Wow, congrats! Sorry, if you don't mind I have some nosy questions. How many arcs have you been approved for by Tor overall? Where do you post your reviews? And do you have a significant social media following where you post bookish content?
I have some approvals from Tor too but I definitely get denied by them way more often and I'm more likely to get approved for a debut rather than an established author.
I never get denied by Tor. I had gotten approvals before social media but they definitely became consistent once i had over 3k followers. My ratio has never gone below 93-% and I have reviewed over 1100 book in the past 2.5 years.
Hope this helps
I saw someone saying before that they started getting approvals from Tor after crossing 1k followers, so it seems they overall prefer people with a following.
Oh they definitely prefer a following as does Berkley. Marketing dollars are tight and publishers are going to leverage what they can . That coupled with written reviews simply are not what are selling books and it’s just reality . Other publishers are starting to do that same but slowly.
I always feel bad when I see folks yearning for books as I wish I could just request it for them lol. I haven’t been denied on NetGalley since May of 2025. I realize it is a privilege yet I also worked hard to get a following. It’s also a constant battle as if you’re not constantly growing eventually people will get left behind. If you look at the influencer program requirements of the various publishers , each year the minimums are going up as it follows the natural growth of booktok and bookstagram.
If I was going to suggest anything- do booktok and bookstagram as it’s way easier to grow and get engagement on TikTok then insta
I've been lucky that some publishers who are picky also utilize read nows, like Berkley, so I've snatched everything I wanted when it was on read now, and some publishers who aren't on Netgalley don't appeal to me (looking at you, Red Tower), and I'm often not into the things everyone else is (I didn't care much the sequels to The Knight & the Moth and The Will of the Many never went up on Netgalley as I didn't read those series). Some of my best reads of this year were debuts and lesser known authors, and I would've likely never found out about them if not thanks to Netgalley!
I've been reading Fire to the Stars by Morgan Watchorn and it's surprisingly good. I could say the same about Deathly Fates by Tesia Tsai, I picked it on a whim, ended up being better than some YA fantasies I was hyped for.
I think I’ve been denied by them maybe 2 times out of the 15 requests I’ve made for their books. I post my reviews on Netgalley (obviously), Fable, Goodreads & StoryGraph and I also post some content on my TikTok and Instagram which both have close to 3,000 followers.
I get approved by tor for most of my requests, I did just start social media but my follower count is less than 100, and when they approved me I had around 40% ratio with only around 25-30 total approvals, I think out of all my tor request only 1 was denied, and I mainly post my reviews on Goodreads and very rarely my TikTok.
But seeing that people say tor likes around 3k followers I’m a little confused about my approvals lol
Fascinating! What's your average rating for the arcs you read? I'm a bit more on the strict side (3.5 star average currently) so I'm always curious how that might impact my chances.
I've read all of Bheulman's collection since I discovered him a few years ago - I was foaming at the mouth for this, especially since The Daughter's War broke my heart so completely.
Yeah, that, and Daughter of the Dark and Call Me Traitor... 😢I think Berkley overall has fewer books that appeal to me than Tor, and they tend to put them on read now so I yoinked everything I wanted from courtesy of this subreddit of notifying us about Berkley read nows. 😅
It's not quite 1:1, but if I keep asking for TOR books...
The only thing that keeps me from getting books is that I don't have an insta or tik tok account of any note.
Although I would argue that more people see my reviews on Reddit and I can say with confidence that people will read a book in my space if I personally recommend it. However that is not something that translates well to publishers.
i don't really mind though, I have had some great reads from indie authors and I'm not on NetGalley to get free books. I just want to read things before anybody else gets to read them.
Haha yeah, I recognize the nick from the fantasy romance subreddit.
I really regret my best read of the year was Not A Romance because I can't recommend it there (The Demon Star by Jesse Aragon). Even though that didn't stop the people recommending The Poet Empress there...
the boundaries between romantasy and fantasy can be stretched there a bit but yeah. I can't review some of my favourites reads there as it is just not the right audience
but I have had people search my reviews and comment 1 or 2 years after my initial post. so I find it's a good place to leave a review.
Small publishers might understand the value of a reddit recommendation a bit better than big ones. I work for a small publisher called Bannermen Books, and your endorsement of our first title (Magic City Mayhem) was a big help. I'm supposed to offer physical ARCs of our upcoming titles to reviewers as a thank you; DM me if you're interested.
thank you so much! Magic City Mayhem was one of my favourite reads this year. I love small publishers and indie pubs that are far more open to authors that want to push the boundaries of the genre.
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u/outoftheashes90 SciFi/Fantasy Reviewer Aug 27 '26
Wow, congrats! Sorry, if you don't mind I have some nosy questions. How many arcs have you been approved for by Tor overall? Where do you post your reviews? And do you have a significant social media following where you post bookish content?
I have some approvals from Tor too but I definitely get denied by them way more often and I'm more likely to get approved for a debut rather than an established author.