I am attending the first annual virtual Camp NetGalley! What fun! There are bingo cards, a scavenger hunt, and a talent show, where you only need to submit a book review. No off-key singing attempts to sit through. Plus, at the end, all attendees get a NetGalley badge for their website and NetGalley page.
There are a few areas for improvement, which is true of me too honestly. First, advertise the camp activities. Other than the welcome packet, the camp and its events are not mentioned anywhere on the NetGalley website. It would be awesome if participant’s dashboards had the stickers pop up when earned. An interactive bingo card would also be a nice addition. Eventually, you might want the talent winners’ reviews to be featured on your home page, even the one for non-logged in viewers.
I am so happy that NetGalley is trying to lean into its We are Bookish community. Let’s just keep building this year-by-year to be the best that it can be.
By the way, you too can get free books, most as advanced reading copies by joining NetGalley. No blog is required though some social media presence is encouraged. All books should be reviewed and published on Goodreads, Amazon or other websites where books are discussed.
You will start out by reading and reviewing Read Now books that don’t require publisher or author’s pre-approval. Eventually, you will develop relationships with publishers and/or authors of the types of books you like to read and review. They may pre-approve you for all of their titles. Their staff or the author themselves may email you with reading suggestions based on what you have read before that include direct links to download their galleys. Some may even offer physical copies of their books too. It is really an awesome experience for readers that I can’t recommend enough.
5 stars for NetGalley! Thanks for all the fish, I mean books!