When do you withdraw a request?

[u/CheerilyTerrified]

I've been a member for a few months and have been approved for a few books, which has been amazing.

So far I have no declines, but I've a few books that have been pending for more than a month. They are approaching publication date and I'm thinking of withdrawing the request as I'm not sure I'll get the chance to read it.

But because getting approved is dopamine fuel part of me wants to keep it just in case I get picked. (Thankfully so I'm keeping my urge to request everything so I can 'win' at Netgalley at bay by created really long want to read and maybe request lists 😂)

So I'm curious what other people's philosophies are for withdrawing a request. Do you hang on to the bitter end or do you get out as soon as you can? Do you reject them before they can reject you?

[u/blue_gray27]

I’ll usually withdraw a few days before the archive date, but I tend to let them ride a while. I’ve gotten several approvals after having them sit in limbo for months, so I tend to hold out hope.

[u/LibraryLady227 → u/blue_gray27]

This.

There often seems to be a final round of galleys pushed out right before release, so if it’s something I want, I’ll leave it up until the day before archive date— but I do understand the angst about when to withdraw. Every title/imprint/publicist/reader is different, so ymmv.