Now, for those of you who don't know, NetGalley is a way for "professional readers such as booksellers, educators, librarians, media professionals and reviewers" (this includes bloggers/vloggers) to get access to electronic ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) of upcoming titles in exchange for an honest review/reaction.
Now, I had been using it for several years and I did enjoy using it. It helped to share the hype of upcoming titles and share my love for reading. But, within a space of 12 hours (I kid you not), I went from “Wow, NetGalley is overwhelming me lately” to deciding to delete my NetGalley account to actually hitting that “Delete Account” button.
I can't even explain how I got on the idea to close the account, nor why I thought it was such a great idea for my blog (seeing as I suspect the Pewter Wolf Reads blog is in its death throes...), but it's done and, weirdly, I feel oddly ok with doing it. Reading should be fun and a pleasure (something I say all the time on my blog and on ly socials and yet, rarely follow through on!)
Having a % ratio of what is acceptable for NetGalley Approval rating (80%, in case you are curious) hanging over my head felt like an impossible target to hit as, remember, my Amazon account was hacked/deleted several years back which wiped out my entire kindle catalogue. All my ebooks and most of my Audible audiobooks I got back after causing a huge fuss to Amazon one Easter weekend (yes, this happened on Easter Saturday, folks), but all my eProofs were gone.
Plus, I noticed I would hit that "Request" button and go "If I get approved, when will I read it as my TBR is long" and then I would worry about being a bad reader.
So, removing this from my anxious mind can only be a good thing, right?
Expect an hour or two later, I went "Wait, what about the downloads on my kindle/iPhone? What do I do with them? What is the etiquette here? Do I delete them all or keep/read? If I do that, is it stealing?". So, off to Google I go and … nothing. Yes, people delete their NetGalley/Edelweiss/etc accounts but there is no rules about what to do with your eProofs/Audiobooks. So, am having a think on this front and get back to you on that front.
Now, I am not quitting blogging yet so I could keep these, but I am slowly winding down the blog (I will write a post once I know when the blog will be put to bed - but not yet). I want a little more freedom over what I read and I want to showcase books am excited to read (and with my reading taste changing from when I first started blogging to now. Hell, my reading tastes have changed in the past 18 months!). This means I might have to get a Kindle Unlimited account so I can read more indie authors/queer romances so this is a genre I want to read.
Now, I had been using it for several years and I did enjoy using it. It helped to share the hype of upcoming titles and share my love for reading. But, within a space of 12 hours (I kid you not), I went from “Wow, NetGalley is overwhelming me lately” to deciding to delete my NetGalley account to actually hitting that “Delete Account” button.
I can't even explain how I got on the idea to close the account, nor why I thought it was such a great idea for my blog (seeing as I suspect the Pewter Wolf Reads blog is in its death throes...), but it's done and, weirdly, I feel oddly ok with doing it. Reading should be fun and a pleasure (something I say all the time on my blog and on ly socials and yet, rarely follow through on!)
Having a % ratio of what is acceptable for NetGalley Approval rating (80%, in case you are curious) hanging over my head felt like an impossible target to hit as, remember, my Amazon account was hacked/deleted several years back which wiped out my entire kindle catalogue. All my ebooks and most of my Audible audiobooks I got back after causing a huge fuss to Amazon one Easter weekend (yes, this happened on Easter Saturday, folks), but all my eProofs were gone.
Plus, I noticed I would hit that "Request" button and go "If I get approved, when will I read it as my TBR is long" and then I would worry about being a bad reader.
So, removing this from my anxious mind can only be a good thing, right?
Expect an hour or two later, I went "Wait, what about the downloads on my kindle/iPhone? What do I do with them? What is the etiquette here? Do I delete them all or keep/read? If I do that, is it stealing?". So, off to Google I go and … nothing. Yes, people delete their NetGalley/Edelweiss/etc accounts but there is no rules about what to do with your eProofs/Audiobooks. So, am having a think on this front and get back to you on that front.
Now, I am not quitting blogging yet so I could keep these, but I am slowly winding down the blog (I will write a post once I know when the blog will be put to bed - but not yet). I want a little more freedom over what I read and I want to showcase books am excited to read (and with my reading taste changing from when I first started blogging to now. Hell, my reading tastes have changed in the past 18 months!). This means I might have to get a Kindle Unlimited account so I can read more indie authors/queer romances so this is a genre I want to read.
So, yeah, I am no longer using NetGalley. Maybe the TBR piles will be thankful for it… Highly unlikely, but we shall see…
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