NetGalley offers a wealth of insightful data that sheds light on the latest trends and preferences, and this month we’re focusing on Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga. If you haven’t browsed these categories recently, you may be missing out! In the last 12 months, publishers have added nearly 650 new books, generating a lot of engagement and excitement from the NetGalley community.
Read on for a glimpse at some of the Most Requested* and Top Performing** books in these categories!
Most Requested Comics, Graphic Novel, Manga
On average, books in the Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga category receive about 150 requests and auto-approvals. This includes activity generated when a publisher invites a reader to access the book using the NetGalley widget or makes the book available to ‘Read Now’, in addition to organic requests from NetGalley members. The Feedback Ratio (amount of Feedback returned based on all types of approval) is 31%.
* Most requested status changes regularly.Books listed in this article were among the most requested on August 9, 2023.
Top Performing Comics
** “Top Performers” refers to the amount of Feedback titles received. Books listed in this article were among the Top Performers in August 2023.
Top Performing Graphic Novels
Top Performing Manga
Case Study: It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth
by Zoe Thorogood
Image Comics added It’s Lonely at the Center of the Earth to NetGalley on June 29, 2023. In just two months, this graphic memoir has seen some amazing activity
– 64 Feedback, primarily 4 or 5 stars
– 1500 + impressions
– 100% of booksellers nominated the book for Indie Next List
– 89% of Librarians would order for their library
– 53 “thumbs up” on the cover image
Plus, Image Comics enhanced their title record with a Press Release and Reading Guide, maximizing the resources available to NetGalley members.
Reviews for It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth on Instagram, Goodreads, TikTok, and individual blogs
Promotions for Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga
Launch your frontlist or leverage your backlist! We have both on-site and email promotions for every budget, goal, and type of book. Learn more or view the full Media Kit here.
This newsletter was sent to over 35,000 members who are interested in Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga, and saw a 36% open rate!
NetGalley offers a wealth of insightful data that sheds light on the latest trends and preferences, and this month we’re focusing on children’s books. If you haven’t browsed the Children’s Fiction, Children’s Nonfiction, or Middle Grade categories recently, you may be missing out! In the last 12 months, publishers have added nearly 4,500 new books, generating a lot of engagement and excitement from the NetGalley community.
Children’s and Middle Grade books receive a lot of interest from reviewers, educators, librarians, booksellers, and media who use NetGalley to discover new books to share with their audiences.
In the last 12 months, publishers added nearly 4,500 new books to NetGalley in these categories!
Read on for a glimpse at some of the Most Requested* and Top Performing** books in these categories!
Most Requested Children’s Fiction
On average, books in the Children’s Fiction category receive about 71 requests and auto-approvals. This includes activity generated when a publisher invites a reader to access the book using the NetGalley widget or makes the book available to ‘Read Now’, in addition to organic requests from NetGalley members. The Feedback Ratio (amount of Feedback returned based on all types of approval) is 25%.
* Most requested status changes regularly.Books listed in this article were among the most requested on June 16, 2023.
Top Performing Children’s Fiction
** “Top Performers” refers to the amount of Feedback titles received. Books listed in this article were among the Top Performers in May 2023.
Most Requested Children’s Nonfiction
On average, books in the Children’s Nonfiction category receive about 52 requests and auto-approvals. The Feedback Ratio is 29%.
Top Performing Children’s Nonfiction
Most Requested Middle Grade
On average, books in the Middle Grade category receive about 96 requests and auto-approvals. The Feedback Ratio is 17%.
Top Performing Middle Grade
Promotions for Children’s & Middle Grade Books
Launch your frontlist or leverage your backlist! We have both on-site and email promotions for every budget, goal, and type of book. Learn more or view the full Media Kit here.
This newsletter was sent to over 33,000 members who are interested in Children’s and Middle Grade titles, and saw a 44% open rate!
NetGalley is thrilled to co-host the Firebrand Group Community Conference next week (Sept. 26 – 28, 2022) in Baltimore. We can’t wait to present you with this stellar lineup of sessions, featuring speakers from across the industry including keynote addresses from Kirsty Melville and Alistair Croll, plus an introduction to incoming CEO, Angela Bole!
Connect with Your Audience: Marketing Sessions
Building & Scaling Influencer Programs Effectively: TikTok, Instagram, & More
Activating social media influencers is one of the fastest and most effective marketing tools to drive awareness—but it can also be one of the most time consuming and challenging. This session will focus on the tactical elements of building influencer programs based on individual titles as well as entire genres across TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Learn how to scale collaborations and maximize budgets with long-term partnership advice, negotiation tactics, and efficiency ideas.
Insights Into Action: The Making of a Bestseller
Presented by: Andrea DeWerd, book marketing strategist, consultant, author
As publishers are competing with streaming services, TikTok, podcasts, and every other hobby for consumers’ attention, book marketers have to adapt new technology for the competitive edge. In this session, book marketing strategist and consultant Andrea DeWerd will present a simple and effective approach for leveling up your organization’s MarTech stack to streamline and scale campaigns for success. We’ll look at the audience insights that drove a New York Times bestselling cookbook, as well as the steps to:
Become a data-informed marketing organization
Solicit buy-in for new technology at every level of the organization
Create a culture of teaching, training, and learning for new tech adoption
Beyond the Book Review: Leveraging Media Placements for Lasting Author Success
While securing book reviews is a major goal for almost every author, what happens after is just as important. During this session, discover how to leverage book reviews from NetGalley and other sources for well-rounded author success. Topics include:
The different types of reviews including endorsements, trade, media, and consumer reviews and the impact each has an on author’s brand
How consumer reviews affect retail algorithms
How to leverage reviews to line up author events, speaking engagements, etc.
The long-lasting impact of book reviews—reviews serve as a foundation to further opportunity
Placement and use for NetGalley reviews
Finding Your Audience/Growing Your Community
Presented by Tarah Theoret, Senior Director, Community Experience, and Kelly Gallucci, Executive Editor, We Are Bookish
Join the NetGalley Member Experience team to learn how targeted acquisition efforts can help expand your audience. This session will explore using data (from NetGalley as well as external sources like Google Analytics, social media platforms, & newsletter subscribers) to identify product/brand champions and inform your community engagement and retention strategies.
Discussion: Maintaining Momentum Beyond the Pub Date
Book publishers know that they have a wealth of IP in their backlist, but what is the most effective way to mine it? In this session, we will explore creative ways to surface the most relevant backlist titles of the moment, in order to drive their momentum when the time is right. For this group discussion, we hope attendees will come ready to share their concerns, ideas, and successes!
NetGalley 101
Presented by Darcy Piedmonte, Senior Sales Manager, NetGalley
Rediscover the roots of your NetGalley publisher account! Kristina Radke, VP of Business Growth & Engagement, will guide you through each important moment of a book’s life on NetGalley. We’ll cover everything from creating new titles, setting Availability, incorporating the Widget in your day-to-day efforts, managing requests, building your Auto-Approved List, as well as looking at and using the robust reports available to you.
NetGalley Promotions Overview
Presented by Lindsey Lochner, Executive Vice President, NetGalley
Learn how publishers use NetGalley Promotions to launch their frontlist and leverage their backlist to reach trade professionals and early influencers, generate reviews, run giveaways, collect pre-orders, advertise around the pub date, and connect directly with their audience. With advertising options for every budget, goal, and type of book, NetGalley’s popular programs are highly valued for their strong engagement rates—delivering outstanding results while remaining at a competitive price.
More sessions will be announced as they are finalized! While you wait, be sure to talk to your colleagues about attending the Firebrand Group Community Conference. Each track focuses on different aspects of the publishing process.
Connecting Publishing Workflows | Sessions for production, editorial, and business ops teams, including Title Management users and administrators.
Connect with Your Audience| Sessions for book marketers and publicists, including NetGalley and Supadu users.
From Connection to Conversion | Sessions for sales and business ops teams, including Title Management, Eloquence on Demand, and Supadu users.
Connect the Dots with Data | Sessions for data analysts, business ops, and marketing teams, including Eloquence on Alert and NetGalley users.
Register today to ensure your space and take advantage of the Early Bird Discount rate! A Group Discount is available for multiple team members attending from one company. Please email us for details.
Join us for a very special opportunity to connect with the NetGalley team and your peers from across the publishing industry!
We are thrilled to announce some of the sessions that will be presented at the Firebrand Group Community Conference, September 26- 28 in Baltimore! Experts from across the publishing industry will be speaking about topics critical to your work. This track is dedicated to book marketers and publicists, including NetGalley users, and is specifically designed to help you connect with your audience.
Building & Scaling Influencer Programs Effectively: TikTok, Instagram, & More
Activating social media influencers is one of the fastest and most effective marketing tools to drive awareness—but it can also be one of the most time consuming and challenging. This session will focus on the tactical elements of building influencer programs based on individual titles as well as entire genres across TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Learn how to scale collaborations and maximize budgets with long-term partnership advice, negotiation tactics, and efficiency ideas.
Insights Into Action: The Making of a Bestseller
Presented by: Andrea DeWerd, Senior Marketing Director at Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins
The Harvest lifestyle marketing team at HarperCollins has adopted a unique MarTech stack to streamline and scale campaigns in a traditionally very old-fashioned industry. Please join us for this session with Senior Marketing Director Andrea DeWerd and learn how this team adopted new technology to launch a New York Times bestseller and leads the organization in marketing experimentation driven by audience insights and data synthesis.
Key Takeaways:
Becoming a data-informed marketing organization
Soliciting buy-in for new technology at every level of the organization
Creating a culture of teaching, training, and learning for new tech adoption
The path to a New York Times bestselling cookbook
Finding Your Audience/Growing Your Community
Presented by Tarah Theoret, Senior Director, Community Experience, and Kelly Gallucci, Executive Editor, We Are Bookish
Join the NetGalley Member Experience team to learn how targeted acquisition efforts can help expand your audience. This session will explore using data (from NetGalley as well as external sources like Google Analytics, social media platforms, & newsletter subscribers) to identify product/brand champions and inform your community engagement and retention strategies.
Discussion: Maintaining Momentum Beyond the Pub Date
Book publishers know that they have a wealth of IP in their backlist, but what is the most effective way to mine it? In this session, we will explore creative ways to surface the most relevant backlist titles of the moment, in order to drive their momentum when the time is right. For this group discussion, we hope attendees will come ready to share their concerns, ideas, and successes!
NetGalley 101
Rediscover the roots of your NetGalley publisher account! Kristina Radke, VP of Business Growth & Engagement, will guide you through each important moment of a book’s life on NetGalley. We’ll cover everything from creating new titles, setting Availability, incorporating the Widget in your day-to-day efforts, managing requests, building your Auto-Approved List, as well as looking at and using the robust reports available to you.
NetGalley Promotions Overview
Learn how publishers use NetGalley Promotions to launch their frontlist and leverage their backlist to reach trade professionals and early influencers, generate reviews, run giveaways, collect pre-orders, advertise around the pub date, and connect directly with their audience. With advertising options for every budget, goal, and type of book, NetGalley’s popular programs are highly valued for their strong engagement rates—delivering outstanding results while remaining at a competitive price.
More sessions will be announced as they are finalized! While you wait, be sure to talk to your colleagues about attending the Firebrand Group Community Conference. Each track focuses on different aspects of the publishing process.
Connecting Publishing Workflows | Sessions for production, editorial, and business ops teams, including Title Management users and administrators.
Connect with Your Audience| Sessions for book marketers and publicists, including NetGalley and Supadu users.
From Connection to Conversion | Sessions for sales and business ops teams, including Title Management, Eloquence on Demand, and Supadu users.
Connect the Dots with Data | Sessions for data analysts, business ops, and marketing teams, including Eloquence on Alert and NetGalley users.
Register today to ensure your space and take advantage of the Early Bird Discount rate! A Group Discount is available for multiple team members attending from one company. Please email us for details.
NetGalley is a member of the Firebrand Group, which provides leading software and services to help publishers achieve success. In addition to sessions geared toward marketers and publicists who use NetGalley, the Firebrand Group Community Conference will include tracks dedicated to users of Firebrand’s Title Management and Eloquence services, as well as Supadu’s website and ecommerce solutions.
Get smarter about your books! The BookSmarts podcast features discussions about publishing data and technologies and interviews with industry experts, deep thinkers, and doers, bringing you insights that will help you sell more books.
Episode 24: Cory Verner on the Growth of Audiobooks
Cory Verner is the CEO of ONE Audiobooks, a publisher of audiobooks and a turnkey audio services provider. Cory has been working in the audiobooks industry for over 20 years, and has seen the changes in technology, the changes in focus, and the growth in sales as the format has taken off in the last 6-7 years. Cory and I talk about some of the reasons for that growth, the demographics of listeners, and some specific differences between the Inspirational Books market that he is closely connected to compared to the general audiobooks market.
We also talk about how the audiobooks industry has changed over time, including technology changes that have driven much of the recent growth, and we discuss the risks publishers take on when they create their own audiobook program.
You can learn more about ONE Audiobooks at oneaudiobooks.com (corporate site) and oneaudiobooks.app (customer engagement tools).
Joshua Tallent is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing, and a vocal advocate for high quality book metadata. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys playing complex board games, playing Minecraft, and fiddling with his 3D printer.
Get smarter about your books! The BookSmarts podcast features discussions about publishing data and technologies and interviews with industry experts, deep thinkers, and doers, bringing you insights that will help you sell more books.
Episode 23: Mark Herschberg How Books Might Escape the Page
In this episode we are joined by Mark Herschberg, publisher at Cognosco Media, author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You, and the developer of a new app that is attempting to promote a new take on reader interaction with book content.
I was a bit skeptical of Mark’s approach from the offset, having seen so many ebook apps and new ideas about digital engagement flame out over the years. However, Mark and I had a great conversation about how the relevant content in a book might be more or less than the actual page count, how so many new technologies are just like sticking a fake horse head on the front of an automobile, and more. Mark shared some of the ideas behind his app, most notably the notifications feature that can help readers recall key points from books they have read.
Joshua Tallent is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing, and a vocal advocate for high quality book metadata. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys playing complex board games, playing Minecraft, and fiddling with his 3D printer.
