On Netgalley, GR & International Bloggers

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Hello, everyone! Today I want to talk about an issue that has been on my mind for some days now, it’s something that I want to share my opinion on and while I did it on Twitter, I believe a blog post is required. I’m not sure if everyone is aware of the new policies of Goodreads and Netgalley, so I would try to explain what the issues are and why this is not okay.

It first started with Goodreads, who had decided to make a new giveaway program in January, where the giveaways are open only to US residents for an unknown period of time. They stated that their reason for doing this is “to bring our new Goodreads Giveaway program to more marketplaces.”, oh, the irony. They went even further and stated that authors and publishers outside US can organize giveaways, offering their books to US readers once again.

So, you’re not only shutting us down, you also have the audicity to suggest that International authors/publishers can take part in this, why? Why would they want to do this? If you don’t want to give international bloggers/readers a chance to promote the US books because you believe we can’t help in reaching more marketplaces, why do you think International authors/publishers would trust you with their books to bring them to the US marketplaces?

Then, they also stated there will be fees for authors. Before this, the author only had to pay for the shipping fee, now they would have to pay for some fee (150 – 600$) just because the giveaway is on the GR platform. I don’t know if I need to say that the authors are pretty angry about it and rightfully so when they can list their giveaways on other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Rafflecopter for free!

After this blow, Netgalley made it impossible for international bloggers/readers to request books from bigger publishers (only wish for them) without even giving us a statement on the reason why those changes took place. Because we don’t have anything official on this matter, we can’t know, for sure, if it’s Netgalley or the publishers who limited the request option to US bloggers/readers. Nonetheless, this one hit me harder than the Goodreads one because it makes little to no sense.

I tweeted about this and my tweet got a lot of attention, which made me aware of the fact that the issue is huge and has to be addressed.

Now I’m going to talk about why your decisions hurt us, international bloggers, more than you think.

  1. The truth is it’s not even about ARCs, it’s about feeling like no matter how much hard work you put into your blog and in promoting your favourite books, you’ll never come any close to mattering to this community because you were born in a different country than America. And that hurts badly. Because international bloggers don’t have the same resources, we try very hard to get our hands on new releases, on ARCs and we already feel pretty bad about not owning all those shiny books that are available all over US. There are international bloggers on here that are so dedicated, have a huge readership and have made a big impact in the community, but at the end of the day, they will feel like they are not welcomed in the book community because you don’t give them any chances.
  2. I’m not sure if you realise how many international bloggers helped you raise your stats. I know I recommended Netgalley and Goodreads to many friends, I know I recommend new releases to my friends all the time, US releases. The ones you’re trying to make inaccessible to me because I can’t help promote it or because I’m not the targeted audience.
  3. International bloggers know the situation of physical ARCs, it’s always been like that, we don’t get them. We’re fine with it. The shipping fees are awful and most of us aren’t even in the blogging for them, we are here to talk about the books we love and help our favourite authors’ books be better known. But eARCs… Why would you block us on those? There’s no shipping fees for eARCs. There is absolutely nothing. Do you know how many international bloggers rave about those eARCs they get off netgalley on every damn available platform? Thousands of them. Because we’re not used to getting such things and we feel like our work was validated by getting that book. Thanks for taking this away too. It’s good to know that our numerous ARC reviews counted for nothing.

https://twitter.com/WordsWithLara/status/937022848643633152

4. There’s also the matter of diverse books. Unless a diverse book is very huge in US, there are 0 chances it will ever get published in other countries, especially in countries that are still ignorant to racism, homophobia, ableism and more. Diverse bloggers use Netgalley to get those, now you’ve limited their access to those too, so how should they ever read about things that are important to them? How do you get those books to reach the targeted audience? Lemme tell you. You don’t. Unless of course they move to US or something. It’s totally cool how we always say we support diverse authors and readers and how we want more diverse books, but at the end of the day, we do these things!

 

5. I want to thank all the authors who cared about this issue and who tried to get themselves informed, who supported the international bloggers and readers and tried to reassure them that they will find a way to make things better. You are the heroes.

https://twitter.com/heidiheilig/status/937005196164718592

6. To international bloggers, like me, I want to tell you that I know that the feeling of being left out without a valid reason hurts you. I know that you put up lots of time in your blogs and reviews every day and this is, by no means, the gratitude you deserve. I’m not going to say that the things will get better because I don’t know that. That is Goodreads, Netgalley and publishers’ place to say on whether we’ll be taken seriously any time soon.

I want to clarify some things, I don’t mean to insult US bloggers with this post, I love you all, I think you’re great, especially with the way you try to understand international bloggers. I also don’t think I’m entitled to ARCs, eARCs or giveaways, I think it’s just a hurtful decision to take those away without valid reasons and without caring who you hurt in the process.

Also, Laura @thebookcorps wrote a very detalied post on the same issue, so check her out, please!

Maja also wrote a post about it and you can find it here.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Did their decisions affect you?

67 thoughts on “On Netgalley, GR & International Bloggers

    • thecursedbooks says:

      I’m from Romania and I decided against writing in my native language because I wanted my opinions to reach a wider audience, which means I’ll forever be overlooked by both US publishers and Romanian publishers. I was alright with this because Netgalley still offered eARCs and for the first time, I could read new releases at the right time. I hope the same, but it doesn’t really look like that.

      Liked by 1 person

  1. TeacherofYA says:

    I am outraged. I have a ton of friends who are INTL…most of my blogs I follow are outside the US! My best friends are in Australia and the UK! And they die when they get approved on Netgalley or Edelweiss…they are even more thrilled when they win a GR giveaway! I shared bookcorps’ post bc I am sick of the lack of consideration for our non-US bloggers.
    I’ve already been angry for a long time about the unfair shipping costs to outside the US locations, but this is just another blow to the dedicated people who just happen to be “globally unfavorable.”

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Thank you so much for saying this! I agree so much with what you said, I don’t think it’s alright to cut us off from everything just because of our location. And I also don’t think it’s okay to do that without sharing any explanation for what you’re doing. They are so unserious that they make me think that they absolutely don’t care about international bloggers. You can’t give me such a shitty explanation on why you’re cutting me off (GR) and then close the comments section because you don’t want people to voice their opinions on what you did.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Angelica (TheBookCoverGirls) says:

    Great post! I didn’t realiza that this was a thing that was happening on these platforms. It’s a real shame that they are doing this but as always, they are thinking more about the money than the community and defining to limit themselves to only an elite few. The worst part, that you’re right, eARCs cost nothing to send out! That’s just messed up!

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Yes, you’re right, they are thinking about money as they always do. But what they aren’t taking into account is that international bloggers are a huge part of the sales. Most international bloggers still blog in english and bloggers don’t care where you are from, they will see a review and get interested in that book, want to buy it no matter where you’re from.

      Like

  3. MajaDiana says:

    I was very hesitant to post my piece at first, because I’m afraid to come off as selfish or feeling entitled.

    The truth is, I’ve never won a goodreads giveaway. But I liked that there was a chance. That I could be like “look my fave author is hosting this. Let’s all enter” and the word would spread like wildfire. It was another way to promote and talk about the books I love or anticipate.

    I also don’t feel entitled to e-arcs or physical arcs, or even review copies. I just wish that the selection would be more fair. That we stop being fed the “sorry can’t post international for legal reasons/shipping costs” and then in the next post see how happy they are to be working with another international blogger who just happens to have more followers.

    Which is cool. I’d try to reach the most people, as well. But don’t feed me lies about shipping issues and legal stuff.

    Ugh. I’m just very salty lol.

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      I absolutely agree with you! What saddens me even more is that they now seem to take even the huge international bloggers out of the equation. I can understand why they’d choose people with many followers, that’s okay, though I’d prefer if they were more straightforward about it, as you said. But to say you won’t accept anyone, no matter how influent those people are, just because they aren’t from US is like a huge ‘screw-you’ for no objective reason.
      And it’s totally okay, I’m very salty too.

      Like

  4. ioana @dragonwaffles says:

    This saddens me greatly. So many hard working people (some of which have a big following) are being left out. People work years to get 1 arc while US people can get them so easily (sorry US people it’s not your fault some companies are jerks what I’m getting at it’s that EVERYBODY SHOULD GET THEM EASY). IT’S E-ARCS MAN THOSE SHOULD BE AVAILABLE INTERNATIONALLY!! Ughhhhhh. International bloggers write in another language, read in another language and pay big shipping feas and wait YEARS yet let’s just ignore all that right because we’re greedy. I really think it’s because they are greedy not because their company is doing badly which hurts even more. It even disadvantages the authors which should not be made to pay those absurd fees just to make their readers happy. It’s insane ok I AM SO MAD AND DISAPPOINTED. I was just ranting about how giveaways should be made international and they should work on that and it’s like they went nope how about we degrade instead. It sucks to feel left out and like you don’t matter. Ugh I’ll stop because this comment is already too long.

    I AM WITH YOU INTERNATIONAL BOOKWORMS! As highschool musical said: we’re all in this together!

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      I strongly agree, I feel like the situation was already pretty bad considering how opportunities are fewer for the international bloggers, but to do some things that make little to no sense, even for your financial gains, it surprises me a lot. Thanks for making some great point! ❤ And yess, we are all in this together!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Lisa @abookcalls says:

    I am pretty new to blogging so I didn’t even try to get review copies or ARCs but the decision to leave out all the international bloggers goes to show how isolationist American companies are. They say that it is all about the books. Diversity here and diversity there. But in the end they only care about the money. Marketing especially is horrendous. It is just sad to see so many good diverse books shoved under the carpet because publishers don’t use all the marketing tools they have. And they have free marketing on bookblogs! The fact that they don’t want to give access to arcs to international bloggers is really harmful for the community. We need diverse books but what we also need are diverse reviewers with different views and perspectives. Sure there is a variety of those in America as well but they are not enough. I should probably stop or I write a blogpost of my own in your comment section…:D great article!

    Liked by 2 people

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Lisa, thank you very much for saying all these things! And please don’t apologize for writing too much, I feel like it’s very important for all of us to say what we think, especially now when for a reason or another, they try to make our opinions seem meaningless.
      It pains me a lot what will happen to diverse books because Netgalley was the main source to get those for so many people that really need them. I feel like especially in countries where people’s rights are overlooked and ignorance is rampant, the need for these books (in any format) is huge. Thank you!

      Liked by 1 person

  6. insidemylibrarymind says:

    I completely agree with everything you said. Us intl bloggers have so few opportunities and Netgalley was one of those few. Whatever is behind this, whether it’s an issue with Netgalley, or the publishers, but it definitely made me think about how international bloggers are treated and the obstacle we face. This is a great post!

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Marie says:

    I’m just… yeah, I don’t really know what more to say, you have said everything very well in this post Marta, thank you for writing this. I’m just hurt and saddened, I feel like they are closing more and more doors right in our faces and making everything so much more difficult than it already is. It’s always been hard to be an international book blogger, and it’s not even about getting ARCs, it’s about being welcome in the community and feeling like our voices matter and like we have things to say that matter, too. We’re just made like we don’t matter at all and it makes me mad. I wish we had more explanations for all of this, whether it’s a rights thing on netgalley or I don’t know.
    Anyway, I’m just sad. thank you for this great post ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Right? I feel like blogging is so great because most people in the community don’t care where you are from, your opinion is valid to them no matter what country come from. But then these companies, publishers have to get involved and destroy this happy bubble that your opinion matters. It saddened me completely, but I’m also glad to see how united everyone is and how vocal international bloggers are.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Camilla @ Reader in the Attic says:

    I’ve no words, since I think that everything tgat could be said, well, it has been said. Like, well, thank you…. why do I even try so hard, is the results are those? -.-
    I’m so pissed off.
    Like, US know that most of their young adult books were published in my country thanks to hard work of many other italian bloggers that kept pushing their country’s publisher to buy and translate the novels?
    And I can get the cost of a physical ARC but even eARCs? <.<

    Liked by 2 people

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Exactly! Bloggers try very hard to promote the books in their countries and even in US. I’m a Romanian, but my readership is made up mostly of people from America. I know I’m not the only international blogger that is in this situation, I’m pretty sure that at some point one of their reviews convinced an American to buy that book. So, let’s not act like international bloggers don’t help the US market. It’s hurtful that they will take even those away from us…

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Beware Of The Reader says:

    Yes I’m with you! Now another strange thing: I tried to buy an ebook on Amazon.com yesterday but couldn’t whereas my account for ebooks is on Amazon.com! I’ve never had a problem before and when I contacted the support they told me I had a quota of max 5 books for international! They reset it to zero but I will be blocked in 5 books again. They told me to contact them each time and they would reset to zero. When I asked why and if they could not solve my problem once for all they told me they will look into it and come back. Is it random or is it linked to GR and Netgalley????

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      I’m sorry I don’t know about this! But it sounds very sketchy, why did they limit those too? You’re actually buying those ebooks. They might be related as Amazon owns Goodreads and ever since they bought GR, they made it pretty unfriendly. 😒 I will look into this and if I find anything regarding this, I will get back to you.

      Like

  10. Caro @ bookcheshirecat says:

    Thank you so much for writing this post! I am still truly upset about these new developments. Even though it’s in no way okay, the Goodreads one does not affect me personally that much … but Netgallery? That’s a huge one.
    I find it incredibly unprofessional to not even issue a statement on the topic and instead just secretly block international readers from directly requesting eArcs. I have noticed that I didn’t really get approved for anything lately and now I feel like I know why. For us international readers eArcs are all we get, as physical arcs are expensive to ship. Even with the eArcs there is a time limit (idk if this applies to the kindle version as well) and afterwards it expires. Now we won’t even have those Arcs and are left with nothing. Netgallery is my main source for getting Arcs and now it’s made almost impossible to get most Arcs, especially those that we are all excited to read.

    Liked by 2 people

    • thecursedbooks says:

      No need to thank me, I feel very frustrated with their decisions and I will continue to voice my opinions with the hope that they will change their minds.
      Same! I find it awful, I literary didn’t even know about this thing until some people pointed this out. I was waiting to get approved on things and trying to stay away from requesting new books. So, it was a huge surprise. It’s annoying that they haven’t come forward with a statement not even now after bloggers tweeted them so many times. I’m highly disappointed, but sadly not all that surprised.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Caro @ bookcheshirecat says:

        I really hope too that we will be able to change at least something!

        I was not even thinking too much about not getting approved for books, but when bloggers pointed out Netgallery’s quiet changes I was like “oh now it all makes sense”.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Sofii @A Book. A Thought. says:

    I feel so deeply sad about all this, I found out about the situation yesterday after seeing some tweets, because before that, I thought something was wrong with my NetGalley page because I noticed that I couldn’t request any book.
    I never thought that something like this could happen, as an international blogger it’s always difficult to be relevant, so we must always work harder and try harder in everything we do, but you know what? Even then, we’ve never complained, because we love reading and we love this world and the only thing we want is share our thoughts with others, but it’s also nice to be recognized and when this is so hard, we still work on it and now I find that they’re making things even more difficult to us, it’s really very sad and disappointing. Our content and our work is as valuable as anyone’s.
    AMAZING POST BABE 💕

    Liked by 2 people

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Thank you, Sofii!! ❤ I absolutely agree that it’s harder to stay relevant as an international blogger, but I see so many of them work off their asses, trying to read all the new releases, come up with interesting discussions, promote all kinds of books and juggle all of those with their everyday life. And I think what they’re doing is very admirable and it hurts me deeply to see their work overlooked just like that.

      Liked by 1 person

  12. Book Bosomed Blonde says:

    Wow, i had no idea this was going on. This is crazy!! The majority of book bloggers i follow on here are NOT from the US, so that just sums it up for me right there. I personally am canadian so i dont know if this affects me as well? But since im living in the UK at the moment, i guess it will. I had noticed how Netgalley was only saying “wish for it” lately but i didnt know the reason behind it. This is sooo stupid??? I feel lately like the world is taking so many steps backwards and this is another instance where its happened again.

    Im so sorry to all of my blogger buddies out there who have lost these amazing opportunities now. This is a total injustice!

    Liked by 2 people

  13. A. Grace says:

    Amen. I’m so lucky to live in the UK and have access to NetGalley requests but I’m not British and I wasn’t born here, so I know that things could just as easily have worked out very differently for me. I’ve come across so many great blogs with quality content and huge followings by international bloggers, so I don’t see why eARCs should be restricted in this way at all. To all international bloggers, keep up the good work!

    Liked by 1 person

  14. booksandlovealways says:

    Ugh! I SO needed to read this! Great post. I’m from the Dominican Republic and recently started out with the book blogging and I’m so bummed. I’m trying not to get unmotivated because, like you said, we don’t do it for the ARCs, but it stings deeply. I hope Goodreads and Netgalley find it in their hearts to hear us out and take measures.

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      It’s really hard to not be discouraged by this, because it sends us a huge ‘your opinion doesn’t matter’ and it hurts a lot! I really hope they will rethink their decisions, but it somehow feels like they don’t really care? GR blocked the possibility of commenting on their post announcing the changes, which is a very low blow, in my opinion.

      Liked by 1 person

  15. daniellethamasa says:

    I realize that I am extremely fortunate to be a US blogger, and I absolutely agree that all of you wonderful international bloggers should have the same opportunities to receive ARCs (e- or physical) and to participate in giveaways.

    As a self-published author with only one book out, I don’t make any money off my writing. I just do it because I enjoy it. If an international blogger wanted to read my book, absolutely I would send them a digital copy. And hearing that Goodreads is going to start charging authors for the giveaways…man, that means I’ll never be able to do a giveaway again. I did one when my book came out, and I had a couple hundred people add my book to their to-read list. As far as I can tell though, maybe one or two actually bought a copy.

    The system is majorly flawed. As a US blogger, I’ve even been denied access to numerous giveaways from publishers and from Goodreads giveaways because I lived in a small village and all of our mail had to be delivered via P.O. Box. So many giveaways would state “no PO Boxes please” because–as I understand it–they think that the PO boxes represent phony accounts simply to win books.

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Thank you for pointing out things from different perspectives! The system is definitely flawed, what I find even more frustrating is that we’re not taken seriously. GR blocking comments and Netgalley not saying anything on the matter makes me think they couldn’t care less about us or how their decisions hurt us.

      Like

      • daniellethamasa says:

        Well Goodreads is an Amazon company, and over the past few years I’ve seen Amazon make several questionable decisions when it comes to the book industry. I guess I’m a little surprised that it took this long for some of those ridiculous decisions to filter down to Goodreads.

        Now Netgalley, I don’t know. Maybe they’ll see a downward slide in publicity/sales because of this and they’ll change their minds. Or they’ll actually listen to the complaints of the bookish community. We can only hope, I guess.

        Liked by 1 person

      • thecursedbooks says:

        Yeah, I’ve seen some frustrating decisions GR had made since Amazon took over and I’m a bit annoyed with it, especially with the way they don’t accept feedback they don’t like anymore. They block the comments whenever they’re getting negative feedback and that isn’t really okay.

        Liked by 1 person

      • daniellethamasa says:

        Well, and on Amazon they’ve been known to delete reviews of people who have online friendships with the authors. Like if you are in the author’s book/fan club or if you are friends with them on social media, Amazon removes your review. There are many things Amazon does in the bookish community that make very little sense to those of us actually in the community.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Atiqah @ Bookmarks and Blue Light says:

    Reblogged this on Bookmarks & Blue Light and commented:
    Now this is just a dreadful way to start the week. I was going to start participating in It’s Monday, What Are You Reading meme but I have to do my share and spread the word about changes to Goodreads and Netgalley first. To put it simply, if you’re not from the US, you’re going to miss out on opportunities like giveaways and requesting for ARCs.
    A lot of great bloggers I know and follow aren’t from the US. This move by Goodreads and Netgalley is going to seriously hurt them. I mean, these two are bread and butter for us book bloggers.
    I’m not overreacting, right? What are your thoughts?

    Like

  17. Atiqah @ Bookmarks and Blue Light says:

    I’m new to blogging and from Australia. And I have just recently dipped my toe into Netgalley after months of consideration and putting work into my blog. I didn’t want to just jump into Netgalley without being sure I could commit. This news is devastating.

    I simply can’t see the practicality of creating this exclusivity. It’s just going to hurt the authors.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Lara @ Words With Lara says:

    I’m mad. I’m so mad!! It doesn’t make sense to me…. Some people talked about international copyright issues, but I’m still able to request some books so why some books and not others? It’s just so frustrating. And it must be so frustrating for authors as well to have to pay hundreds of dollars to use a service on a platform that was previously free.

    I just wish Netgalley and Goodreads had bothered to properly address these things instead of leaving us so in the dark about it all!

    Awesome post by the way, good to finally have people talking about it.

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Thank you very much, Lara! I can’t understand those legal matters either, I wish they would assume the responsibility to explain those things, so that people aren’t just left in the dark all the time. Totally not cool how they didn’t explain the situation before implementing the change.

      Like

    • Krysta says:

      My guess is that you can request some books but others because the distribution rights of each book are different. They specify where each individual title is and is not legally available. If a book is not being sold in a certain country, the publishers cannot send ARCs there (physical or digital)–it’s not only a matter of shipping costs.That being said, I imagine the Netgalley change might be a result of distribution rights. I saw a lot of bloggers commenting they routinely entered giveaways for books they knew they were ineligible for; the change might have been to cut down on situations like these since the publisher legally can’t send the book to these people, regardless of whether or not they want to.

      I have no clue what Goodreads is doing, but I don’t think it’s related to distribution rights. I imagine they are trying to make money off giveaways. However, I don’t know if it will work since I don’t think authors or publishers make enough money off the marketing of ARCs to justify spending a lot of money hosting a giveaway.

      I do wonder, too, why publishers and agents don’t explain distribution rights more clearly. It seems like it would save us all some trouble.

      Like

  19. coffeelovingbookoholic says:

    this post is soooo good! i was shocked, when i heard about all this yesterday. and even after sleeping a good night, i am still so mad!
    i myself don’t request arcs that often, but it was a nice way to go too on netgalley. and i know a lot of my friends use netgalley and they won’t be able anymore. this sucks so much! i can’t understand, why they would do such a thing. blogging isn’t just the usa. there are so many international bloggers out there who love reading english books and reviewing them and spreading the word. i myself go to so many books through these bloggers and that’s how it should work. i can’t understand, why they would limit this. it’s the best way to promote books…

    Like

  20. tasya @ the literary huntress says:

    I just found out about this when I logged on to twitter 15 minutes ago and stumbled to your post. Wish for it is all I’ve been seeing on Netgalley, but I thought it was just a coincidence. I never actually thought that they purposefully cut us off from the rest of the world. Sure, a lot of the readers are from the US but hello, there are other countries other than the US and I bet all readers combined are more than readers in the US. And you’re right, it’s not a problem of entitlement towards ARCs, but it’s a problem of ACCESS and being part of the community. I mean, US readers got comic con, screenings, fan meetings, book conventions, givewayas, physical arcs, well stocked library, amazon… you name it, they got everything first. ARCs is one way we got a piece of those privileges and now they are trying to cut us too? Where does that leave us? Aren’t we readers to, bloggers or not? Don’t we deserve to get a tiny bit of privilege our friends got?

    I love blogging, but you’re right. It feels like us international bloggers are being sidelined more and more these days. I’ll still support the authors but I hope they (not the authors) won’t be shocked or starting to point fingers when the stats and traffics are going down because well… they started it first by discredit us.

    I’m from Indonesia btw, and it’s so HARD to find an english bookstores and the prices are so expensive, it could be twice or thrice normal price. I’m really sad they decided to cut us off and treat us like we do nothing for them.

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      I totally relate to everything you’ve written, english books are very expensive here too and they take years to translate everything (usually translated books are cheaper in my country). We don’t have the same privileges, I’m pretty sure for some international bloggers it’s damn hard to manage to buy all those books and eARCs are a great way of them getting those books and for publishers to have the books promoted. I really hope they will rethink this whole mess because eARCs were very important for most international bloggers and I’m sure the contribution of those bloggers was very helpful to authors and the publishers too.

      Like

  21. Dani @ Perspective of a Writer says:

    GAH! I feel for international bloggers!! I didn’t understand what the deal was about but you laid it out so well Marty! I may be moving to England from America and its pretty crappy to hear I may be totally cut off from ALL ARCs… STILL I really feel for those international bloggers who are already spread across the world and now are being told NO! ❤

    Like

  22. 5171 Miles Book Blog says:

    OMG!!! THIS POST!!! Girl!!! Amazing!!!
    I have been frustrated with A LOT of goodreads giveaways lately! It’s ridiculous!

    I haven’t been on NetGalley for a while. Due to my busy Uni schedule, I don’t have the time to request new books and be on a reading/NetGalley deadline. I, however, have been declined eGalleys from a few big publishing houses in the past. I thought it was because of my still newbie status on NetGalley but my fellow blogging partner Ashley (from the US) had requested a few of the same books and funnily enough they accepted her but not me. I’m not mad at her for getting a book I didn’t, far from it. I am happy for her, plus she would still review it on our shared blog. But the fact that she gets accepted for books and I didn’t frustrates me, especially because we share this blog, which means we started blogging about books at the same time!! Only because you and I are not from the US, doesn’t mean we do a bad job reading and reviewing their book, you know? I think that those publishers and/or NetGalley should look beyond their own nose, because us internationals expose their books to an even bigger audience. We deserve a chance too!
    -Sabrina

    Liked by 1 person

    • thecursedbooks says:

      Ah, I completely understand and can relate to you! I think it’s unfair to get or not get certain books only because of where you live. Especially eARCs, like I’ve mentioned in my post, I can understand the matter with physical ARCs, but ebooks can be accessible for everyone! I know they’ve been claiming there are legal matters and territorial rights, but they seem pretty loose considering how international bloggers still get physical ARCs from time to time…

      Liked by 1 person

  23. devouringbooks2017 says:

    Oh my gosh! I had NO idea about the changes in these policies! I am really privileged to be an American blogger. I am outraged for you guys! I have been reading about this topic on one blog and another after several pingbacks lead me here and it is just making me more and more angry.

    I hope that they will see the outrage and change their policies. I love Edelweiss though. For a long time I didn’t understand how to use it, but now that I do I get approved a lot more often.

    Like

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