Writing books is probably one of the most fulfilling ways to make a living. However, being a professional writer alone does not guarantee that you’ll start earning money. Just like any other profession, writing also involves the element of marketing and promotion to some extent.
- Image Source: Pixabay
Luckily for budding writers, NetGalley provides a quick way to promote their books. For all the rookie authors who are not aware of the NetGalley, let us explain it to you. NetGalley is an online platform where readers can read the galley proofs of upcoming books and publications.
So if you are not familiarized with this new phenomenon of promoting your books, we present here 4 ways you can use NetGalley to pitch your next piece:
1. Create an Account
Before putting their book on NetGalley, authors have to fill in a payment form and sign a contract. According to their payment options, they could display their books for six months, have them showcased in the NetGalley Newsletter, and could even make use of discounts.
The NetGalley website itself is easy-to-use for the professional reader to read new titles by authors. The uploaded versions of the books are called galleys which can be read online, downloaded for later perusal, or read on an eBook reader.
2. Share The Links And Widgets
Before getting the books actually published, NetGalley is a way to promote them through bloggers, social media, booksellers, educators, reviewers, etc. As a matter of fact, a book’s popularity is largely achieved through ‘word of mouth’. If readers give ‘thumbs up’ to a publication, others would be more likely to pick it up.
Once the book is on NetGalley, authors and publishers can create links and widgets that they can share on their social media profiles. The links and widgets are then shared to other contacts that include bloggers, reviewer writers, and online librarians, or anyone who can create the hype for your publication.
3. Utilize The Press Kit
NetGalley has a feature called the “Press Kit” which is basically a platform for advertising tools. Here, publishers offer their services to authors through offerings of tour schedules, book trailers, cover art, pictures, Q&A sessions, author bios, and much more.
An author should keep in mind that NetGalley is not just comprised of readers and writers. In fact, it is a community of review writers, booksellers, educators, media professionals, students, and also international publishers and agents. The publishers can even seek to purchase your book rights and make it famous internationally.
4. Be Particular About Presentation
Of course, authors have to make sure their book art and presentation is eye-catching enough to be actually chosen by readers. There are over 200,000 members on NetGalley with more than 40,000 reviews published every month.
In order to stand out from the crowd, a book’s description and the author’s profile should be alluring, in order to hook the attention of the readers and publishers. Social media links, blog links, and book trailers should be included in the description or at least the author profile, if not both.
Any positive reviews, testimonials as well as awards and trade reviews should also be on display. Also, authors should make it clear on their profiles and bios about whether they’re available for activities such as book clubs, giveaways, interviews, and the like.
Once readers open the book online, it should not be rife with grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. Such basic mistakes would make even the best-written manuscript hard to read. Most probably, readers wouldn’t find a poorly written galley worth their time, regardless of how enticing the story or data is. What’s worse, they might even give a bad review just on the basis of sloppy writing alone.
Wrapping Up…
NetGalley is a tried and tested online gateway for a book to reach scores of influential book lovers before it even hits the shelves in the market. Any author would do well to invest in an opportunity like this, especially indie authors who don’t have agents or managers of their own.
