HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TITLE
and
CREATE WIDGETS
Updated May 3, 2016
Welcome to NetGalley!
In the Victory Co-op, most of the control over your title is in your hands. I upload titles and take care of the technical aspects of our account, but I believe there are clear benefits to fielding your own requests:
- You have control over who is allowed an ARC of your title.
- You can see when interest in your title is waning and choose to swap out your title.
- Requests can be fielded much quicker if we’re all doing our own.
- Further, you can grab your own widgets (secure or unsecure) whenever you need them, rather than having to wait on me.
Things You Can Do:
- Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter here: I typically sign you up when you join the co-op, but you might want to double-check that you’re added. This is a low-volume list, but I do send out announcements about openings, subscription information, changes to the group or the NetGalley service, etc.
- I have a Facebook page set up for the group. It’s located here: If you’re active on Facebook, please like the page and then share and like new books that get added. The idea is that if everyone in the co-op likes and shares titles in the co-op, it will boost overall visibility for everyone.
- My Facebook group: I have a closed / secret Facebook group set up where we can compare best practices, ask questions, and see what other members are doing to maximize their use of NetGalley. If you’d like to join, shoot me a friend request. My personal Facebook page is here:
Notes:
- Please do NOT add titles on your own. We pay per title and it’s also more technical so there are more chances of breakage;as such,I handle this myself. Thanks
- Please do NOT share the login / password with anyone other than your spouse / assistant or someone whom you’ve sublet your slot to. NOTE: You are responsible for anyone to whom you give access to the account, so if you’re doing a short-term sublet, you might prefer to handle the person’s requests yourself rather than give them access. Use your own judgment on this.
- Please do NOT change anything for a title that is not your own without the author’s permission.
- Please do NOT edit the Approve and Decline e-mails as these are global for our account.
- Please field requests in a timely manner. While there’s not technically a time limit, NetGalley does request that we not let requests go longer than two weeks.If you plan to go out of town or similar, feel free to ask me or one of the other group members to field your requests if you like, or you can let them wait. There’s no time limit on requests (within reason), so unless you plan to be gone more than two weeks, I wouldn’t worry about it.
NetGalley Account Types:
NetGalley has two VERY separate and distinct types of accounts. These two accounts do not mix, cannot mix, and have separate functions. You have a Publisher account (which is how you’ll log in to manage your title) and then there are Reader accounts.
Publisher accounts can approve and decline requests and create widgets.
Reader accounts can redeem widgets and make requests.
Again, the two accounts do not mix. You cannot redeem a widget if you’re logged in with the Publisher account, and you cannot create a widget if you’re logged in as a Reader.I advise everyone to sign up for a Reader account. This will let you see how NetGalley functions from the Reader side, check widgets, etc. It’s free and is quick to set up. I recommend using two browsers to log on to NetGalley: one for your Reader account and one for your Publisher account, that way it’s easy to track how you’re logged on. As a for instance, I log on as a Reader in Firefox, and access our Publisher account via Chrome.
The Good Stuff
Uploading new titles / swapping out titles:
Step 1:
Send me an e-mail with your ISBN number (or other unique 13-digit number), cover image, and epub of your book. If you have a mobi, you can send that in addition tothe other files. Please make sure your files are named with your ISBN number with NO spaces.
For example, your ISBN is 978-0615965314, so you’d send me that along with 9780615965314.jpg, 9780615965314.epub, and 9780615965314.mobi.
It is extremely important that your files are named the same—if they aren’t, your files will not be associated with your listing—so please double-check them. The best practice is to copy and paste your number into your file names and e-mail.
Step 2:
I’ll create your catalog item and upload your files, then send you an e-mail. At that point, you’ll want to log in to our NetGalley account and go to Manage Titles. Scroll down the list until you reach your title and click on it. From there, you’ll want to click on Edit Title Details (first link on the left-hand side under the heading TITLE DETAILS) and fill out the fields. Remember to fill out your links and categories. They’re located below the Save button, so easy to miss.
Step 3:
Wait. NetGalley usually acquires our files every 2–4 hours. Once they’re live, you can switch your title from Private to Available (under Availability on the left), at which point you’ll start getting requests. I recommend checking your title twice a day for the first day or two, and then you can start cutting back as requests slow down.
Managing your requests:
Step 1:
Log in to NetGalley.com. Login information will be sent with further instructions (please read them!) after your title is uploaded. Thistwo-step process letsus share this document without worrying about sensitive information.
Step 2:
Click on the link for Requests along the top menu bar. That will take you to a page that looks like the screenshot below.
Step 3:
Scroll down the list until you find your title, then click the green box to the far right where it says XYZ Requests. Titles are listed alphabetically.
Step 4:
You will see a list of requests that are pending, along with buttons to approve or decline the request. Note: NetGalley makes periodic changes to the user interface. While I try to keep this updated with current screenshots, they may not match up exactly to the live website. If you’re having trouble sorting through things, shoot me an e-mail—I’m happy to help.
Some notes:
If you click on the reviewer’s name—Linda Straube, for instance—you will be able to look at their profile. This will have information about them; links to their blog, social media, etc.; name and branch of their library or bookstore; things of that nature. You’ll also be able to see how many requests they’ve made, how many times they’ve been Approved or Declined, and how many times they’ve left Feedback. This appears as a sort of pop-up / flyout overlaid on the requests page.
When you visit a member’s profile from your activity report or a direct link, however, it will look like this:
Auto-Approve:
Currently we have fairly few people on auto-approve, but I would like to add to our list. Auto-approve means that a particular reviewer does not have to request our titles, they can download whichever ones they like. Please do NOT add people to our auto-approve list. If someone requests your book and they’re from a juicy-looking site (USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, a high-traffic blog with thousands of followers, etc.), shoot me an e-mail and include their name. I’ll look them up and check them out
Reporting Readers:
If you see a profile where it appears someone is providing false information, gaming the system in some way, or you go to their blog and it appears that they’re offering free books for download or linking to pirate sites or something else that’s nefarious, let me know. NetGalley has ZERO tolerance for that sort of thing, and they will close down accounts and send out cease-and-desist letters if need be.
This is not a huge problem, just so you don’t worry Out of thousands of requests we’ve had since opening our account, I’ve only had to report three people. I just wanted to let you know that you do have recourse.
Creating a Widget:
Rather than recreate the wheel, I’ll direct you to NetGalley’s tutorial ( on widget creation if you need help. The process is fairly easy though.
First, click on Manage Titles along that top navigation bar. From there, click on Widget (to the far right of your title) and follow the instructions.
Alternatively, you can click on your specific title and proceed from there.
This is also where you can view your feedback if you want.