I am by no means an expert on NetGalley. I’ve only been using it consistently for about a year now. But recently I’ve discovered something really helpful, that you may or may not already know, and thought I should share!
The one thing that’s more stressful about reading electronic ARCs than a physical ARC is the time restraint. eARCs expire, and you only have a set amount of time to get them read, or else you either don’t get to finish the book, or start it at all. This all ends up affecting your Feedback to Approval Ratio (which is recommended to be kept at 80%).
Recently, I was on hiatus, and was nervous about getting a book read in time before the archive date (for those of you wondering which book, it was These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly). But what I discovered is, you don’t need to get the book read before the archive date. As long as you download a copy of the eARC to your eReader or Adobe Digital Editions program before the archive date, you still get 54 days to read the book. This was a huge stress reliever for me. No longer do I have to get a book read by its release date (often the archive date). If I download the book a day before the archive date, I still have 53 days left to get the eARC read after that date.
Maybe this is old news to seasoned NetGalley users, but I found this to be an awesome revelation. Of course I’m still planning to try and stick to getting the book read and reviewed before the release date. But, if I ever get into a reading bind, I know that I can (kind of) extend the life of my eARC for a bit longer!
So, did you guys know about this? Or is this news to you? Any other little-known NetGalley tips you’d like to share? Let me know!
Books & Cleverness 
That’s also how I work with my eARC’s, it makes it less stressful 😀
I can’t believe I just discovered this, haha. But yes, definitely makes the experience more enjoyable and less like work!
I knew that you could still have the book after the archive date if you downloaded it before, but I was never sure if you could still post a review after the archive date. Good news!
Yup, the form still works after the archive date! 🙂
I didn’t know about the 54 days thing… I have eARCs downloaded from yonks ago that I can still read now… are they meant to become unusable??
Woah, that’s crazy! And yeah, I think most publishers set them to expire normally after 54 days. Strange, but hey — that’s awesome you can still read them! I would love to take advantage of that LOL!
I actually didn’t know a lot of this. But I still struggle with getting reviews up for books and now I am terrified of even requesting a book! 😛
Don’t be terrified! I was at first too, but getting accepted or rejected for a copy isn’t everything. My main thing is restraint. I’ve worked really hard to not request too many books so that they get out of hand. I’ve been doing pretty well, actually. *pats self on back* 🙂
I did not know this! I have been limiting my requests lately to only books that I am sure I will like. Maybe this will give me a chance to explore outside my typical reading/requesting of books!
I hope it does! I’ve discovered lots of amazing books thanks to branching out!