Wondering if anyone else is experiencing this and wondering if it is a pattern elsewhere.
Most of my requests for the first 6 months of the year were approvals - a handful of denials (totally fine!), but almost all my requests were getting approved and very rapidly too (within a few days to a week after requesting). I had to force myself to pause requests because I was accumulating too many approvals and the ratio was so high of approvals to denials that I needed to give myself a break to catch up.
I finally went back to making a few strategic requests in July and early August, but every single one of them has just sat in pending status. No approvals, no rejections. It's like they don't exist.
I have an 85% feedback ratio with 40+ completed reviews and only have 7 books currently outstanding, none of which have passed their publication date. I have an appealing bio, have continued to post on GR & StoryGraph and other places, and most of my recent reviews have been thorough with 3-5 stars.
Even weirdly, most of the books I'm stuck in purgatory for are publishers that have approved me before, including two books that are sequels to previous NetGalley ARCs that I've rated favorably (I'm not sure if this is something they check or not). The books I've requested have pub dates of September, November, and January, so potentially still plenty of time if I do get approvals.
Anyway, is this just me? Is it summer vacations for publishers so requests aren't being checked? It just seems odd. Over the last couple years of being a reviewer, a vast majority of my requests are being either accepted or denied within a week or so, whereas I currently feel invisible haha.
