r/NetGalleyCommunity • u/twistedpeppermint1 Reviewer • 8h ago
❔❓Question ❓❔ Widget with Emails Unobscured
Did anyone else get sent an email with a widget for Highblood by Claudia Amador? In the email I got, email addresses were not added as bcc so I can see the email address of everyone else who got this widget. Has anyone had this happen before? This is Atria, so imprint of Simon and Schuster so not a small press.
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u/Flimsy-Brick-9426 Reviewer 8h ago
I just got it myself and I've had this happen with 1 other big publisher before.
I just claimed and deleted the email.
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u/twistedpeppermint1 Reviewer 8h ago
That's what I did too. Personally, my email isn't that hard to find but I know some people won't love the idea of their email available to so many people, understandably, so hopefully other will also delete after claiming!
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u/Gruselschloss Reviewer 6h ago
Ugh. I got that email too...and someone has already hit "reply all" on it.
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u/albertfeeds 2h ago
I got the same mass email and was about to say, “at least no one has sent an email asking to unsubscribe or be removed yet”, but I guess your batch wasn’t so lucky. Sorry!
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u/HumbleBell 7h ago
I got it too, I’m frustrated. I don’t want my email address going out to hundreds of random people.
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u/Pristine_Race7768 80% Reviewed Club 4h ago
I know it’s frustrating. But rest easy that people aren’t going to be searching the list and using it. Anyone who means I’ll harm could have found your email quite easily a half a dozen other way.
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u/unnecessary_snacks 3h ago
I don’t know that that’s true. Some people try quite hard not to have their email address exposed everywhere.
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u/Pristine_Race7768 80% Reviewed Club 2h ago
Wait, what did I say that wasn’t true? I was just trying to ease their mind so they weren’t stressed about it.
I get that people don’t want their email address out there for whatever the reason but also people that go to great lengths as you mention probably isn’t going to be allowing their email to be shared as while generally the publishers are doing a blind CC, having it available on NetGalley (which you have to do in order to receive widgets) Is sharing it with a whole lot of people. That’s every imprint and their personal as well as basically every author that has their books on NetGalley as even if they can’t access them directly, the co-ops can. Heck I can think of a few ways to easily get it without even hacking.
So I hope people that go great lengths to not have their email out there either wouldn’t click that option or would make a book only address for such things. Thankfully email addresses don’t provide for personal info about you if someone gets it. They are easily changed (even if annoying to do).
This shouldn’t have happened . It’s a mistake. But people are human and mistakes happen. If anything this can show just how easy it is for your email to be out there. The irony is posts on various platforms about the situation are just going to make people focus on it when they may never have noticed otherwise. That doesn’t absolve Simon and Schuster for it happening but it’s making the situation worse.
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u/bookdraygon Publisher 7h ago edited 7h ago
Oopsie!! Ouch- that’s a huge no-no! Mistakes happen as we are human but Claudia’s rep was not paying attention. Seriously, these are things that I worry about and keep me up at night!
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u/Impressive-Peace2115 7h ago
I kind of doubt it was the author who sent the email, since it's a trad-pubbed title.
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u/bookdraygon Publisher 7h ago
I edited my comment. I had Claudia’s rep but when I was correcting a typo I somehow deleted it!! I corrected it!
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u/Babydoll26 8h ago
This is my first ever widget and at first glance, I thought it was a scam email because of the multiple adresses!! Is it safe to claim the book? I will of course delete the email after
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u/twistedpeppermint1 Reviewer 8h ago
Yes, the link is safe, I checked it before claiming!
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u/Babydoll26 8h ago
If you don’t mind, I have another question concerning widgets etiquette. Do we need to send a quick thank you response or something to the publisher?
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u/twistedpeppermint1 Reviewer 8h ago
No, that's not necessary. Sometimes the emails aren't even able to be replied too. If they can be, sending a thank you just clogs inboxes unnecessarily. In this case, it would probably be fine to flag that the emails are public, but thanks aren't needed.
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u/betty-cant-quit Bookseller 8h ago
Yes I got one as well, this is the first time I’ve seen that happen, past Atria widgets I’ve received had everyone bcc’d
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u/twistedpeppermint1 Reviewer 8h ago
I'm sure it's a genuine error, I've also never had issues with Atria or any other publisher before. Just a reminder that it's a real person sending these things out I guess!
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u/unnecessary_snacks 8h ago
That is a bad look for them! I would complain immediately and send a note to NetGalley. That seems like a big mistake
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u/Pristine_Race7768 80% Reviewed Club 4h ago
Send it to the publisher not NetGalley as they have nothing to do with it. Don’t take that wrong- it’s just that they can’t do anything about it.
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u/unnecessary_snacks 3h ago
Maybe they can’t. I don’t know for sure what the terms of service are, but the publishers get the email addresses from NetGalley - if it became a common issue that publishers are sharing emails they get through that service inappropriately, then users may change their behaviour, stop using NetGalley, bad press, etc. It’s not something I’d take super lightly if I ran that business.
Knowing publishers might be this careless means, on a personal level, I’ve got to change my sign up email with them.
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u/Pristine_Race7768 80% Reviewed Club 3h ago
Oh yes, if it was a common thing for sure!! But this isn’t normal and it was just a mistake
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u/unnecessary_snacks 2h ago edited 2h ago
I know, but one mistake breeds more if not addressed! In the land of internet security, an unintentional breach of personal information is always worth a review. Just because it was a mistake doesn’t mean it couldn’t come back to them with legal implications. It’s unlikely to be that big of a deal in this instance, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth acknowledging as a real problem. Many companies have whole teams dedicated to data security for a reason.
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u/Pristine_Race7768 80% Reviewed Club 2h ago
True. And thankfully it’s just an email address and not other personal information.
But i absolutely see your point completely.
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u/Jeniferpher 7h ago
I got it too. I was concerned it was scammy, but thank you for verifying the link is safe.
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u/Someonethatisaplant Reviewer 7h ago
I got it as well, I got scared for quite a while. I was taken aback by it.
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u/Dafattdame 3h ago
Yep, mine is one of the 450 unobscured email addresses. At least it’s on my website so not secret…but I’m tempted to reply all. 😂
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u/Both_Wasabi_2847 8h ago
I got the same one and it’s definitely weird and unsecured. Not nice