a reminder for when to post it. :)

Thanks again! :)

Neyjour wrote: "marilyn, thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it! :)

I'm brand new to NetGalley and didn't realize there was an "Approval Preferences" info section for publishers. I just happened ..."

Glad I could help! And I didn't realize there was an "Approval Preferences" at first either, which meant I requested ARCs from a few publishers who's preferences I didn't meet...I had the same reaction you had. But now I know to look there and don't request from publishers that want us to have blogs and such.

BUT, I did get over my confusion about Edelweiss and that site, with the same publishers, will approve books for me that wouldn't be approved from NG, because I don't meet the publisher requirement on NG. So you might look into EW eventually, although it took me a while to figure it out. 😊

Edelweiss is easy if you are techy or have someone to show you how to use it. :)

Yes, I love it now because of the help I got from the Edelweiss group.

Thanks for letting me know about Edelweiss. I'll check it out! :)

I actually have a related question. With my blog/GR/amazon reviews, I just schedule them to be published within the time frame... however... What about the twitter posts? If you use the NetGalley button for automatically posting to twitter, it posts a link directly to the NG review. I generally post my NG reviews when I'm done with the book to clear out my bookshelf and while the book is still fresh in my mind and so I don't have all my reading notes cluttering up the book. If I do that, then my NG/twitter link will be well outside the accepted time frame (too soon).

What do you guys do? Go back and add the twitter review later?

I add Twitter link the same time as I do the Amazon review - usually on release date.

I didn’t link my twitter to NetGalley I don’t think. I use WordPress and it lets me schedule the post and it auto-tweets about it.

It’s a good question though- curious what others have to say. What do the tweets themselves say?

Sarah wrote: "I didn’t link my twitter to NetGalley I don’t think. I use WordPress and it lets me schedule the post and it auto-tweets about it.

It’s a good question though- curious what others have to say. Wha..."

Here's a link to my tweet feed. It usually has the title hashtag and a link to my blog review.
https://twitter.com/BookNonstop?lang=en

I’m confused about the question then.

My interpretation was: you were being approved for books and reading them awhile before release (say 90 days). You didn’t want to post to your blog before then because publishers like it within 30 days of release. But you reviewed it on NetGalley anyway to de-clutter your shelves, scheduled a date for it to be published on your blog, and NetGalley was tweeting the review when you gave the feedback on NetGalley (therefore tweeting about 90 days prior to release).

Is NetGalley delaying the tweets until the books publishing date or something?

Or are you using NetGalley to tweet about the book when the blog post goes live?

The NetGalley tweets look fine, if that was your original question. I don’t think there is anything wrong with them. I just like to keep websites/companies from linking with my social media (because I’m paranoid that way).

Sarah wrote: "I’m confused about the question then.

My interpretation was: you were being approved for books and reading them awhile before release (say 90 days). You didn’t want to post to your blog before the..."

No, my point was that since I've linked the twitter feed to my netgalley account, they post it straigtaway instead of waiting til release day. I've sort of found a workaround though... I just wait until release to link the tweet (and if I'm posting on netgalley earlier, I just don't click the tweet button right then).