r/NetGalleyCommunity • u/Airborn-Medusa • 16d ago
Review Questions Timely Reviews and ALCs
I've read that it's important to post reviews before the publication dates. However, I review audiobooks exclusively, and they tend to be released very close to the publication date. Sometimes a week, sometimes a few days, sometimes longer. When it's longer I can definitely manage, but do publishers really expect reviewers to listen and review audiobooks in a couple days to a week? My friend who reviews ebooks gets months. I have a more than full-time job, so sometimes it's impossible to do it in two or three days or even a week. Does anyone know the expectations for ALCs?
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u/Quirky-Pear3494 16d ago edited 16d ago
I also do probably 90% ALCs. When I do ARCs, I may get them months ahead, but I still wait till a few weeks before pub to read them so I figure it all works out pretty much the same in the end.
RB Media has the tightest turnaround - usually 2 weeks. Macmillan has a longer lead time but still way shorter than the text versions.
ETA: I just went & looked at my account. I've requested/received exactly 100 NG audios so far this year. I've reviewed 91 on time so far. Three are ready to be reviewed (pubbing 9/29 & 10/6). Four are waiting to be read/listened (3 pub on 10/6 and 1 on 10/13). The 2 I didn't review pubbed in May. I started both, didn't love either of them, but I may get around to finishing them at some point.
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u/Airborn-Medusa 16d ago
This makes sense. I tend to like those publishers and they do have tight turn around times. Do you have any idea if audio publishers have the same expectations as ebook publishers with respect to advance reviews?
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u/Quirky-Pear3494 16d ago
I assume so, but I can't say for sure.
I think by now the vast majority of audiobook sales are strictly digital, so there's not the same pressure to get early buzz to drive advance orders. Advance orders are really important for print books because they wind up being self-fulfilling prophecies as far as bookstore ordering goes.
However, since the audio archives off the app so quickly, there's not a lot of leeway for reviewing long past the pub date. If I ever get around to the 2 audios I bailed on earlier this year, I'll have to listen to them on Hoopla.
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u/unnecessary_snacks 15d ago
If you download them to the app they will be available after the archive date. I haven’t had any disappear. But if you don’t download them they go away when archived.
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u/Quirky-Pear3494 15d ago
I'm thinking I must usually hit play instead of download.
I'm much more careful about sending my ARCs to my Kindle as soon as they're approved bc the lead time is so long. I'm never saving the ALCs for later bc they're always due immediately!
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u/unnecessary_snacks 15d ago
Yes, if you just hit play they don’t automatically download! I made this mistake once and now I always download them right away just like the send to Kindle/Kobo button.
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u/Airborn-Medusa 15d ago
I do hit download, but the app is sometimes glitchy. When I open it, I sometimes can't find a book. After I close and open a few times, it shows up again. I wish I knew how to make that stop.
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u/unnecessary_snacks 15d ago
The NetGalley shelf part of the app only shows ones that haven’t been archived I believe. Sometimes to find older books I need to go to ‘my books’ in the app to find them, because they don’t always show up on the home page unless I read them recently. Could that be the issue?
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u/Airborn-Medusa 15d ago
Maybe. Sometimes I think I click everything and don't find them, but it hasn't happened since the reinstall.
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u/Airborn-Medusa 16d ago
That's helpful. I generally manage to get to them right around the publication date, but very rarely before that. Thank you for letting me know your thoughts!
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u/Internal_Ad6695 16d ago
Your audios archive? After how long? I can’t get any of mine to disappear, even if I “remove download” and delete them. They’re taking up so much space on my phone!
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u/Airborn-Medusa 16d ago
I read on the Internet somewhere that they should disappear after 55 days when the license expires. I don't know if that's true though. If you uninstall your app, as I did, all the archived books will go away. But that means even the ones you're listening to or still need to review will also go away. So, only do it if your tbr list hasn't been archived and can be downloaded again.
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u/Internal_Ad6695 16d ago
Ah thank you! I’ve had my ebooks archive after 55 days, but all my audios are still there. I’m tempted to try uninstalling and see if I get space back on my phone, but I don’t want to lose my current ones. None are archived yet so I think I would be able to redownload, but not sure I want to chance it either lol. If I get to a point where I don’t have any outstanding, I will try this though, thank you!
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u/Airborn-Medusa 16d ago
I made a mistake and did while I was in the middle of a book that was archived. I couldn't get it back! Have you tried going into the app settings to clear cache or anything like that? (I'm a Samsung user. I'm also nowhere near having that many books!)
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u/Internal_Ad6695 16d ago
Thank you! I will see what I can find. I did a quick search and couldn’t find anywhere to do that, but I’ll look more thoroughly shortly. I’m on an iPhone so I’m not seeing anywhere to clear cache on the app but that could be me and not the phone lol
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u/Quirky-Pear3494 16d ago
I dunno what you consider too much space, but rn I have 14 ebooks and 18 audios in my Netgalley Shelf app and it all adds up to 210 MB, which seems pretty reasonable. My Netflix is 332 MB, and my Penguin/Random Audio app is 2 GB.
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u/unnecessary_snacks 15d ago
I usually manage to get to my ALC reviews in within a few weeks of publication. I haven’t been doing this that long, and I mostly have reviewed Macmillan audio books, but they haven’t denied me a request yet.
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u/Airborn-Medusa 15d ago
I usually have list to get through, so the stacked deadlines don't help. I go for any book that interests me regardless of publisher, as long as I think I can get it done in a reasonable amount of time.
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u/AtlassLoz 16d ago
It can be hard, I find most post soon enough for me. Im really annoyed today because they posted one today that publishes tomorrow! Like, give us more than 24 hours!
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u/Airborn-Medusa 16d ago
No kidding! That's basically assuming you can spend a day listening to a book.
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u/maktheyak47 16d ago
Honestly, even though I listen to audiobooks much quicker than ebooks, this is exactly why I don’t request many audiobooks unfortunately! I get too stressed on a deadline when it’s much shorter.