I have a little confession to make (the very reason why I need to discuss culling Netgalley Books), when it comes to exam season I use Netgalley like it is window shopping. I see something I like and I click on the request button. This year was no different. I requested over 50 books (an absolutely shameful number) without really thinking that publishers would ever except my requests. They did, and in one day I had nearly 15 approvals.
I felt a bit horrified not only because now I had all these books, but some of them I couldn’t even remember requesting and had to think why I wanted them in the first place. I’m fully blaming procrastination as a excuse here, it forced me to do it!
Ever since I’ve felt like there has been huge pressure on me to read all the books on my Netgalley shelf and with constant recurring sickness, I decided to finally cull some of the books there.
This partly to do with Rinn Reads awesome post regarding the improvement of the Netgalley Ratio and in her first bullet point Rinn stated that:
Whatever the reason, clink ‘Send Feedback’, and in the notes for publishers section, let them know you are no longer interested in the book. It counts as feedback, takes a weight off your shoulders, and its honest.
That statement rang so true and it was (if I’m being truly honest with myself) something that I had been considering to do for a long long time. I just hadn’t built up the nerve yet to do it.
And it was the above statement that finally kicked me into action and starting culling the books on Netgalley. And it was a fantastic feeling! I went from 54% feedback ratio to an incredibly 73% (and I have proof!)
Recommended Feedback to Approval Ratio is at least 80%. Yours is 73%
And it such a good feeling! I may have more books to read but the pressure is off and I can now focus on books that I think I will actually enjoyed, rather than books I may find just ok. After all I can come back to them in the future if I want to.
I have sent back feedback saying I no longer wanted to read a book – it does feel so much better to have a higher ratio, and if I really don’t want to read the book, I’d rather get it off my shelf so it doesn’t make me feel guilty. 🙂 I really do try not to over-request now too, so that is very helpful! It’s so great you brought your ratio up so much!
Thanks 🙂 it feels so much better now not having all those books hanging over me! And it’s nice that my ratio has gone up so much, I feel that 80% is achievable now rather than a number somewhere in the distance 🙂