In March and April, the NetGalley team attended the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC), London Book Fair, Festival des Livres Paris (Paris Book Festival), Leipziger Buchmesse (Leipzig Book Fair), and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) annual meeting. This month (May), we—along with our Firebrand Group colleagues—look forward to the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Publishing University, Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Leadership Summit, and Publishers Weekly U.S. Book Show. Scroll to the end of this article to set up a meeting with our teams!
Paul Milana, Joshua Tallent, Angela Bole, Kristina Radke, and Mary Pratt at the BISG Annual Meeting
Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Annual Meeting:
It’s impossible to avoid news about supply chain disruption, increased costs across the industry, and another digital transformation. As always, BISG kept its thumb on the pulse of the book business, leaning into the theme, “Transforming Supply Chain Communication.”
Sessions were solutions oriented, and focused on the positive questions: What can we do better? What should we do next?
Gary Jones from River Rock Advisors presented a forecasting model that helps publishers and printers determine print quantities based on marketplace demand, the time required to supply printed books, as well as inventory management and returns. That presentation was followed by a discussion on changes that are needed in the data part of the supply chain (and not just the continuing need for the adoption of ONIX 3). Kris Kliemann, chair of the BISG Rights Committee, brought up the importance of rights data and how difficult it can be for publishers to know what rights they own. She said, “Rights you know about are an asset, rights you don’t are a liability.” The discussion also touched on making data more accessible to more people, the importance of keywords, and the benefit of publishers developing a data dictionary to define their terms clearly.
The last panel discussion of the day included an interesting presentation by Lauren Stewart at BookNet Canada about how that organization has centralized much of the metadata and other publishing support processes in Canada, and provides a central, clean repository of metadata for trading partners. As with the other panels, the discussion was lively and some great ideas were addressed.
After lunch, Angela Bole, CEO of Firebrand Group, presented the Industry Champion Award to Phil Madans (Executive Director of Digital Publishing Technology, Hachette Book Group). This award honors an individual whose efforts have advanced the publishing industry as a whole. BISG wrote, “The idea that technology should empower, not hinder, the publishing process has been Phil’s north star since creating HBG’s first intranet over 25 years ago.” Congratulations, Phil!
Thank you to the nearly 60 publishers we’ve met with at these spring conferences! It’s always a pleasure to speak with the passionate members of our client community, and we’ve been inspired by our conversations.
In March and April, the NetGalley team attended the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC), London Book Fair, Festival des Livres Paris (Paris Book Festival), Leipziger Buchmesse (Leipzig Book Fair), and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) annual meeting. This month (May), we—along with our Firebrand Group colleagues—look forward to the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Publishing University, Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Leadership Summit, and Publishers Weekly U.S. Book Show. Scroll to the end of this article to set up a meeting with our teams!
NetGalley and other Firebrand Group team members at the London Book Fiar
London Book Fair (LBF):
London Book Fair may be known for its International Rights Centre, but it’s safe to say that the whole conference was buzzing with energy, from the Sustainability Lounge to the Technology Theatre (which was just a few feet away from our booth). The Fair was busier than in 2022, with a generally positive outlook and mood among attendees.
It was exciting to hear about our clients’ efforts to engage with new and diverse audiences. Influencer campaigns were at the top of the list, with publishers sharing more about the ways they are identifying influencers who would make good partners. We heard about influencer databases some marketers are tapping into, as well as a more manual approach via active engagement in the social media spaces where these influencers live. Publishers are leaning into more social engagement using CTAs that drive to their social channels, and are creating and incorporating more media (audio and video) that plugs nicely into these platforms.
At a high level, we had conversations about tracking the full customer journey. Identifying where a reader is first engaged, and following them through the path to purchase is a top priority for the heads of marketing and communications across many of the large publishers. As we learned in the “Role of Technology in Publishing” session, data is the bedrock of publishing today. NetGalley’s data, especially for pre-pub titles, continues to be an important part of that journey—from initial discovery to request, from download to review, and even pre-order or buy now.**
The panelists emphasized the importance of gathering, analyzing, and using data, while pointing out the need to make that data available to all divisions and departments. But making it available isn’t enough—they stressed that it is equally important to help teams develop a better understanding of how data can be used to maximize effective strategies. We’re always happy to talk about data, so let us know if you’d like to hear more about your NetGalley reports.
The panel also discussed the potential opportunities and risks of AI in publishing, including optimizing content for specific audiences, proof-reading, fact-checking, translation, and even cross-referencing international rights. Some of the publishers we spoke to told us of their recent experiments with AI, testing its limits to write marketing copy, or even whole books, with an eye to understanding its limitations. In all cases, they felt secure that AI is not coming for anyone’s jobs (yet).
Number of publishers we sat down with during LBF: 14
Thank you to the nearly 60 publishers we’ve met with at these spring conferences! It’s always a pleasure to speak with the passionate members of our client community, and we’ve been inspired by our conversations.
Conference season is in full swing in a way we haven’t seen since 2019! It’s been rejuvenating to reconnect with so many of our colleagues and partners in the industry over coffee, tea, and/or something a little stronger. Post-show happy hours haven’t gone anywhere, and we’re glad to toast the return of the trade shows.
In March and April, the NetGalley team attended the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC), London Book Fair, Festival des Livres Paris (Paris Book Festival), Leipziger Buchmesse (Leipzig Book Fair), and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) annual meeting. This month (May), we—along with our Firebrand Group colleagues—look forward to the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Publishing University, Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Leadership Summit, and Publishers Weekly U.S. Book Show. Scroll to the end of this article to set up a meeting with our teams!
What we learned in April
In general, AI was the hot topic in sessions across the industry. As with the evolution of digital-reading, publishers are viewing AI with eyes wide open to the threats that it could present, while also acknowledging the potential for it to revolutionize our work. Conversations on how to protect authors’ rights, address copyright for works generated by AI, and ensure that human creativity sits at the forefront of book creation are side-by-side with excitement to tap into AI’s potential to reduce tedious work and create more opportunities for that creativity to thrive.
Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC):
The Audio Publishers Association offers publishers and narrators an amazing opportunity to network, learn from industry experts in the audio space, and share insights and resources. For NetGalley, this event was a welcome chance to hear directly from our clients who are using NetGalley to promote audiobooks.
Publishers told us that they are thrilled to use NetGalley to expand their reach into new communities, and/or offer the audio format to booksellers and librarians who are using audio to more quickly power through their TBR list. Others emphasized they are looking to reach more traditional media contacts. In the “Meetthe Press”session, Tom Beer (Editor-in-Chief, Kirkus Reviews) acknowledged that they have been accepting digital formats for review since 2020, including via widgets from NetGalley.* According to Beer, the audiobook format is relatively new to Kirkus. Each month their audio contributors write a column, centered on a theme, that incorporates three audiobook titles. These columns are less “book review” and more focused on the given topic, and how the audio format augments the story.
All of the panelists (Kirkus, Audiofile Magazine, and Audible) agreed that additional media assets are very welcome from publishers. A photo from the studio, a carefully chosen sound byte, interview with the author (or between the author and the narrator) are all dynamic and interesting assets they may use outside of a review. They’re always looking for content to share, so the more you provide the more likely it is they will share it widely! Audio excerpts in NetGalley are also a great way to generate interest in a title, adding them to either the digital or audio format.
Publishers confirmed audiobook workflows continue to be challenging. Many of the clients we spoke with have small teams who are managing everything from production to marketing. They are driving conversations internally at their companies about how to streamline their efforts to finalize files earlier, test AI voices without threatening narrators, deliver content to the right early audiences, and continue to champion the audiobook format. If you’re having similar internal conversations and would like to talk more about how NetGalley can help you achieve any of these goals, please reach out. We’re happy to provide data or case studies, and share strategies we’ve seen work.
Number of publishers we sat down with during APAC: 11
*The NetGalley widget is an auto-approved link that can be used to invite media and journalists to access a book right away. Here’s more information about the NetGalley widget.
Thank you to the nearly 60 publishers we’ve met with at these conferences! It’s always a pleasure to speak with the passionate members of our client community, and we’ve been inspired by our conversations.
Tell us about your career trajectory: What brought you to book publishing and what led you to NetGalley?
My first foray into the book publishing industry was an internship at Penguin Random House during college. I was an intern for the Ebooks Development team, helping with the development and testing of tools used for ebook production. My experiences that summer really opened my eyes to how tech impacts the world of book publishing. I graduated college (with a degree in computer science and a minor in creative writing) and while job searching, I was telling people that I felt like I’d do something related to tech but not necessarily be a software engineer. I was also secretly hoping I could find something in the publishing industry. I kept an eye on the Publishers Lunch Job Board, where I stumbled across a job listing from NetGalley. It pretty much blew my mind how well the job fit with my experience and interests while also offering the opportunity to learn new things.
What does a typical day at NetGalley look like for you?
The first thing I do when my workday starts is check my email. I am part of the Product Management team and we often get emails with requests, issues, and questions from others on the NetGalley team. Throughout the day, I spend a lot of time researching and documenting, which helps with planning for improvements and new features. I also track progress on current projects, write and refine requirements for upcoming work, and help with testing to ensure the NetGalley platform looks and functions as expected.
What is your number one tip for new NetGalley members?
Take some time to look over and update your NetGalley Profile! Your NetGalley Profile should be up-to-date with the information that best represents you as a reader and book advocate.
What do you love most about your job? What do you wish people knew about your job?
I love working with so many dedicated and interesting people. I also enjoy researching, especially when we’re planning a new project. That’s always fun.
As for what I wish people knew about my job (besides what my responsibilities are and what my day-to-day looks like), not everyone knows that we work remotely at NetGalley. We’re all across the world, everyone works from home (or whatever location they work best in), and we have Slack, email, and scheduled Zoom calls as our main ways of communicating with each other.
What kind of reader are you: a mood reader, someone who crafts monthly TBRs, someone who participates in reading challenges?
Mood reader 100%! And I switch between books often. I read ebooks almost exclusively, but I’ll purchase physical copies of my favorite books and reread them. Occasionally I participate in reading challenges, but I use them more to keep track of what books I’ve read rather than to plan my next read. The Bookish Bingo boards are a lot of fun—after I finish a book (and draft my review), I look to see what box I can mark off on the board. I rarely get a bingo, but each board is a great visual of the books I read that month!
Do you have a 2022 reading resolution?
My 2022 reading resolution is to read 36 books. I would also like to read more poetry and more historical fiction this year.
An indie bookstore you love:TYPE Books in Toronto, where I spent a million hours during publishing school. Mabel’s Fables, the stuff that dreams are made of! Glad Day Bookshop, the oldest queer bookstore in the world. And I can’t forget my local indie, Someday Books, where I’ll be buying out their entire stock of board books. Sorry, did you say just one?
What does a typical day at NetGalley look like for you?
I work with publishers—both large and small—to ensure that their books and audiobooks reach the hands of book advocates and influencers. On the day-to-day, that means an inbox full of questions from publishers about how their books can see the most success on NetGalley, troubleshooting tech questions, and queries about how to best use the tools we offer to their advantage! I also do lots of one-on-one training with publishers, strategy calls, sales calls… all the calls.
What brought you to NetGalley?
I actually began using NetGalley as an intern for Second Story Press, a feminist publisher. It was my job to manage requests, and I had a blast doing it—sometimes falling behind on other projects because I loved using NetGalley so much. Studying members’ profiles and book blogs really appealed to me. After my internship was over, a sales assistant position at NetGalley happened to open up, and my former manager at the internship pushed me to apply! Nearly seven years and many job title changes later, here I am!
What recommendations do you have for anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
It was equally important to my career that I had a background in tech, as well as other more obvious publishing experience, like editorial and marketing. If you’re going through publishing school and they offer a technology specialization—take it! These types of jobs are in high demand and can be so fun and interesting. I love the tech side of my job.
What is your number one tip for new NetGalley members?
Utilize the Reader Recommended carousel on each Category page! This is where the real gems are. They’re highly rated books that were vetted by other NetGalley members, so you know they’re good! I find a lot of my future reads here, and I have yet to be disappointed.
How do you make time for reading?
That’s been a big struggle for me over the last few months! I’m currently 9 months pregnant and it can be hard to not fall asleep when I really want to be reading. A big help has really been my book club. It was formed during the pandemic and was not only a way to connect with my friends during that time but also helped me keep my eyes on a book regularly and in a way that kept me motivated and excited.
In what ways have you seen the industry change since you first started, and in what ways do you hope it continues to evolve?
I really love how much audiobook accessibility has grown over the last few years. From the dinky little one-shelf section at your local bookstore to the enormous amount of digital availability that we have now, it’s been a joy to watch the growth in this particular section of the industry.
And of course, I’m a firm believer that audiobooks are books, and listening to audiobooks totally counts as reading. Physical copy purists are just jealous we can read and eat snacks at the same time.
Do you have a 2022 reading resolution?
To find the best baby book of THEM ALL!! Seriously, my kid isn’t even born yet and his dad has read him half the library already.
Angela Bole, current CEO of Independent Book Publishers Association
(Manhattan Beach, CA & Newburyport, MA – June 9, 2022) – The Firebrand Group (firebrandtech.com), the book industry’s leading technology company for cutting edge software and services that enable publisher success, announced today that Angela Bole, current CEO at the Independent Book Publishers Association (ibpa-online.org), will succeed Firebrand CEO Fran Toolan on February 1, 2023. Toolan, who founded Firebrand as Quality Solutions, Inc. in 1987, passes the reins to Bole after 35 years as the company’s sole CEO. He will remain on the Firebrand Group Board of Directors post transition.
Today, the Firebrand Group includes Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley, and Supadu. Firebrand Technologies Title Management Enterprise Software and Eloquence on Demand service headline a group of technologies that help publishers track and manage titles from pre-acquisition through their long tail of sales. NetGalley helps provide excitement about titles by connecting eBook and audio content with reviewers. And the newest addition to the Firebrand family of services, Supadu, is the leading provider of publisher e-commerce solutions in the US and UK.
Upon launching Firebrand Technologies, Toolan understood that the publishing industry was a unique and creative business that needed efficient tools and workflow processes to thrive and be profitable. “These tools must accentuate the creativity in publishing,” he said at the time, “not hinder it.”
Fran Toolan, current CEO of the Firebrand Group
In February 2021, Firebrand was acquired by Media Do International (MD-i), the US-based subsidiary of Japan’s Media Do Co., Ltd, one of the largest ebook distribution companies in the world retaining the largest share of Japan’s $4.5 billion eBook market.
“With the support of MD-i, the Firebrand Group is growing and innovating at an unparalleled rate of speed,” said Toolan. “The opportunities in front of us are very exciting, and I’m equally excited that Angela will be here to guide us going forward.”
Said Daihei Shiohama, CEO of MD-i: “Both here and in Japan, we are so excited to have Angela succeed Fran. We are determined to provide utmost support to Firebrand Group with Angela as new CEO. With the annual growth rate of close to 20% in Japan’s digital publishing market where NFT, XR, and other diversified elements stimulate the publishing industry, we are convinced that Angela will lead the group to uplift the global publishing industry’s expansion.”
Bole, a 2019 Publishers Weekly notable person of the year, began her career at an independent bookstore in Jackson, WY before moving to NYC in 2005 to pursue a Masters in book publishing from New York University. While in NYC, she held various positions with the Book Industry Study Group (BISG)–including a stint as interim executive director–where she spearheaded research into consumer attitudes toward ebook reading, oversaw initiatives supporting the industry’s transition to ISBN-13, and developed best practices and other documentation for use of the ONIX and EPUB standards. Bole served as treasurer of the International Digital Publishers Forum (IDPF) from 2011 to 2014, before moving to Manhattan Beach, CA to become ED and later CEO of IBPA, where she has stabilized and grown operations for the past nine years.
“During her years leading IBPA, Angela has transformed the organization into the leading association for advocating and supporting the growing community of independent publishers,” said current IBPA Board Chair Karla Olson (Director, Patagonia Books). “During the last two challenging years in particular, Angela made certain IBPA provided innovative and essential member support and increased efforts to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion within all aspects of the association. IBPA will be forever grateful to Angela for her leadership, her vision, and her passion for publishing.”
Bole officially assumes the position of Firebrand Group CEO on February 1, 2023. When asked what she hopes to achieve, she said, “Firebrand has been powering the publishing industry for over 30 years through quality software solutions and a dedicated and committed staff. Given all we’ve learned over the past few years, I hope to build upon what’s already working to enable even more efficiencies for the companies Firebrand serves. I know this will be a team effort; I couldn’t be more excited to join and lead the team.”
About the Firebrand Group The Firebrand Group, consisting of Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley, and Supadu, provides leading software and services to help publishers achieve success. The Firebrand Group is owned by Media Do International (MD-i), the US-based subsidiary of Japan’s Media Do Co., Ltd, one of the largest ebook distribution companies in the world retaining the largest share of Japan’s ebook market. For more information, visit firebrandtech.com. For more information on Media Do’s services and corporate divisions, visit mediado.jp/english. The Firebrand Group’s bi-annual Community Conference shall be held in September this year in Baltimore, MD. For more information, please visit firebrandtech.com/conference.
About the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Founded in 1983 to support independent publishers nationwide, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) leads and serves the independent publishing community through advocacy, education, and tools for success. With over 4,000 members, IBPA is the largest publishing association in the U.S. Its vision is a world where every independent publisher has the access, knowledge, and tools needed to professionally engage in all aspects of an inclusive publishing industry. For more information, visit ibpa-online.org.
We’ve all learned a lot over the past couple of years, and 2021 has taught us some especially interesting things. Here are a few takeaways and trends from 2021 that we’ll carry with us as we continue to grow, evolve, and serve the book publishing industry!
Book publishing is in a period of renewal
Often, the things that challenge us the most also create great opportunities. The world has nearly two years of this pandemic behind it, and many publishers have seen surprising gains as consumers turn to books to fill their hours at home. On the BookSmarts podcast, Michael Cader, Founder of Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com had this to say about additional opportunities the industry has at this moment:
“As we go through this COVID transition [we] redefine what work looks like and how work becomes meaningful….In the pandemic, people stopped going to book fairs and they stopped touring authors, and a lot of them stopped sending out [printed] galleys, and cut back on marketing expenses and did all kinds of things, some out of necessity, some because those things just didn’t exist, and some for ease, and some because they wanted to conserve. So, there’s this really interesting chance to rethink: Where are we spending our dollars? How are we spending those dollars consciously? And what’s driving ROI?
“There’s an interesting opportunity to rethink every role within the organization. What have people actually done during COVID, when they’ve been working with less direct supervision more on their own at home? And how has that worked well? And how can we enfranchise people to keep doing more of that, and less of what they didn’t like doing?
It’s this really interesting reset moment. The good news is that publishing is coming at it from a position of strength.
– Michael Cader, Founder of Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com
“We’re also in this interesting moment of the industry finally reckoning with diversity in a more meaningful way. Part of diversity means having an industry that’s not just centered in New York. Only certain types of people can afford to live and work in New York, and New York has all sorts of different people and viewpoints in it, but it’s not the nation at large.
“I think writ large it’s this really interesting reset moment. The good news is that publishing is coming at it from a position of strength… the sales are there, the readers are there. The retail channels have been resilient… So there’s a really strong foundation to build from. So, where people go from there, I think will determine a lot of what the trajectory of the business looks like, over the next few years.”
We know that NetGalley is just one of many ways that readers discover books. According to our 2021 NetGalley Member Survey, Goodreads, Friends/Peers, and Amazon also top their list for finding new books. For audio listeners, the library is also a very important means of discovery.
In the Panorama Project’s Immersive Media & Reading Consumer Survey, Dr. Kathi Inman Berens (Associate Professor of Book Publishing and Digital Humanities, at Portland State University) and Dr. Rachel Noorda (Director of Book Publishing and Assistant Professor in English) conducted a consumer behavior study focused on how book discovery works and how libraries fit into the book discovery ecosystem. In April, they spoke about their work on the BookSmarts podcast.
Dr. Berens notes, “In roughly equal numbers, people find a book online and then buy it in a bookstore, or discover a book in a bookstore and then buy it online. It’s actually far more fluid than just looking at sales data would suggest.
“The diversity of ways that people discover books suggests that there’s no one formula for discovery. We do know that people have multiple touch points… We also know that people are largely unaware of how metadata works, how algorithms and recommendation algorithms work. So a question that would be super hard to capture in self-report data would be: How many times did you encounter this book before you finally decided to open your wallet? Or you finally decided to check it out from the library? That’s hard for consumers to be aware of.”
Immersive Media & Books: Consumer Behavior and Experience with Multiple Media Forms, Portland State University 2021, Published by Panorama Project
Dr. Norda adds, “Our study was a cross-media one, and what we found is that avid readers are also avid media consumers in other categories. They’re gaming, they’re watching TV and movies. And there is a really high discovery rate cross-media. About 60% of people are going from engaging with a book to then finding a new TV series, or movie, or game. 61% are going from TV or movie to then finding a book or a game. Games was the lowest [category for cross-media discovery]—but still, about a third, 33% [are] engaging with a game and then finding other media like a book or TV/movies. Cross-discovery is something I don’t think we engage enough with in the industry, to think about readers as cross media consumers.”
We at NetGalley firmly believe in giving publishers access to their data about NetGalley activity. Information like early impressions, numbers of requests and, of course, the Reviews and Feedback they receive give marketers and publicists the tools they need to analyze the effectiveness of their strategies. This early data helps build context for not only their NetGalley efforts, but their work as a whole. (Have you read our article, The Importance of Early Data?)
Earlier this year, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Chief Content Officer at LibraryPass spoke with the BookSmarts podcast, saying, “My issue with ‘data-driven’ is [that] it’s become kind of a buzzword that’s lost its original meaning. I compare it to the early days of GPS, where if you’re not paying attention, GPS will drive you off a cliff.
“Data is only as useful as the context you’re pulling it into, and the other insights you bring to it. Otherwise it can cause you to make some rather myopic decisions. [If] you’re getting all this sales data that says, 70% of our sales are from Amazon, a data-driven approach might say, ‘All right, we’re gonna put 70% of our resources and effort towards maximizing sales on Amazon.’ And data-informed says, ‘Okay, well, we know Amazon is a transactional point, for a lot of people, but it’s not necessarily the point of discovery. [There are] sites that include links to Amazon, social links…’
“Data is only as useful as the context you’re pulling it into, and the other insights you bring to it.“
– Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Chief Content Officer at LibraryPass
“There’s a lot of reasons people go to buy a book on Amazon, and half of them have nothing to do with Amazon helping them discover that book. So if you decide to shift 70% of your resources towards Amazon advertising, and you’re only prioritizing metadata on Amazon, you potentially are losing all of the other touch points that drove those sales to Amazon and suddenly, your Amazon percentage may stay at 70% but your overall sales may drop. And that, to me, is one of the key differences between we’re data-driven versus data-informed. That’s where you really draw a line.”
Joshua Tallent, Director of Sales and Education at Firebrand Technologies and BookSmarts host, adds, “The amount of data you have and the type of data you’re pulling in… if you’re only looking at a subset of real information, then you’re only going to have enough information to make a very narrow choice. But when it comes down to the data that publishers receive, a lot of times, they don’t get enough data to really be able to be data-informed in the first place. And so you feel like you have to be data-driven, and just make decisions based on what you’ve got.”
Data informed publishers constantly analyze their raw data from as many sources as they can find—from their own internal databases as well as data from their partners’, even beyond sales data. What data points do you use to inform your strategies?
Although most titles available on NetGalley are pre-pub, frontlist books (“galley” is in our name, after all), we often work with publishers to promote backlist as well! Often, a publisher wants to promote an author’s previous works on the cusp of a new release, or an important current event may make an older book suddenly relevant to audiences again.
In his interview with BookSmarts, Michael Cader notes, “It’s sort of extraordinary that the business is doing so well given the depth of the real challenges we’re seeing. One is just the increasing difficulty of selling new books, right? You know, what we’ve seen during the pandemic is the backlist sales continue to rise. Backlist sales have been rising for years, which is in part a function of the increased percentage of book sales online, right? Because an online environment is less conducive to displaying new titles, and stacking them up and putting them in prime real estate [as happens in brick and mortar stores], and more conducive to people browsing or searching, or going to look for the book they want at the price or vendor they want to get it from.”
Chief Marketing Officer at Open Road Integrated Media, Mary McAveney, in a separate interview adds, “Lots of publishers saw great increases in revenue and in sales during that time when people were turning to online search, or browsing [retail sites], but a lot of what was happening is readers were gravitating to books they knew about. They either remembered, or they were classics or somehow the book had an audience.”
Referencing BookNet Canada’s study Aged like a fine wine: What’s the ideal age for a backlist title?, Joshua Tallent says, “When you get into two-to-five years, things really pick up. And so there’s an opportunity there for publishers to take advantage of that—especially with debut authors, or lesser known authors, or those midlist titles that aren’t necessarily the ones that are really going to push a ton of marketing on at the beginning, because they don’t have the time or the energy or the or the money for that. Hitting that middle time period, that two-to-five years, might be just a benefit to go back and say, Hey, let’s just put a little more at this, let’s think about these titles that really haven’t… they’ve kind of been selling a little bit here and there. Let’s put a little bit of effort behind them.”
In a few different conversations, Joshua wants to focus on practicalities. He notes the opportunity and asks, “Where do you think discovery comes from? What do you think that can be doing to really push more discovery?”
Drive discovery by joining communities
Connecting directly with readers has long been at the forefront of publishers’ efforts. Within NetGalley, we see publishers directly invite important media contacts, reviewers and influencers, and use their reports to follow up directly with them. As you can imagine, a number of the people who Joshua interviewed spoke about direct-to-reader efforts as well.
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez says, “A lot of the practicalities come from a direct connection to readership. One of the first things I look at is: if you’ve got a clear vertical that you serve, you’ve got opportunities to capture data beyond just the sales data that gets fed to you from your partners.
“…There is a community for everything on the internet, you can get a pretty clear sense of how big it is and how engaged they are. And you can build a business model around that, if you can develop the right content or services—you know, it’s not just about books—for those communities. But it starts with really understanding those communities. And to do that, you got to be a part of them. So you can’t just go buy, you know, Reddit’s mailing list, or do an ad buy on Reddit, and think you’re engaging with the community, you’re just, you know, shifting traditional marketing approaches to the internet.”
“It’s critical to make sure that you’re thinking about the consumer more than you’re thinking about the book.”
– Mary McAveney,Chief Marketing Officer at Open Road Integrated Media
Mary McAveney adds, “If you have a media hit around a book, it’s like manna from heaven…. but you know, what you have to do is actually build your own verticals, to build your own content sites, because there are people looking for books, and they may only know Dan Brown’s name. They don’t know anybody else in that genre, but they know they like that book. It sounds sort of simplistic, but you want to bring in those people who like that book, and it’s really important to make sure that the [next] book you’re putting in front of them when they’re doing that search is something they’re going to enjoy just as much as that book.
“Authors spend their lives writing [fantastic books] and they shouldn’t be punished just because the demand isn’t evident. You should be able to build that. But it’s work. It’s really creating your own owned media through funnels and content verticals and articles. And if you can harness those readers and really continue that relationship and build it. If you become like a hand-seller you know what [anyone] likes to read, right? Because they’re clicking pretty consistently on the books that they like to read. And as that reader stays in your system for years, you become even more and more familiar with what they’re looking for. And you can really segment the titles well for them, and so that becomes really critical.”
Presented by NetGalley, We Are Bookish is an editorial blog, presenting an independent voice to highlight books and a bookish lifestyle. Recurring features include: book recommendations, author interviews & guest posts from publishing professionals, cover and stepback reveals, gift guides, book club resources, NetGalley member spotlights, and more.
“I know that so many publishers, of all different sizes, are building mailing lists and really trying to develop that one-to-one relationship with the consumer. And it’s critical, but it’s also critical to make sure that you’re thinking about that consumer more than you’re thinking about the book. You have a book you spent a lot of money on to purchase, and you want to push that book out to every consumer you can think of, but that isn’t necessarily going to win the day at the end. You want to really cultivate those customers.
“It’s not an easy proposition. It’s extremely costly to do that. But the way we [at Open Road] started, is really to start with demand. What are people currently searching for? How does that map to the kinds of books that we have available to put in front of them? It starts there, and then you can use those audiences to build—it becomes sort of a pyramid, you get your base of consumers, and then you use those to build on top of it more, more and more. Whether you’re using social channels, or you’re using external newsletter ads, or you’re using just your content and your search engine optimization, or you’re using search engine marketing, there are a number of tools. And they all require a good amount of expertise to function well.”
Interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
In Part I of our Member Survey overview, we saw that 49% of the nearly 10,000 respondents consider themselves to be Audiobook listeners. It was important to us to gain more knowledge about their listening preferences and habits, so we asked Audio-specific questions to those members who favor the format. We’re excited to share even more of what we learned!
Librarians, Educators and Reviewers are the biggest listeners of Audiobooks on NetGalley, though all member types show significant interest in the format! Once we narrowed down those members who consider themselves Audiobook listeners, we asked even more specific questions about their listening habits. The following charts include responses from only those members who indicated that they listen to Audiobooks.
Across all member types, most survey respondents listened to between 1 and 9 Audiobooks in the past year. But a significant portion (20.5% on average) indicated that they listened to 10-19 Audiobooks. Educators in particular fall into this range. As we saw in Part I of our Member Survey overview, NetGalley members are voracious readers and listeners who consume multiple books per year, across formats.
Most members indicated that they listen to Audiobooks daily:
With only one exception, all member types listen to Audiobooks daily. Only Booksellers are slightly more likely to listen on a weekly basis instead.
Since NetGalley members read and listen across all formats, it was important to us to understand why someone might choose an Audiobook over the print or digital format. 58% of respondents explicitly said they choose Audiobooks because they are already a fan of the narrator. This is not surprising, as we’re seeing elevated profiles for narrators online, where they are building loyal followings on social media.
To escalate this growth, Audiobook publishers can strategically include prepub access as part of their marketing strategy, and coordinate even more closely with the marketing and publicity teams who are working on the other formats. This will ensure that important audio-specific info—like narrator or cast—are included in those efforts, and that prepub access is granted to NetGalley members who are likely to access and review both formats. This will help build more buzz and momentum for the Audiobook at on-sale, and it will empower narrators to build their own platforms and following—a similar process that authors have traditionally benefited from.
Did you know . . . Audiobooks on NetGalley currently generate a higher rate of return for Feedback when compared to Digital Review Copies. The Feedback rate for Audiobooks averages about 46%, compared to 33% for DRCs, since January 2021.
When we asked members why they love listening to Audiobooks, they told us that the audio format allows them to multitask. Nearly all of the top five reasons they listen to Audiobooks have to do with this broadest motive:
The top five activities that members participate in while listening to Audiobooks include:
So, where do these listeners discover Audiobooks?
NetGalley is a top source for Audiobook discovery for most members, with Librarians slightly favoring discovery within a library. We’ve only shown the top five responses for each member type in the chart above, but other sources include Libro.fm and Social Media Influencers.
Nearly all members selected Goodreads as their preferred social media platform for Audiobook discovery, with Instagram as a close second. The one exception was Media, who favor Instagram over Goodreads. Facebook is the third choice for all member types.
We also provided a write-in option to tell us specifically who their favorite narrators were, and over 400 individual narrators were mentioned, many of whom were frequently repeated by multiple members. Julia Whalen was named over 100 times!
NetGalley is the top source for Audiobook discovery among survey respondents. On average, 64% indicated they discover Audiobooks on NetGalley.
Additionally, 74% of survey respondents said NetGalley Promotions influence their decision to request or download books and audiobooks! Did you know that Audio publishers can take advantage of any of the NetGalley Promotions found in our Media Kit? Explore our Audiobook-specific Recently Added Spotlights and seasonal Audiobook-specific Newsletters—both with special pricing!
We have been so thrilled to work with publishers to promote their Audiobooks. Since NetGalley introduced the audio format on our platform in 2020, over 45,000 members have expressed interest in Audiobooks within their NetGalley Profile and have submitted over 100,000 Feedback and Reviews.
These survey results reinforced how valuable NetGalley can be for Audiobook publishers, so we’re offering new clients a FREE 2-month subscription*—if you sign up by December 31, 2021. Existing clients can get FREE placement in our next Audiobook Newsletter on January 13, 2022 (a $500 value).
Email concierge [at] netgalley.com before the end of the year to take advantage of either offer!
For more information about the NetGalley community as a whole, in particular their habits with digital and/or print formats, please see Part I of our Member Survey overview.
*This free 2-month offer allows for up to 5 active audiobooks on NetGalley, a value of nearly $800. If you’re interested in adding more than 5 audiobooks, please let us know!
All data taken from NetGalley’s 2021 Member Survey (conducted from August 14 – 31, 2021), and/or from member stats and activity on the NetGalley.com platform as of September 2021.
Over the past two years, NetGalley has recorded unprecedented growth. Since 2019, the NetGalley community has grown by 50%!With so many new members, we knew it was important to gain more knowledge about their reading preferences and habits to ensure we understand how and why they interact with books, whether on NetGalley or elsewhere.
This summer, we launched a survey and nearly 10,000 active NetGalley members in the U.S. answered our call. We’re excited to share what we learned!
49% of all survey respondents consider themselves audiobook listeners, and that’s still just a fraction of the over 45,000 members who have expressed interest in Audiobooks within their NetGalley Profile. Keep an eye out for more insights about Audiobook listeners in the coming weeks—we’ll have more to share about the audio-specific questions from this survey in Part II of our Member Survey overview! Keep an eye on your NetGalley publisher dashboard to be alerted about it!
While BookTok continues to turn backlist titles into bestsellers, at this moment TikTok is relatively low on our members’ social media priorities. For Booksellers, it was the 5th top social media platform (after Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). For Reviewers, Educators and Librarians it came in as 6th. Although social media trends ebb and flow, if Bookstagram and BookTube are anything to go by we’re sure to see BookTok continue to gain traction among NetGalley members. We’ll be paying close attention to their habits in this space.
It’s probably no surprise that Goodreads is among the top platforms for talking about books, and Bookstagram continues to be a popular and powerful platform for NetGalley members. As you can see above, it is among the top social platforms for nearly all members. This is especially true for Audiobook discovery, which we’ll share more about in Part II of our Member Survey overview.
When you are working on social campaigns for your books, be sure to include NetGalley in those plans! Customize the hashtags you’d like members to use when they’re talking about a book, and consider a Sponsored Social Package with shareable posts and interactive content. (See page 18 of our 2022 Media Kit.)
74% of survey respondents said NetGalley Promotions influence their decision to request or download books and audiobooks!
Perhaps no surprise, but in addition to posting reviews on Goodreads, NetGalley members also use that platform to discover new titles as well. Friend and peer recommendations remain high.
As a resource for discovering new books, Publishers remain high on the list for all member types! All of your efforts to invite members using the NetGalley widget and approving requests are working–we’ve seen an average of over 230,000 monthly approvals in 2021.
As you can see, even aside from NetGalley our community is very active in the bookish world. We know that NetGalley members are avid readers, and it was important to us to gain a greater understanding of their habits even outside of our own system. Demonstrated in the charts below, NetGalley members are definitely reading both print and digital.
NetGalley members are voracious readers–consuming multiple books per year, across formats. In addition to Print and Digital formats, Audiobooks continue to grow in popularity among our members. On average, 20.5% of survey respondents said they’ve listened to 10-19 Audiobooks in the past year. We’ll go into more detail about this in Part II of our Member Survey overview!
It’s clear that NetGalley members favor the digital format, but they are very driven to consume book content in any form and continue to read and purchase books beyond their activities on NetGalley. Remember to follow up with approved NetGalley members at the pub date to remind them to share their reviews, as well as offer them retail links to share with their audiences (or use themselves!).
Finally, here’s a look at the full, 650k-strong NetGalley.com member community today. We are proud to work with these highly engaged and supportive reviewers, educators, media, librarians, and booksellers. They’re here to help your books succeed!
650k NetGalley.com members as of November 2021
NetGalley.com Activity
257k unique users monthly 409k avg Requests each month for Books & Audiobooks 87% approved books are downloaded 82k avg Feedback each month for Books & Audiobooks
Part II of our Member Survey overview will be released soon, all about the NetGalley community’s Audiobook listening preferences. Keep an eye on your NetGalley publisher dashboard to be alerted about it!
All data taken from NetGalley’s 2021 Member Survey (conducted from August 14 – 31, 2021), and/or from member stats and activity on the NetGalley.com platform as of September 2021.
Hundreds of publishers use our powerful platform to launch their frontlist and leverage their backlist. Whether your goal is to reach trade professionals and early influencers, generate reviews, run giveaways, collect pre-orders, advertise around the pub date, or connect directly with your audience—we have options for every budget, goal and type of book.
74% of members said NetGalley Promotions influence their decision to request or download books and audiobooks!*
These popular programs continue to deliver outstanding results while remaining at a competitive price—even while NetGalley has sustained record-breaking traffic over the past two years. NetGalley.com continues to average nearly 7 million pageviews each month, and our promotional programs are highly valued for their strong engagement rates.
Our dedicated team is committed to meeting the increased demand, so we’ve expanded our inventory for 2022—including brand-new offerings, too!
It is our sincere pleasure to be part of the success of your books, and we look forward to working with you on great campaigns in 2022.
*per August 2021 Member Survey with nearly 10,000 respondents
