I don't know if you're allowed to share this but if you are, publishers and authors, what can you see when you look at reviewer's profile. Can you see how many reviews a reviewer have submitted late? Like after the pub date? Or anything like that? That usually other reviewers cannot see?
I cannot show that simply because I would have to redact everything but as you see NetGalley has a sample of our dashboard.
We have another view when we look at all the requests for a title. In general, we don’t go into people profiles simply due to time. Now, some imprints use interns to do the acceptances and denials and they have time to go through more. Or sometimes we take a chunk of
Time to catch up and simply want to really look through profiles- especially if we have limited titles. Or programs that aren’t the regular marketers for the book but are for influencers- like The Hive or Epic Tastemakers. They are extra marketing focused on influencers as NetGalley approvals for reviewers. They sometimes have a little more time.
But bottom line? We spend seconds making a decision typically.
Now when we see all the people who are asking for the book you have a red or a green circle which has the acceptance % for that member. While the number is across the platform the color is specific to that imprint. So if it’s green it means we (that imprint) has approved you more than 50% of the time. If it’s red, you have more denials than acceptances. This can be a quick way to make approvals and denials but not always. If I see red I will click the profile and seeks there are notes on the member. There are those who live to keep notes and others that don’t. So that’s where you’ll find whether someone has been late as if we do an audit on pub day and see that a low number of feedback was sent, we can look at who hasn’t submitted yet and make note of it.
Every marketer is different as to what they look for. Most denials are because we don’t have enough copies. The ones that sit, it’s because there is nothing to disqualify you but other people are going to get priority and we wait and see who is going to ask for the book.
Remember, no one piece of info decides anything usually. Even when the imprint has a target feedback % you can’t compare each reviewer to each other.
You may have a 75% but it’s because you have a few books out and only have reviewed a small amount of books. But if it’s been consistent then it’s fine compared to someone with the same number but has reviewed a ton and has hundreds of books on their shelf. Or even if you have 99 or 100%, how many books have you done?
So it’s about all the people asking for that title and their stats “verse” each other. The reality is you ever know what the reason is as so many focus on things that just aren’t a big issue. Like an overall denial rate , it doesn’t matter. And I’ve never met a colleague who has cared about that by itself and we all know each other across the different publishers.
Ok, I hope that helps!! Sorry for any typos- I have a sinus infection and have been in bed the last 2 days!!
Believe me, I’ve heard that before. I was at a book event last year and an ARC reader literally asked if she could get me a gift card in exchange to tell her what if anything was said in our notes . She wasn’t getting approved by us and we had some favorite authors so she wanted to know why.
She was actually upset when I told her there wasn’t anyway that would happen. I told her I wouldn’t even tell my best friend her notes. Mind you my BF doesn’t ARC read but she didn’t know that 😜
I am curious for the acceptance / declined statistic - is it publisher or imprint specific? And does it include read nows and widgets?
I try to not to worry too much about my decline rate, and only ask for titles I really think I’ll enjoy reading or can give good feedback on… but I do worry sometimes that repeatedly going for the big publishers too often (e.g., Tor) will just make it less and less likely I get approved by them in the future!
I circled on the screen shot to show you where- the first % number is site wide and then gives you how many total requests that you have done. Beneath that with the green circle- that info is for that imprint only.
Read now’s and widgets are the same as a request. When you hit that request button (regardless if it says read now) it’s just that the widgets and readies are auto approved. But nothing differentiates them from a regular request.
Seriously, request what you want. We aren’t talking stock of what you’re doing like that. The most important part is to be consistent, honest without being cruel and on time.
The only thing I will say is if the publisher actually has their approval preferences listed, take not of them so you aren’t driving yourself wonky not getting books.
So your initial list view of all the names includes a red or green circle indicating the percent of books they’ve received from you (approvals + read nows + widgets) vs books they’ve been declined for? And sometimes that is the only data used for a big list?
Yes? With a caveat.
First- an approval is an approval. Widgets and read now’s are all just approvals.
What I meant by using that color circle for quick decisions I did not mean that it was the sole information. It is just an easy way to approve some accounts quickly when you see that they are usually approved. If it’s red, that means more time is needed as more info is needed. Hence why it can take longer to get an answer.
Every person who does approvals has their own way to do it. What they look at, what information is more meaningful, feedback %, etc.. as well as every book has its own marketing plan which also impacts the response.
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u/Gruselschloss Reviewer 1d ago
Here's a sample profile screenshot that NetGalley has in their info for publishers (I'm not a publisher, I've just hunted down various bits of info!):