Posted on by Zuky the BookBum

How to write an effective Netgalley bio

When I first started on Netgalley, I really had no idea on what I should write in my bio area. Netgalley makes a big deal about the fact that having a good bio will make publishers more likely to accept your requests, however, they don’t really give you a lot of support in terms of what publishers would like to see there, so you’re left to your own devices to make something up.

In my opinion, your Netgalley bio should lean toward the professional over the personal. Publishers are more likely to accept your requests if your bio shows them how you’ll publicise their book and increase the outreach of the novel, rather than some spiel about who you are and what you like.

So, start your bio off with a little something about your reading tastes.

“I have a huge passion for reading. My favourite genres include Mystery & Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Horror and True Crime. I also enjoy Historical Fiction, Sci-fi, Dystopian and Short Stories.”

Then you want to get on to the good stuff, the bits the publishers are really interested in… where you will share your reviews and how many people will see them. Update this regularly so publishers can see you’re active and that all your stats are up-to-date!

I’ve set this section of my Netgalley bio up by separating all the different sites I use to review.

“Where I promote and post my reviews are as follows:

– Blog: I have a book blog called BookBum, started in Jan 2017, where I review everything I read and then post to Twitter. I currently have XXX followers on my blog, who I interact with on a daily basis. I receive XXX average monthly visitors, and XXX average monthly pageviews.

– Instagram: I use my Instagram to snap pics of my current reads and previously read books that I enjoyed, which can include Netgalley reads. I currently have XXX followers.

– Goodreads: I post all of my reviews on my Goodreads account which I’m an active user of.

– Twitter: I use Twitter to post my book reviews, share bookish news and support other book bloggers. I currently have XXX followers.

– Amazon: Once published, I will post my reviews to Amazon.

– Waterstones: Once published, I will post my reviews to the Waterstones website.“

So there is a little bit of guidance on how to write a Netgalley bio! I’m in no way saying it’s perfect, but it’s worked pretty well for me with 158 books approved so far… Hopefully, you can craft your own bio based on these recommendations!

I hope this post was helpful for you, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

75 Replies to “How to write an effective Netgalley bio”

  3. This is very helpful! I need to do some updating on my profile (I am staying away from NG right now, gotta catch up on arcs and their e-arcs!)

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  4. This is great! I actually I struggled when I first decided to get on board with netgalley because I had no idea what to put on my bio… I have something similar but in a much smaller scale… I still get denied a lot of times but also approved!! So I’m happy with my results so far!! 😊😊

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  5. Ooh, this is awesome! While I don’t have Netgalley, I want to get it because FREE BOOKS BEFORE THEIR PUBLISHING DATE??? YES PLEASE. XD (But there’s the age thing where you have to be eighteen but I’m not — but I know some people who are younger than 18 and are still on Netgalley???)

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  12. Great post! I agree with everything you mentioned here… I remember when I started an account last year I was left confused by what exactly to write down in my bio. I’ve been adding and changing bits ever since and now it’s pretty similar to yours. Lots of numbers and where I publish and promote the books, and I also had to add that my blog was exclusively English (but that’s probably just for those who don’t live in an English-speaking country in the first place).

    Liked by 2 people

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      1. Very true! Some publishers don’t provide a lot of information either, so it’s been mostly guessing what they are looking for in general until my bio looked somewhat decent.

        Liked by 2 people

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  18. Oh my goodness thank you! I’ve had an account but had NO idea how to set it up…epic fail. Question: when you mention the stats for your WordPress account by month, how did you find that? Also, do you go by total amount of followers or specifically WordPress? Mine shows 351 but technically only 136 are from WordPress. Thanks again!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. I use all my followers! Email and WordPress included, I also include all my social stats seperately,

      As for finding your stats by month, go to your “my site”/”stats” homepage bit and then in the top bar click months, and then you filter it by each month! 😀

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  19. Hey Zuky! I have another question for ya! I am starting to post my book reviews on Netgalley, but I’m noticing that they aren’t separating into paragraphs and are just combining all together…which looks ugly. Am I supposed to use HTML coding when doing these reviews?

    Thank you again for so much information!

    Liked by 1 person

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  20. Great advice as always, Zuky. Totally agree with the bit about updating stats regularly and setting it out clearly so it makes it easy for the person at the publisher responsible for approving requests. I’ve also included a bit in mine to say that I make it a point to post reviews prior to publication date or as requested by publishers. (Don’t always 100% achieve but I hope it shows good intentions).

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  23. Reblogged this on BookBum and commented:

    I’ve revamped my most popular blog post slightly! As it gets new views every day I thought it could do with a little update. Check it out if you need help on creating a successful Netgalley bio!

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    Reply

  24. Great post, and definitely a useful tip for anyone new in NetGalley, and I think I consider myself quite a newbie there. I find that the percentage of publishers accepting my requests are not very high, so I hope by improving my profile and making it look more professional I’ll have better chances of getting more ARCs in the future 🙂

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  36. And what if we don’t have an impressive follower base? Do I still need to include it in the bio? Also does having a profile pic help?

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