NetGalley Community Spotlight: Audiobooks

In our 2026 Community Update, we shared that over 304,000 NetGalley members are interested in audiobooks. Plus, those members are submitting over 20,000 reviews on average each month! We love a deep-dive, so here’s even more information about these audiobook lovers.

📈 Audiobook Engagement at a Glance (Updated for 2026)

Recent site data and survey results highlight the continued surge in audiobook interest. Over the past year (Feb 1, 2025 – Jan 31, 2026), we’ve seen:

Member Interest: Over 304,000 NetGalley members (a 25% increase over last year) have expressed interest in the audio format as of January 2026.
Monthly Feedback: Approved members submitted approximately 20,430 reviews and feedback for audiobooks on average each month, growth of about 45%.
Feedback Rate: There is a whopping 57% average monthly feedback rate for audiobooks.
UK Growth: In the UK specifically, there are over 32,000 members interested in audio, with a 68% feedback rate for the format.

*Average monthly numbers from February 2025 – January 2026 on NetGalley.com*

💡 New Insights from the 2026 Community Update

The 2026 survey revealed deeper trends among our “Avid Listeners”. Nearly 12,000 respondents told us:

Daily Habits: Among members who listen to audiobooks, 45% listen daily, and 75% listen at least weekly.
Discovery Platforms: NetGalley (56%) is the top source for members to hear about new audiobooks, followed by Libby (55%), Goodreads (51%), and Instagram (50%).
Narrator Influence: Narrators remain a powerful draw—62% of listeners have selected an audiobook solely because of the narrator.
Multitasking Appeal: Among NetGalley members, the primary reason for choosing audio is the ability to multitask (80%), followed by the ability to listen while traveling (73%).
Opportunity for Discoverability: Members told us that they wish there were more audiobooks to choose from. They’re hoping audiobook publishers will add even more titles, particularly in niche genres!
AI Transparency: This year, NetGalley’s audiobook listeners have expressed a fierce demand for transparency regarding AI. 77% of members say it is “Extremely Important” to know if content (covers, voices, or text) is AI-generated.

Members told us that they wish there were more audiobooks to choose from. They’re hoping audiobook publishers will add even more titles, particularly in niche genres!

📣 Expanded Promotional Opportunities

Audiobook reach has expanded in 2026 to help your titles stand out:

Audiobook Newsletter: Our audio-dedicated newsletters now reach over 176,000 listeners (as of March 2026). Space is limited in the upcoming Audiobook Month newsletter (June 8), so secure your spot now to tap into this powerful community!
Participate in any Promotion: Audiobooks aren’t limited to format-specific promotions! You can submit your audiobooks to any NetGalley promotion, including category- or member type-based newsletters, on-site features, banner ads, and more!
Booktrovert: Since its successful launch, Booktrovert.com now has nearly 57,000 registered users. Audiobook publishers can run pre-order or buy now retail ad campaigns. It’s a great place to offer special pricing deals, or bundles.

🎧 APAC – March 30, 2026

Don’t miss the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) on June 30, 2026! We’re thrilled to help present the session: Models and Methods—Adapting to Trends and Change in Audiobook Marketing

Every audiobook is created differently, and so is every marketing campaign. This session will include a deep dive into 3 case studies in audiobook marketing including a big 5 publisher, an audiobook-specific publisher, and a hybrid publisher focusing on micro marketing campaigns.

2026 NetGalley.com Community Update

Unless otherwise noted, all information is based on the Annual NetGalley.com Member Survey, conducted January 2026.

Every year, we ask NetGalley members to share insights about how they read, discover, and engage with books — and the response from our community keeps growing. In the most recent annual survey, more than 11,000 dedicated reviewers, booksellers, librarians, educators, media/journalists, and book trade professionals told us about their reading habits and preferences. We’re excited to bring you this latest snapshot of activity and trends across the community, and encourage you to explore the full report for deeper breakdowns and practical tips on connecting with different segments of the NetGalley community.

VIEW THE FULL REPORT | UK Report here

When we say NetGalley’s 700,000+ active members are highly engaged, we really mean it. In January 2026 alone, NetGalley.com logged a record-breaking 13.3 million pageviews — a 19% increase over January 2025 — and key engagement metrics from Requests to Feedback submitted continue to grow by the thousands (or even hundreds of thousands!).

Activity on NetGalley functions as a funnel — and understanding that funnel can help publishers make smarter promotional decisions. At the top are Impressions: the more visibility a title receives across the site and in promotions, the more likely members are to click through and submit a Request. Increased exposure directly fuels downstream activity.

Once Requests begin coming in, the next step is in the publisher’s hands. Strategic Approvals determine how many members move from indicating interest to active reading. A higher approval volume typically results in more overall Feedback — but thoughtful targeting (approving the right readers for your goals) can improve both the quantity and the quality of responses.

Finally, a percentage of approved readers will submit Feedback. While conversion rates vary by genre, format, and promotional timeline, on average we see a 38% Average Monthly Feedback Rate for DRCs, and a whopping 57% Average Monthly Feedback Rate for Audiobooks.

On average we see a 38% Avg Monthly Feedback Rate for DRCs, and a whopping 57% Avg Monthly Feedback Rate for Audiobooks

Speaking of Audiobooks, over 304,000 NetGalley members are interested in audiobooks, a 25% increase over last year!

Behind the scenes, NetGalley’s Community Growth & Engagement team is continually developing tools and programming designed to help books succeed — at every level. Whether it’s a debut from a small independent press or a lead title from a Big Five publisher, our goal is the same: empower members to become informed, enthusiastic book advocates.

Free resources like the NetGalley Reading Journal and the Book Advocate Toolkit are intentionally designed to drive meaningful engagement. They help members track their reading, craft stronger, more thoughtful Feedback, and confidently share titles with their audiences. Additional tools, including Book Club Kits, give members ready-made ways to amplify the books they love.

VIEW THE FULL REPORT | UK Report here

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:

NetGalley Community Spotlight: Children’s & Middle Grade

Each year we survey the NetGalley community and share updated details about our members’ demographics, reading habits, and preferences. (Check out the 2025 NetGalley Community Update if you haven’t already!) This year, we also did a deep-dive into a specific segment of the community: members who request and read Children’s and Middle Grade books. Nearly 100 members participated in our mini-survey about these categories, and their responses highlight the many ways members use NetGalley to discover books for young readers… and what they do next with those discoveries!

More than half of survey participants (53%) use NetGalley to select books for young readers in their professional capacity, whether in a classroom, library, or bookstore. They also use NetGalley to preview books for awards, committees, and reading programs, such as Battle of the Books. We are proud that NetGalley is facilitating the important work these trusted book advocates do to connect young readers with books they’ll love.

Additionally, we found that Indie Next List nominations for books in the Children’s Fiction, Children’s Nonfiction, and Middle Grade categories received 31.5% of the overall nominations from the NetGalley community.*

Unsurprisingly, more than half of survey respondents (56%) also preview Children’s and Middle Grade books to decide which books they will share with kids in their personal lives. They are often reading books alongside their little ones and incorporating the child’s own feedback into the reviews they submit via NetGalley. This input from young readers adds a unique and valuable perspective, helping others—parents, educators, and fellow reviewers—understand how books resonate with their intended audience.

To better understand how these members are interacting with books in these categories on NetGalley, we analyzed the data for over 2,500 books and audiobooks that were added to the NetGalley Find Titles page in the period between Feb. 1, 2024 – Jan. 31, 2025.

Chart — Of the 2,500+ books and audiobooks added to NetGalley Find Titles in these categories between 2/1/2024 – 1/31/2025, about 60% were Children’s Fiction, 22% Children’s Nonfiction, and 18% Middle Grade.

Within the Children’s & Middle Grade categories, when it comes to the types of books that draw the most interest, survey respondents told us that Fun/Funny stories lead the way (85%), followed closely by books that are Emotional (67%) or Teach a Social Lesson (69%). The most frequently mentioned write-in category was Fantasy, reflecting the enduring appeal of imaginative storytelling in children’s literature. Practicing an empathetic and audience-centric marketing approach will serve you well with this market. In a recent webinar, Navigating Successes and Failures: Community Building, engagement and D2c sales in Children’s Publishing, Sweet Cherry Publisher Sanjee de Silva emphasized the importance of audience-centric thinking, with examples like The Songs You’ve Never Heard to engage teenagers who are interested in other kinds of media beyond books, as well as their book bundles for readers with special needs.

*The most frequently mentioned write-in category was Fantasy.*

On NetGalley, Feedback Rates average 37% for DRCs across all categories. The Feedback Rates** for Children’s Fiction and and Middle Grade skew lower than this average (31% and 21%, respectively), which makes sense considering all the valuable non-review work that many of our members are completing – previewing books for awards, committees, and reading programs, as well as making purchasing decisions for their library, classroom, or bookstore. However, Children’s Nonfiction is above average with a 38% Feedback Rate!

31.5% of all Indie Next List nominations from the NetGalley community were for books in the Children’s Fiction, Children’s Nonfiction, and Middle Grade categories.

Members’ engagement with books in these categories remains high! Our recent Children’s & Middle Grade newsletter (Jan 2025) was sent to 52k members and saw a 33% Open Rate and 3% CTR. Plus, 84% of members are influenced by NetGalley Promotions (according to our full member survey with over 11,000 responses).

We at NetGalley are honored to facilitate book discovery for young audiences, through the crucial efforts of the adults who advocate for literacy and guide children toward a love of reading. We are working hard to further engage with NetGalley members who are previewing these important books, and encourage you to share this resource with any readers you’re working with: How to Review Children’s and Middle Grade Books.

*Based on Indie Next List nominations submitted between 2/1/2024 – 1/31/2025.

**These Feedback rates are calculated based on the total number of Feedback divided by the total number of Approvals, for the books & audiobooks added to NetGalley Find Titles between 2/1/2024 – 1/31/2025.

2025 NetGalley.com Community Update

Update: 680,000 active members, as of October 2025.

Unless otherwise noted, all information is based on the Annual NetGalley.com Member Survey, conducted January 2025.

Each year we ask NetGalley members to tell us more about their reading habits and preferences, and this year more than 11,000 highly-engaged reviewers, booksellers, librarians, educators, media/journalists, and book trade professionals answered the call. We are thrilled to share the latest update with you, and invite you to view the full report, which includes tips for engaging with specific segments of the community.

VIEW THE FULL REPORT | UK Report here

When we say NetGalley’s 605,000 active members are highly engaged, we mean it! NetGalley.com saw a record-breaking 11 Million pageviews in January 2025 alone, representing a 4% increase YOY, and all stats from Requests to Feedback submitted have grown by the thousands.

Activity on NetGalley is a funnel, which means that the more Impressions a book has, the more overall activity it will receive. Once members submit Requests, it’s up to the publisher to Approve requests so they can start to read. Depending on how many requests the publisher approves, a portion of them will result in Feedback.

Audiobooks continue to have an extremely strong Feedback Rate! 59% of members approved to listen also submit Feedback via NetGalley.

Click through on the images above to see more detail about the most popular Fiction and Nonfiction Categories that NetGalley members browse!

NetGalley’s Community Growth & Engagement team is always hard at work encouraging NetGalley members of all types to become even stronger advocates for publishers’ books. Free resources like NetGalley’ Reading Journal and the Book Advocate Toolkit give members the tools they need to track their reading, submit valuable Feedback, and spread the word about the books they’re reading. Browse all of the resources, including Book Club Kits, on NetGalley.

THERE’S MORE —
VIEW THE FULL REPORT | UK Report here

Unless otherwise noted, all information is based on the Annual NetGalley.com Member Survey, conducted January 2025.

NetGalley Community Update – May 2024

NetGalley.com Growth! 600,000 Active Members + Exciting New Stats!

NetGalley is proud to host our highly-engaged community of reviewers, booksellers, librarians, educators, media/journalists, and book trade professionals and to facilitate the relationship between this community and the publishers who want to reach them. It’s been two years since we introduced a re-engagement campaign with our members to give publishers better visibility into each member’s primary audience, and to provide more meaningful ways for you to find the right audience for your books. As part of that re-engagement campaign, we also began removing inactive accounts. This is both a security upgrade, as well as an assurance that the information we provide you about the size of our community is transparent. We are thrilled that, even with the cleanup of inactive accounts, the NetGalley Community has grown by close to 10% since last summer!

VIEW THE FULL REPORT

We are pleased to share this update about the NetGalley Community, and invite you to view the full report, which includes tips for engaging with specific segments of the community.

Activity on NetGalley is a funnel, which means that the more Impressions a book has, the more overall activity it will receive. Once members submit requests, it’s up to the publisher to approve requests so they can start to read. Depending on how many requests the publisher approves, a portion of them will result in Feedback. For Digital Review Copies (DRCs) we see a 36% Feedback Rate, while Audiobooks see an exceptional Feedback Rate of 58%!

NetGalley.com as a whole continues to see record-breaking activity. In Q1 2024, members submitted almost 400,000 reviews & feedback for books and audiobooks, representing 11% growth from 2023. Audiobook feedback saw a 43% increase!

*There’s more! Click to view the FULL REPORT*

NetGalley.com continues to see record-breaking activity. In Q1 2024, members submitted almost 400,000 reviews & feedback for books and audiobooks, representing 11% growth from 2023. Audiobook feedback saw a 43% increase!

NetGalley members read a wide variety of books, and can browse and sort the NetGalley catalog based on category, pub date, most-requested status, and more to find exactly what they’re looking for. Category or genre popularity on NetGalley closely mirrors the market as a whole. The charts below show the most popular fiction and nonfiction categories among members using NetGalley. Data includes NetGalley.com members who have indicated their interest in Categories as of April 2024.

Our members love to be notified about books that match their interests! 86% respondents to our Annual Member Survey indicated that NetGalley Promotions influence whether they Request or download a book or audiobook. Our popular promotions continue to deliver outstanding results while remaining at a competitive price. Learn more in our 2024 Media Kit. It includes more examples, stats, and pricing!

Just as we feel privileged to work with publishers, authors, and your books, it’s also our sincere pleasure to work with our reader members! They are passionate book advocates who are excited to participate in each book’s success. As our community continues to grow and evolve, we’re committed to continuing to support them in this endeavor—while also guiding them to provide valuable reviews and feedback, all with the goal to help other readers learn about a book, and decide whether they want to read it. With this in mind, we continually provide tips and best practices like the following, which you’re welcome to share with your readers, too!

There’s more! Click to view the FULL REPORT

All stats are for NetGalley.com and are from April 2024 unless otherwise noted.

*NetGalley.com members with activity since January 1, 2021