Celebrating Growth This Spring at NetGalley

At NetGalley, we’re honored to be your partner in connecting books with the readers you want to reach—and it fills us with pride to report on our platform activity that directly benefits your books. This month we’re celebrating all the amazing activity your books saw on NetGalley.com in Q1:

630,000+ Active Members

When we say “active” we mean it! NetGalley regularly removes inactive member accounts, ensuring that we’re reporting a true community size. We have a dedicated team who engage with the NetGalley community to ensure they have all the resources they need to succeed as book advocates. Resources like the Book Advocate Toolkit and Social Media Handbook are designed to help our members write valuable reviews, navigate key bookish social spaces like BookTok and Bookstagram, and become even more effective promoters of your marketing efforts. Plus, we’re always excited to help craft your Book Club Kits to include author interviews, recipes, activities, book recommendations, and discussion questions for library, school, bookstore, and reader-driven clubs.

We love nurturing NetGalley’s knowledgeable and passionate community, who work to amplify your books’ reach across every corner of bookish conversation.

10.7 Million Avg Pageviews Each Month

With close to 11 million pageviews per month, Q1 2025 saw 9% growth when compared to the same period last year. This activity is driven by our community’s interest in the books that publishers and authors make available on NetGalley.com (nearly 7,500 books and audiobooks in Q1 alone), and desire to spread the word about the books they read!

More Than Just Views!

Your books benefit from more than just impressions on NetGalley—here are additional key KPIs that we tracked from January – March 2025:

Freebies, FOMO, and Sales Funnels: The Secret Recipe for Selling More Books

Smart consumer marketing isn’t about selling harder—it’s about creating buzz, building trust, and turning browsers into buyers.

First, what is consumer marketing?

The primary goal of consumer marketing is to increase discoverability for your book, both within and outside of the known target audience. It may include a number of different tactics, like:

Advertising (increase visibility)
Incentives (discounts, bundles, special packaging, etc.)
Engagement campaigns (to encourage a flurry of activity that others want to join, like giveaways, limited-time offers, author interactions, etc.)

These efforts work together to put your book in front of the widest potential audience, with a goal of sales conversion. Consumer marketing tactics can and should effectively fill your sales funnel.

Why does it work?

Well-planned consumer marketing fosters reader engagement in both the short and long-term. The more often consumers see a product, the more likely they are to follow through to purchase it. Add on a lot of organic online activity around that product (for example: likes and comments on posts featuring the book cover, excited chatter about winning a giveaway, emotional online responses to the moods a book evoked) and readers will buy and read the book to ensure they’re not left out of the conversation happening within their communities!

The ultimate goal of consumer marketing in book publishing is driving sales and fostering long-term reader engagement. Encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations, maintaining ongoing engagement through newsletters and social media, and offering special promotions or giveaways can help sustain book sales beyond the initial launch. By continuously nurturing reader relationships and filling the sales funnel with additional potential consumers, publishers and authors can fatten the curve ahead of the long tail dropoff of sales.

Image via “Should You Invest in the Long Tail” by Anita Elberse

Cannibalizing Sales: A False Assumption

There’s a long-standing myth that book giveaways will cannibalize sales. In reality, strategic efforts can ensure that the benefits of book giveaways far outweigh any potential lost sales. While giveaways provide free books upfront, they often lead to increased sales in the long run as new readers who enjoy the book recommend it to others, leave positive reviews, or purchase additional books from the same author or publisher. Often a reader will purchase the same book they got for free in a different format! (Hint: Digital giveaways are cost-effective, offer extensive reach, and help drive print sales!) Here are some key strategies to ensure giveaways enhance sales rather than replace them:

1. Use Giveaways as a Lead Generation Tool

Build a direct marketing channel by collecting participants’ email addresses. This will allow you to offer exclusive discounts, pre-order bonuses, or future book recommendations, increasing the likelihood of future purchases. Do more with this list than just sell to them – practice empathetic marketing efforts to truly engage with these fans and, instead of replacing sales, giveaways will help establish a loyal customer base.

2. Offer Limited-Time or Exclusive Copies

To maintain perceived value, keep giveaways limited by time or quantity, or exclusive. This ensures giveaways act as promotional tools rather than permanent free alternatives to paid books. Consider:

Exclusive early access to members of your mailing list (or limit access to special book clubs, or the author’s street team)
Gift a copy of the book to readers who participate in online activities – posting a review, following the author on social media, sharing posts, tagging friends, etc.
Limited-edition bonuses like digital extras (a bonus short story, character art, playlist, etc.) that are only available to those who download the book during the giveaway window. This adds a sense of exclusivity even to a free item, and can drive urgency.
Run giveaways when certain community goals are met, for instance: “When we hit 2k Instagram followers, I’ll release a free novella!” This turns readers into active promoters to unlock free content.

3. Pair Giveaways with Paid Promotions

Instead of relying solely on giveaways, integrate them with paid marketing campaigns to boost overall sales. For example:

Running limited-time discounts alongside giveaways to encourage purchases from non-winners.
Upselling other books or merchandise after a giveaway.
Using retargeting ads to remind giveaway participants to buy related books.

4. Target the Right Audience

Instead of giving away books to general audiences, focus on specific groups that are likely to amplify sales by driving visibility. This includes:

Influencers, bloggers, and reviewers who will generate buzz.
Librarians and educators who may purchase copies for their institutions.
Book club members who may encourage group purchases.

5. Reach Outside the Target Audience

Don’t be afraid to cast a wide net! A giveaway is a low-barrier entry point, making it a perfect opportunity to test new waters and attract unexpected fans. By broadening your efforts, you are likely to discover new audiences with their own spheres of influence.

Advertise in unlikely (but aligned) spaces. Instead of just running ads or promotions in bookish spaces (like BookBub or Goodreads), try platforms that are less saturated but still relevant to your book’s themes.
Create cross-interest appeal in your messaging. When promoting the giveaway outside your usual reader group, highlight elements that appeal to broader interests, for instance: “Love stories with powerful women and epic travel? Snag this free adventure-romance before it’s gone!”

Rather than negatively impacting revenue, strategic giveaways can help you grow your audience, increase engagement, and drive long-term sales.

Tracking ROI (Return on Investment)

Any marketer or publicist will tell you that it can be tricky to tie one specific campaign directly to sales results. The path from visibility to conversion isn’t always linear. A potential customer might see a press mention, hear about a book from a friend, and then finally click on a digital ad weeks later before making a purchase. Because of this complexity, it’s more useful to think beyond just direct sales and instead focus on a broader set of performance indicators.

When organizing campaigns, be sure to set goals and plan to track metrics like audience engagement, website traffic, lead generation, or social media growth. These indicators provide a clearer picture of how your campaigns are influencing customer behavior over time. When evaluated together, they can help you understand the cumulative impact of your consumer marketing efforts, even if it’s difficult to pinpoint a single source of ROI.

Get Started Now!

Giveaways and other consumer marketing efforts are powerful tools not just for boosting immediate sales, but for cultivating long-term engagement and reader loyalty. Combine tactics to increase visibility with incentive-driven campaigns and smart audience targeting, to turn casual browsers into devoted fans. Strategic giveaways serve as catalysts for discovery and word-of-mouth momentum, especially when paired with paid promotions and authentic community engagement. And while ROI can be challenging to measure in a straight line, focusing on holistic performance metrics offers a clearer picture of sustained impact. Ultimately, successful consumer marketing is about more than just selling a book—it’s about building relationships that keep readers coming back for more.

NetGalley is here to help: Schedule a Booktrovert campaign now!

We’re thrilled to offer NetGalley clients a streamlined consumer marketing platform for the widest audiences, while leveraging and retaining the professional community that exists at NetGalley. Learn more here, and see how it compares to Goodreads!

Book Communities and the Positive Emotional Loop

3 Easy Ways to Harness the Power of Dopamine

Readers bring books to life. The act of reading—taking in the words an author has written and translating them through the lens of our own unique understanding—creates a highly emotional connection between the reader and the book. Books teach us, challenge us, validate us, reflect our fantasies, help us understand our realities. When a reader truly connects with a book they cannot help but talk about it, and in sharing their experience they quickly find that every other reader knows this feeling. It creates a kick of dopamine—the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure and motivation—that reinforces their desire to connect with others, encouraging people to continue to share their thoughts with friends, family, and strangers online. In the process, these readers increase the visibility for the books they’ve read and kick off a positive emotional loop: more people share more thoughts, which leads to more people sharing theirs as well. This looks like organic momentum (see: BookTok!), but there are ways to get the snowball rolling. So how do we harness this power?

First and foremost, remember that the book itself will create the initial emotional response in the reader. The suggestions below are ways to help readers continue living in the world of your book, whether fiction or nonfiction, to identify and share all the feelings the book generated in them.

1. Give them visual assets to share.

Make it easy for readers to post on the platforms they already use by creating easily-shareable, well-designed digital images or gifs. They should match the emotion or mood of the book and could be beautiful or scary, funny or serious. Everyone loves to answer the question of “what should I read to fit my mood?” and your assets can help define the mood visually for others who see it. Consider making them customizable or interactive (choose colors, add text, etc.)

By giving readers something to share, you are helping them collect likes and comments, releasing little bursts of dopamine every time someone engages with their post. Plus, you are reinforcing the book’s branding through consistency of design, making it recognizable in its repetition across multiple readers’ posts.

2. Engage with readers, not trends.

Instead of chasing fleeting trends, trust your audience to engage with them naturally—just give them the right tools to do so. Online communities can quickly spot when brands force their way into trends, often labeling these attempts as “cringe.” Rather than trying to fit in, empower your audience to take the lead. Beyond providing assets (mentioned above), give them something worth sharing that sparks excitement and pride. Let them brag: I won a giveaway! I got this free sticker at my local bookstore! I identified this easter egg online! I completed this challenge! I was asked to participate in this special event! These experiences encourage organic participation.

When people have something meaningful to share, they spread the message in an authentic way that resonates within their communities. Gamifying engagement through challenges, achievements, and interactive experiences keeps audiences invested and excited. These moments not only generate buzz but also tap into the brain’s reward system—triggering dopamine and reinforcing participation. By shifting the focus from forced brand participation to community-driven engagement, you create a more natural and lasting connection with your audience.

3. Plug in to communities outside of the typical reader-centric communities.

A sense of connection is a powerful way to release the brain’s reward chemicals, and one of the best ways to cultivate it is by engaging with established communities beyond reader-centric spaces. When people feel seen and included in something that aligns with their interests and values, they’re more likely to participate and share. For example, if you have a cookbook to promote, collaborate with a local cooking school to teach one of your recipes (and encourage them to share their photos of the dish with a hashtag). This not only creates excitement but also fosters real-world engagement.

Similarly, if your book features a character who has their own hobbies (like surfing), run a book giveaway in an online surfer’s forum, or at a surfing competition. You can do this digitally very easily, without needing to worry about printing and shipping. A targeted giveaway like this taps into a passionate, built-in audience that already values the subject matter.

Be sure you’re practicing Empathetic Marketing to generate warm feelings of inclusion and recognition throughout the community, resulting in shared enthusiasm for your book. By meeting people where they already are and giving them something meaningful to engage with, you create authentic, lasting connections that go beyond just promoting content—they build genuine engagement and excitement.

Readers transform a solitary activity into a shared experience. By giving them the tools to do so, you’re not just marketing a book; you’re connecting with the individuals who make up a community.

At its core, book promotion isn’t about chasing trends or forcing engagement—it’s about nurturing the emotional connection readers naturally form with your content. When readers love a book, they want to talk about it, share it, and celebrate it with others. These readers are transforming a solitary activity into a shared experience. By giving them the tools to do so, you’re not just marketing a book; you’re connecting with the individuals who make up a community. When readers feel empowered to bring a book into their world and share it in a way that feels personal, the excitement grows organically, creating a ripple effect that keeps the book alive in conversations long after the final page is turned.

Growth & Engagement in 2020

In many ways, 2020 is a year that we’re all ready to put in our rear-view mirrors. In spite of the challenges we have all faced, it’s been inspiring to be reminded of the resilience and creativity that imbues our publishing industry. From Big 5 publishers who suddenly found themselves without access to their warehouses, to independent authors who embarked on digital marketing for the first time, we at NetGalley are proud and thankful to be a trusted partner to so many.

Despite the global pandemic, it’s clear that readers continue to turn to books in all formats. NetGalley’s member community grew by 23% in the US (now over 550,000 members!) and 16% in the UK, where we’re on track to break 100k members in 2021. This growth equates to more eyes on your books, which results in even more early Feedback! We are thrilled to report a 30% increase in Feedback/Reviews when compared to last year. Across NetGalley.com and NetGalley.co.uk over 960k Feedback/Reviews were submitted for over 25,000 books and audiobooks.

30% increase in Feedback/Reviews across NetGalley.com and NetGalley.co.uk

NetGalley experienced record-breaking traffic and engagement in 2020, especially after the launch of the NetGalley Shelf app and Audiobooks. The NetGalley Shelf app is a simple and streamlined experience for members, making it easier than ever to access the books and audiobooks they’re approved for. In 2021, we will introduce streaming audio to ensure an even more seamless listening experience!

Take a look below for some of the astounding activity that books on NetGalley received throughout 2020. If you’re a NetGalley Advanced client, be sure to look at your own “Activity By Member Type” charts to see how your activity compares, and let us know how we can help you reach your most important audiences in 2021!

Publishers’ approval rates are relatively similar across format, though Media Professionals may receive access to the DRC/ebook format more often than the audiobook.

The audiobook launch drove significant interest in the format, resulting in higher-than-average Feedback rates.

Publishers are approving requests from Librarians and Booksellers at a very high rate–over 90% of requests are approved. This may be because you can easily auto-approve ALA librarians and ABA booksellers from your Settings page. In 2020, these members alone left over 110k Feedback/Reviews!

We know how influential Librarians and Booksellers are, especially when they are nominating books for LibraryReads and Indie Next, in addition to making recommendations to their patrons and customers. If you’re looking for ways to connect with Librarians and Booksellers, consider our monthly Librarian Newsletters or ABA Digital White Box services.

It’s worth noting that the Reviewers on NetGalley have submitted nearly 380k Feedback/Reviews! Reviewers are the largest portion of our community, making the most requests–so even though the approval rate is a little lower than other member types, they are the most significant in terms of overall approvals and Feedback/Reviews.

When approving requests, keep an eye out for members’ individual feedback ratio and remember that you can click through to see all of the reviews they’ve submitted on NetGalley. Here’s more about what you can see in members’ profiles.

Publishers’ approval rates in the UK are extremely similar across format.

UK librarians respond strongly to the audiobook format.

In the UK, even though approval rates across both the DRC and audiobook format are extremely similar, it’s clear that UK members (Librarians in particular) are responding very strongly to the audiobook format. Be sure that you are associating your DRC and audiobook formats when both are available on NetGalley! This will ensure that members can request the most relevant format for their interests, and is likely to result in a higher rate of return for Feedback/Reviews.