About a month ago I set out on a Netgalley request spree to see if I would still get approvals after being pretty non-active as a Netgalley reviewer the past 4 years. This was done mostly out of curiosity and also as a challenge to encourage myself to read more often.
In my post “Will NetGalley Still Approve Titles When I Haven’t Been As Active The Past Few Years?” I shared this image:
Showing the requests I decided to make for the sake of my experiment.
This is what my current requests look like:
Only 4 out of the 11 books I originally requested I am still waiting to see if I’ll be approved for.
3 out of the 11 books I originally requested I was approved for and have already written reviews for on my blog. Death’s Country which was this incredibly beautiful novel in verse about polyamory and saving a loved one from deaths clutches. A Haunted Girl which was this really cool comic that explored what it would look like if the person who had to save the world was suicidal. Then, Morgana & Oz an adorable webtoon that is about a witch who turns a vampire into a cat and fun ensues from there. I loved my time with all three of these.
1 of these books ended up being a read now title and so I decided to claim it for myself. I am currently reading this one and it’s Guardians of Dawn: Ami. The second book in the Guardians of Dawn series. I am currently 21% of the way through it and I should be reviewing it very soon.
2 of the 11 I got declined for. Don’t Be A Drag and So Witches We Became. I was sad about it, but it’s also understandable considering that my netgalley ratio isn’t the best still.
Only 1 on this list I have been approved for that I haven’t started to read and that would be Don’t Let the Forest in.
So in the end I have about a 50% approval rate from these books so far not considering that 4 of them I don’t know if I will get approved for or not.
So, what I learned was that the time away I spent from blogging as often as I used to did not in any way affect my ability to get approvals from Netgalley. This was a very important discovery for me. It helped me feel so much better about myself and that I did what I needed to do for my mental health and it didn’t mean that I ruined anything with my blog or my ability to receive and review books. It also made me realize I’ve come a long way in my healing and I’ve finally proven to myself that I am ready to be back.
The 11 books I originally requested didn’t remain to be the only books I’ve requested the past month. I requested, got approved, and finished reviewing 12 comics since then. Had 1 book be approved from me from the publisher that wasn’t even requested in the first place. Had another book from a genre I wanted to try out but haven’t reviewed for before because approved. As well as admittedly added maybe a few too many read now titles to my shelf.
I haven’t done my absolute best at reading my older netgalley titles. I’ve managed to finish 2 of those in the past month, but I am trying to read through 3 of them at the moment. Admittedly, Guardians of Dawn and the ease of reading and finishing a bunch of comics is the main reason. As well as one of my current reads being a little bit too real for me at the moment. However, as long as I keep going and finish them in a timely manner I think it’ll go just fine.
I’ve been keeping my netgalley feedback ratio at 59-60% which is 3-4% higher than what I started with last month. I have put myself on a request limit of 5 books at a time instead of 10 books at a time. However, if there is 10 books that I send in reviews for in between me getting a new approval I can request 10 more. That particular rule is probably never going to happen because I get a lot of read now titles and the books I request do get approved pretty often. It just would be fun to reward myself after a huge reading and review spree if I managed it without bringing any other new books into the fold. I decided that this won’t include comics because I read and review them instantly when I get them and they only help my feedback ratio. So long as only a few of those are requested at a time.
I am really happy with my Netgalley progress. I hope to continue doing better with it and reading a lot more. It feels good to be a reviewer again. I love sharing books that I read and loved.
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!
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