[Jimmy]

Has anyone used NetGalley and or www.authorbuzz.com to market his or her books? What were the results? Is any of them worth the investment?

 

[Chris Fox]

I've used Netgalley and ended up with a handful of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. The reviewers were much tougher than the average reader. I don't plan on using them again, but I wouldn't call it waste of money ($40).

 

[bethrevis]

I had great success with NetGalley, and attribute roughly 20-30 of my Amazon reviews to the service, as well as lot of social media activity. (I also did a $40 co-op for a month). I really found it to be helpful and liked it, but I may be something of an anomaly, judging from some others turns out here.

 

[Holly A Hook]

I got only one Amazon review from Netgalley and I wouldn't use them again.  There were a few more on Goodreads.  Although I got reviews from other places which were OK, the reviews from Netgalley shook my confidence for months.  It's possible I just wrote an awful book, though. 

I have not tried bookbuzzr though I have heard of them. 

 

[Guest]

I've heard good things about

Library Thing

Good Reads - though hard reviewers. Their 4 stars is normal reader's 5 stars.

Choosy Bookworm

NetGalley have heard good and bad things.

Never heard of AuthorBuzz.

 

[Anne Victory]

I run a NetGalley co-op (have for two years). I will say that your success can vary based on a few factors:

1) Your genre. In my experience, Romance (all sub-genres), and YA that is skewed toward a female demographic do best. YA skewed male, thrillers, mysteries, and fantasy have not fared so well. Even women's fiction and cozy mysteries seem to be a bit hit or miss.
2) Do you control the requests for your listing? If someone else does, are they carefully picking which requests to grant or just accepting all requests? You'll do better if you select based on your own criteria and whether or not the reader likes your genre.
* Unless you're approving your own requests, I doubt your requests are carefully vetted. A new book can generate between 30 to 50 (more if it's a popular author) per day for the first week. That's a lot of requests to field if you're doing more than a cursory review of the requester. Not to mention, you probably know your own audience best as well as the particulars of your book (aside from just the surface details of genre and demographic).
3) Use of a preapproval link to preferred reviewers as well as following up with people who requested your book and (tactfully, gently, and politely) reminding them to review usually boosts results.

Hope this helps

 

[JBennett]

I've been thinking of trying out BookBuzzr too, but I can't find anyone who has actually used their services. Naturally, I came to KBoards expecting that someone, somewhere has tried them out in the last year. A lot of authors are asking questions about the service, but no one seems to have used it!

 

[Greg Dragon]

For Science Fiction I found NetGalley to be a waste of money.