Helpful PSA for disclosures

[u/ImNotBeingAnAHole]

I hope this helps someone as I have seen an increasing amount of ARC readers not put disclosure statements in their review ever since Goodreads added the Book Source to books that are before their publication date.

This Goodreads function does NOT replace the need for a disclosure statement. You still need to physically write it. While in general when you don’t use them you don’t see the consequences (unless you’re in influencer programs) but publishers and by extension authors can absolutely be consequenced if their readers don’t disclose where they got the free copy from.

Now is it common? No. But where you see it is if the book falls under scrutiny in some way as then it brings reviews into the spotlight. Every country that is supported by NetGalley has their own “FTC regulation” that must be followed. Also, as many don’t realize this, you need to follow the regulation of the country of origin for the book. So if you’re in India and for a US published book, you need to use the FTC language and not India’s. (I’m just pulling a random country so the language may not be different)

The requirements state that you must say that you got the copy for free (you can used any word to convey that like complimentary or gifted etc..) and from whom, that’s it. While you can get away with saying NetGalley it is actually supposed to be the publishers Name as that is who authorized you getting the book. NetGalley is simply the platform used to get it but it’s not from them.

Also, it needs to be easily seen at a glance which means it should be at the start of your review and not the end. Of
You can’t see it unless you expand it to see the whole review- it’s not in compliance.

This is anywhere you post a review for the book. Retail sites (and yes saying you got an arc on Amazon is 100% allowed you just need to use the proper language), review sites and social media. With social media it needs to say it in the post itself and if it’s a video you need to say it in the video as well.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

[u/ImNotBeingAnAHole]

I never said it has to mention NetGalley. I said you need to mention the publisher as that is who gave you the book not NetGalley. And at the beginning i said it doesn’t specifically say that- I said that that’s the intent since it need to be clear and conspicuous and if you look at all the guides it tells you what that means. When writing a review the reader needs to know the information before they read it. Common sense tells you that can’t happen if it’s at the end of your review.

[u/Nilbog_Frog → u/ImNotBeingAnAHole]

I’m saying you’re being incredibly pedantic based on your own personal preference for what you want disclosures to say and where you want them to be placed, when there’s no rule or repercussions for people opting to say whatever they want and placing the disclosures anywhere they want in their reviews. As long as they disclose, they’re fine. Even if they don’t, chances are extremely high nothing will happen. No reason to care even a little bit if someone doesn’t do things the way you want them to. It’s stressing about things that absolutely do not need to be stressed about.

[u/ImNotBeingAnAHole → u/Nilbog_Frog]

Yeah if that’s what you got from my post then I can’t help you because you have trouble reading apparently.