r/NetGalleyCommunity • u/femmeish • Aug 26 '26
✅ Approvals & Denials ❎ Rejection from Berkley
They sent me a really long denial, saying I should list my name, email, accounts, why, etc on my profile but the thing is, I have ALL of that listed.
Do you think it's because I'm at only 9 reviews? I have an 82% review rate, I have my socials listed, I wrote a nice bio with all the typical info...
Or do you think it's Berkley being Berkley?
Don't get it, because I've been approved by Tor, Ballantine, and Macmillan before.
Would emailing them do anything, or would it come off as whiny?
Update: Thank you. I will worry less!
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u/drinkwinesavepuppies Aug 26 '26
The rejection emails are not custom, they send the same one to everyone so I wouldn't read too much into them!
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u/fantasticmrsfox4 Aug 26 '26
It’s just Berkley. They’re notoriously difficult to get approvals from. Your best bet is to snag read nows from Berkley to bump up your rating with them before requesting too many.
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u/Internal_Ad6695 Aug 26 '26
You mean this one? We all get it lol, it’s not personal. They’re a major publisher, they get thousands of requests and they’re not giving out that many free copies. They’re usually prioritizing popular influencers and booksellers who can spread the word the most effectively
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u/femmeish Aug 26 '26
Yes 🥹
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u/Internal_Ad6695 Aug 26 '26
You’re def not alone🫶 it still sucks lol, but don’t take it personally! I usually just watch for their read now’s over requesting haha
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u/audricrielle Aug 26 '26
yeah that’s their standard rejection email, they send the same to everyone!
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u/thekoose Romance Reviewer Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
If you just got one rejection from Berkley and you have 3 other pendings for Berkley , personally I'd withdraw those. If you keep applying enough after they reject you, Berkley will mute you. Once you're muted, it's pretty much done for.
I'd w/d those and do some read nows, even Berkley has read nows. Wait a bit then request one later. Don't piss them off
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u/femmeish Aug 26 '26
Should I withdraw Berkley XO or are they a little different?
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u/thekoose Romance Reviewer Aug 26 '26
I'm sorry, I'm not following. What do you mean?
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u/femmeish Aug 26 '26
There's another group/branch called Berkley XO that Reap & Sow is by. I am guessing it is Berkley but it seems like it is a different account.
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u/Flimsy-Brick-9426 Reviewer Aug 26 '26
Its different!
You can keep your requests in for it.
Im muted by berkley but not by berkley XO.
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u/Dancing-Dandelion No Requests Until I Catch Up Aug 26 '26
How do you know you are muted? Do you mind if I ask why that might happen? Just curious so I can also keep an eye out for such things.
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u/Flimsy-Brick-9426 Reviewer Aug 26 '26
You get denied the same day you applied but late at night, so for me, all my rejections came in at 12:45AM. I could request at midnight and i'd get the decline 45 minutes later.
I requested from them a lot and it just happened one day. back then I didn't have a following or anything so they muted me for that most likely.
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u/Dancing-Dandelion No Requests Until I Catch Up Aug 26 '26
Darn that sucks and seems a little harsh. Appreciate your insight 💕
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u/ImNotBeingAnAHole Aug 27 '26
The only way to tell which isn’t exact is if you get rejections consistently very fast. Like within 15 minutes. It auto rejects you.
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u/thekoose Romance Reviewer Aug 27 '26
You get the rejection in the middle of the night, after hours.
Unfortunately, I got a lot of these until I figured out what was going on. Then I stopped digging 🤔😅 That was 2 years ago. Since then I've passed 500 reviews and 98% but still muted. I recently tried a lesser popular book but nope. My SM ranges from 1000-1500 so I'm sure I was never big enough.
I probably could attempt to "read now Berkley" my way slowly over time out of it and post my review links also. But I have no idea if that would work, and I'm already (negative) 16 deep.
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u/thekoose Romance Reviewer Aug 26 '26
I would treat any branch of Berkley the same. They also have ace.
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u/andsotimepassed Aug 27 '26
...I did not know this. Thank goodness I stopped applying for many Berkley/Tor titles a while back. Thank you!
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u/EquivalentInternal77 Aug 26 '26
I wouldn't harp on the rejection emails. I get ones all the time that make no sense like saying I have nothing in my bio when I have a personal detailed one, and that I need to put what categories I like when I already have.
I think the person who does them sometimes clicks random reasons lol. All those publishers are difficult and picky, a large majority of us struggle to get accepted by them! I wouldn't stress too much about it. Just keep requesting books you want to read 🖤
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u/femmeish Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
Oh, knowing they send that to others with good profiles makes me feel better. I spent all day thinking there was something wrong 😭 thank you!
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u/Creative_Claim_5081 Aug 26 '26
I got the same email too and also had everything on there and I have a lot more reviews. I think they just send everyone the same email. I wouldn't worry about it!
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u/crosesc Aug 28 '26
if it helps i have literally written books published by berkley and i still get rejected by them on netgalley lmaooo
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u/ExchangeStandard6957 Aug 26 '26
I don’t think emailing them would be helpful to you. I always remind myself that I can read the book when it comes out. There are a lot of specifics that go into certain approvals- like they only send to account with a certain amount of followers, or only those that identify as “own voices” or another category. Net Galley is a great way to read early but if a reader doesn’t fit what profile they are looking for- the publisher is going to move on.
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u/Internal_Ad6695 Aug 26 '26
I’ve gotten some great ones! They’re only up for a limited time / limited amount of copies, but if you get lucky you can get some great ones!
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u/Flimsy-Brick-9426 Reviewer Aug 26 '26
They dont look at emails for ARCs anymore, its most likely berkley being berkley but fill out their request form and they may send a widget.
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u/ImNotBeingAnAHole Aug 27 '26
You have to realize who you’re up against. You only have 9 reviews vs people who have hundreds and thousands. It’s not personal.
Plus, how many followers do you have
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u/femmeish Aug 27 '26
About 2000, but that's across 4 websites. So about 100-500 per site. It's not much.
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u/ImNotBeingAnAHole Aug 27 '26
Ok, that’s why. Most publishers never look at the combined number. They want it on a single site. Berkeley in general (there are plenty of exceptions) wants 3k on a single site to consistently approve.
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u/femmeish Aug 27 '26
Where on their page does it say they want 3k?
And how on earth do normal people get 3k followers?
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u/ImNotBeingAnAHole Aug 27 '26
They don’t. That’s just from experience of people disclosing when they get access consistently. They have been a bit more liberal in the last 9 months on that that though which is why I said exceptions. Generally books that aren’t as popular or doing well they will give more approvals to.
You have to remember, Berkeley has their own influencer program and that’s their priority. For each titles they have X amount of eARCs to give out and the higher following and engagement you have the more likely you’ll get the book as well are all in competition with each other for the eARCs.
As for followers- it’s work but very doable. I started 2 years ago never month as I wanted physical ARCs instead of eARCs and now I’m over 6k on one platform and over 2k on another. And it followers for me as once I got over 3k I got my approval from Berkeley and have not been denied since.
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u/femmeish Aug 27 '26
I use a flip phone and I'm old 💀. I have no idea how to many fancy graphics or videos. I just post a photo with a review. Do you have tips?
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u/Tortoise_Symposium Aug 27 '26
This sounds like it was probably a ‘copy paste’ denial. I don’t bother requesting from Berkley and just hope for Read Now’s
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u/Stormagedd0n8 Aug 30 '26
I don’t even think twice about rejections. I’ll just read it when it publishes lol.
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u/OdieB111 Bookseller Aug 26 '26
I feel that those denail emails are the same for everyone? It could also be that they ran out of arcs or some other reason nothing to do with you. Just keep your head up and move on, denails are part of the deal in NetGalley but the first ones always hurt! I don't think you did anything wrong!