NetGalley Shelf

I like the NetGalley service but the app is pretty awful for a reading app because it cuts off the top and the bottom of the book. There’s a shaded area at top and bottom of page and so you can’t see the last few sentences of each page. It’s totally infuriating…

While I greatly appreciate what the app offers re: access to audiobooks, the significant audio quality issues are doing a disservice to the content creators. Audio always sounds robotic, and often echoey. It gets noticeably worse at faster playback speeds, often to the point of distraction or not being able to understand what is being said. I am leery of even providing feedback on the narration in the current book I am listening too, because I am having a very hard time distinguishing whether issues are from the narration or audio quality. Will still use it because I love audiobooks, but publishers should be cognizant of how the quality of their product is impacted by this when using the feedback they receive.

I will be praying for improvements with this app. I just downloaded and can feel like I should just use my Kindle app the read these books. But I thought this app would help me differentiate between the books I’m reading for Netgalley and the ones from other sources. When you are downloading the book, a little window pops up and it says “Start downloading the book.” I feel like it should just say “Downloading” I was really confused at first because when I read that, it made me feel like I should click on it to download. Also, when you are flipping the pages, should it be like the kindle where you feel like you’re actually reading a book and not a document? Scrolling makes it feel unnatural. I haven’t tried the audiobook feature yet, but the reviews make me hesitant to do so. Sooooo many improvements are needed for this app. I was so excited for it when I read it. Anything that can be done on my phone makes for convenience. I hope there will be a better update soon.

This app is the only way to access audiobook from NetGalley, but the audio quality is so horrible that it’s hard to even listen to them. The narration always sounds robotic and echos. If you try to increase the speed, these issues become noticeably worse and the audio will start to jump. It makes listening to audiobooks, something I normally love into a chore that hurts my ears. When reviewing audiobooks through NetGalley, the website always asks for feedback on the narration. I never felt like I can give any because this app warps the sound so horribly that my experience with the narration is nothing like what an actual reader will experience when listening through a better app. If I was an audiobook narrator or an audiobook publisher, I’d be hesitant to have my work on NetGalley simply because this app makes the experience so horrible for the listener and that is bound to effect reviews. As a reviewer, I find myself hesitant to request audiobooks simply because the listening experience through this app is so horrible.

Originally there were glitches in the audio portion. I am currently listening to a “new book” and no problems or complaints. The delivery is smooth, volume consistent, I can bookmark, connect via bluetooth to different devices and control from those devices. There is a sleep timer and a range of speed choices. I find this comparable to Chirp, Audibles, Hoopla and Libby. Actually better than some others. The particular publisher/providers at times don’t have their product as polished, just like when I read an ebook on my Kindle and the format is lacking. I do like being able to preview audio books since narrators can make a huge difference and it is definitely the only way some readers can get a book.

I loved that audiobooks have been available and the app does lots of things well. I’ve no quarrel with features and sound quality, but the known issue of only being able to play 1 chapter at a time and then having to reboot my phone to continue is making me nuts. I certainly can’t listen to anything while driving due to this. At home, it takes a while for the audio to start going to my earbuds instead of the phone speaker— meaning that when listening at night, getting started with a new chapter means unexpected noise that wakes my husband, so listening to more than a single chapter then is out, too, although this may not be an app issue— this is the only audio I’ve played recently on my iPhone XS. Seriously, I’d prefer to rank this a 1, but hate to discourage NetGalley. I’m running the latest iOS, 14 something

I downloaded this to listen to a review copy of an audio book, but discovered you cannot listen to them sped up without awful distortion (it sounds like a robot or someone talking through a box fan). The audio books also freeze after every chapter, forcing you to close and reopen the app, which completely breaks immersion in the story. Downloading the audio was also a pain. If my screen went to sleep, the download stopped. If I tapped or bumped my screen at all, the download stopped. If the app was minimized or interrupted in any way, the download stopped. It took 20+ min to download one book, and I had to turn my screen to never go to sleep and was unable to use my phone the whole time it was downloading. The only reason to use this app (I use my kindle to read DRCs) was to access the review copy of an audio book, but the app is unusable in the regard. I’m very disappointed!

Considering that the only way to listen to audiobooks is through this app, the audio quality is a massive issue. The audio is echoey—like listening to every word spoken in a multi-octave chord. Speeding up the audio makes it even worse. I can’t listen faster than x2 speed (which is slow for me) or else the audio actually skips and is unintelligible. It is difficult to concentrate and definitely has a negative affect on my experience with the book, which in turn hurts my review. I am constantly busy with chores, so audiobooks are my biggest percentage of my reading consumption. Having a bad experience with this audio makes me not want to use this app / give reviews this way. This needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

If you read a book every time you open that says same book it cannot keep your place . I am a reader that sneaks reading in while doing other activities . On a good day so might open this about 20 times a day . Every time it has certain spots it opens up to and finds those same spots to open the book from. My spouse is a professional book formatter so he even knows why this is happening but you guys don’t seem to care ? Why let reviews of books from readers be tainted with frustration with an app ?

This app is good, but not great. There should be an option to change the font or at least a sliding scale type of page zoom option, and once you zoom the first page of the book it should carry over to every page of that same book so you don’t have to manually zoom in on every single page. I also wish there was a “dark mode” option for the actual pages of the book. The app background is dark, however the pages of the actual book are still left white, thus making it hard to read at nighttime even with my brightness being turned all the way down.

Audiobook seems to take a while to download - longer than other apps - but not too bad. Audio sounds overly distorted when reading at a faster speed (e.g. 1.25x and faster), which can be disconcerting. Also, app tends to freeze when starting a new chapter; the timer keeps going but no sound is heard, and the problem is only fixed when the app is closed and reopened, which is inconvenient (and dangerous when driving). Conveniently, the app does faithfully recall the last location listened to when opened back up. Note: I have an iPhone that has the latest software update (NetGalley recommends 13.0 or later, which I have).

I’ve tried for weeks to access my books through this app, but it will not let me sign in. I keep getting a message that I have the incorrect password. Even when I change my password I still cannot get in. This is so frustrating being that I read a lot on the go. It is extremely convenient to be able to access the books from my phone. Now I can only access the book from my KindleFire. But the books do not go to the Kindle app on my phone. Therefore, I cannot read the books on my shelf from my phone at all. This is highly frustrating. I should be able to send my books this app like I once did in the past. I don’t understand what is going on but I hope it will be fixed soon!!!

Audiobooks take an unusually long time to download and do not continue to download in the background, so they monopolize your device for upwards of a half hour until you can use the device or listen to the book. Has options for increased listening speed, but caused an oddly digital sound, even at 1.25, which is unusual as most audiobook and podcast players players can manage that without too much sound distortion. EBooks don’t always save your place, often reopening 5-10 pages behind last read position if you leave the app and return later. Seems to be some sort of delay? Otherwise a pretty convenient app.

The app is Ok. I’ve read about 10 books on the apps and listened to 2. I’ve only had 1 book that was a pdf only and was hard to read on the phone. I chose to read that on a tablet instead, without the app. I’d like the option to sort books on the shelf by expected publication date or archive date, not just last read, currently reading and the other available filters. I like the option for displaying book covers on the shelf. Also the availability to change page color, font, size and page/scroll options.

My biggest problem with the app is that the audiobooks are difficult to listen to. Frequently the audio quality isn’t great, with echos or tinny sounds. The app also frequently hangs when the novel should advance from one chapter to another. It’s problematic if you listen while driving. I frequently have to close and then reopen the app in order to advance to the next chapter, which means I have to pull over if I’m listening while driving. Also, the poor resolution and overlapping of title text mean it’s difficult to use any screen captures of the audiobook for SM promotion.

I don’t have any true cons for this app. It works as advertised and gets the job done. It is basic and a little dated and clunky for a reading and listening app, but why does it need to be fancier? I do wish it showed percentage complete without opening the book, though. I also wish there was an accompanying Apple CarPlay app and a homepage widget for my phone. I haven’t had any glitches. Not sure why this is rated so low.

The interface isn’t user friendly, but it mostly gets the job done. My biggest complaint is about the audio. Since this app is the only way to listen to the audio ARCs I’m stuck. The app doesn’t always allow my AirPods to pause the audio. This is very inconvenient. It also won’t play through my car over Bluetooth unless the speed is set to the default. This isn’t a huge deal, but I don’t listen at that speed so I have to change it every time I am in the car.

I love the idea of the app. I don’t have an issue with the audiobooks like other people have mentioned. I have an iPhone, maybe that’s why. My problem is that I have books on my shelf that go back to 2017! I have long ago provided feedback on those. I can’t get them to go away. The option of pressing down to delete them doesn’t work. It’s a small thing, but it irritates me as it seems like I have more books to review than I do. Being able to sort them out by date of release would be nice and helpful as well.

I love using NetGalley on a web browser and I frequently review books, however the lack of a user friendly app is shocking. I can view my books and download them to read on my phone but that’s absolutely it. I can’t rate a book after reading, see what my deadlines are for other books, look at other ratings, or anything else I can do on the website … I can simply just see the books and download them. The app is pointless if it isn’t going to allow you to do everything else the website does. Please make a more user friendly interface.

I am an avid audiobook listener so having an app was lovely. I also had issues with getting the books to download, but once the WiFi connection was sting it seems to load quickly. My problem is that once the audiobooks are playing I have to exit the app after every chapter to get it to play again! I gave the app a 4 star review because I know the stars are important and I think the app has promo side once the bugs get worked out.

I was experiencing a problem downloading a book and sent in my complaint. I had a real person respond within minutes to say they’d contacted the publisher about a file error, and detailed suggestions for other ways to read the book in the meantime. Really nice to get a response so quickly!

I have two complaints. One, if I’m not SUPER careful as I’m scrolling it jumps to the page before or after depending on where I’m touching the screen, so the text is constantly jumping around as I’m trying to read and pulling me out of the story. Also, because I can’t change the text size, it would be REALLY nice if I could turn my phone to landscape mode to read to make the text bigger, but the app doesn’t allow for that. I may have to use kindle until this is fixed.

I like having an app that automatically gets my ARCs. I just have a few things they could update in it that would make it more usable. 1 - Put the publish dates in the app so I know when I have to read them by! Seems like that would be a priority in an app like this. 2 - Give the ability to split the text into two columns when the app is turned sideways. There’s no point in reading in landscape mode when it’s one long gargantuan line of text.

I love that NetGalley has recently begun offering audiobooks. I have been an long time user of audiobooks and have never had an issue playing books until now. The audio play on NetGalley Shelf is very intermittent and frequently stops. Once it cuts out it is nearly impossible to restart until I turn my phone off and reboot. It is not a WiFi, Bluetooth,cell service or device problem. The problem lies with either the audiobook or the application. Very frustrated!

At first I thought I was having horrible narrators but reading reviews it seems to be an issues with the app playing anything higher than 1.25 speed. The app locks up all the time and I can’t find a way to only delete a download. I don’t want to delete the books but just the download because the files take up so much room on my phone. I wish there was a way to stream them instead. Finally deleted app today after being so frustrated, I won’t request any more audiobooks.

It is a decent app but has a LOT of room for improvements. The app does not hold your place so you have to remember to bookmark your place. It’s an annoyance but does have a workaround. The worst part about this app is that you cannot take notes, highlight passages, or copy text in the app. And that is a huge mistake as far as I am concerned for an app that is designed for people reading ARCs. It makes note-taking for the review difficult at best.

With the latest update, the books are out of order and the expired ones still show up on recently read section. What I recently read isn’t there. The book I’m currently reading had to reopen instead of just being at the correct page. Also books I sent to my Kindle to read are shown and they have been read. There is no way on the app to reorganize or reorder anything. Please do better.

I love being able to use the app for audiobooks, it’s frustrating when it crashes between chapters, especially in thrillers with short chapters. The sound also distorts if you go above 1.5 speed, so I have to decide between listening to it at the speed I want (2) but have it sound strange or listening to it without distortion at a speed that feels too slow.

This is a frustrating app to use in general. It jumps pages easily, doesn’t allow the reader to take notes and won’t allow any copy and paste for my own notes. Since I use it in order to write reviews for books, it’s a frustrating process. I will use a different app which will take extra steps just to avoid the clunkiness of this app. The only pleasant aspect of the app is it is the easiest way to read Net Galley literature.

The app doesn’t save your place when you pause an audiobook, so when you open it back up again, it is always in a seemingly random place. Sometimes it’s gone backwards, sometimes forward, but every time I have to scroll through to try to figure out where I left off. It’s just not worth using when there are so many better apps out there.

Disclaimer: I have only used this app for audiobooks, not ebooks. First, let me say that I am THRILLED Netgalley is now offering audiobook ARCs. However, this app needs improvement. Alternately, I’d like to be able to listen to them in an app of my choosing. My biggest issue is that speeding up the audio makes it sound digitized. None of the other audiobook apps I use have this issue. Anything past 1.25 just sounds awful. I also have an issue where the audiobook just completely stops at the end of some chapters. I have to completely exit the app and get back in to make it start playing again. I’d also like a bit more functionality. In order to go back a chapter, I can’t just rewind, I have to open up the chapter menu.

It appears I am not the only one having issuing downloading an audiobook via this app. I have tried for several hours a day for the last couple days to download these two audiobooks I was approved for, I tried with WiFi and without, nothing. They will get to a certain point and just stop and if you click on the screen it will stop the download and you have to start over. I hope this issue will be resolved soon so I am able to put my reviews in for these books. NetGalley please fix this issue so we can download!

This app is extremely glitchy. One wrong tap here or there on the screen and it jumps forward or backward a page instead of scrolling nicely like it should. Some improvements would make the app better but since some netgalley arcs can only be accessed through this app, I have to deal with the glitches and continue to use the app.

I was extremely excited to see that we could get audiobooks as I listen to/from work every day. Started a book and have had to restart the app numerous times to get the audio going. This is an app problem not phone as I’m able to listen to audible and Chirp books just fine. Hope NetGalley becomes aware and this gets a fix.

It’s been said a million times, but here’s a million and one: audio books often stop at the end of a chapter and won’t play again without me fully closing and restarting the app. It’s enough to make reviewing audiobooks not worth it. As far as print books go, I would rather read them on my kindle fire than on my phone (much larger; especially for graphic novels), but this app is not available for kindle fire. Boo.

Like many reviewers have mentioned, the audio quality for Audiobooks is not good at all. Listening at a higher playback speed is next to hopeless because the audio quality issues become exacerbated; heightened robotic sounding narration and literally skipping words and phrases like a scratched CD. Since this is the exclusive way to listen to Audiobooks on NetGalley there needs to be some serious improvements on this.

This app is difficult for to work with. While reading there is no interactive menu to help navigate the book. There is no way to access the home menu it table of contents, no bookmark, and no way to save your place between devices. It would be so helpful to have at least some maneuverability to ease the use. It isn’t much more than a saved document in a word processor.

This app is a great way to catch up on all your netgalley preview books while using your phone. That said as a reader it lacks a few features that make it a positive experience. There seems to no way to increase the font size and therefore its very hard to read without getting a headache. Fix that and make it possible to set the formatting to a more sepia toned background and i’ll happily give it five stars.

I love using NetGalley, and the addition of audiobooks was such a fantastic surprise! But the audiobook player isn’t great. The interface is very user friendly, but when you change the speed to anything other than 1x speed the audio starts to get distorted. In fact, the narrators sound a lot like robots. If this gets fixed then the app would be nearly perfect. Please look into fixing this 🙂

I have listened to several books now and it doesn’t matter if I’m conn to the internet or not, but the books stop playing without warning. Sometimes it’s really often sometimes it goes longer. The only way to get the audio book to continue is to turn my phone completely off and restart it. It doesn’t help to exit the app and go back into it. It is really frustrating.

Ugh! I go round and round trying to log in, only to be told that there’s an error. Correct errors, still no luck! I’ve put in the Kindle as directed, still no book shows up in Kindle on my iPad. Total frustration in trying to access any book! I have asked for help, but no email advice has helped to get to the books.

I’ve had nothing but issues with net galley lately and it’s been really frustrating. The internet browser won’t let me download just a regular pdf to read the books I’ve been gifted, and the books aren’t supported on any of the apps I have installed. I turn around and try the NetGalley specific app and it won’t even let me log in. It says the credentials are incorrect. How can they be incorrect when I’m signing in online with no issue using the exact same information?? Horrible.

I was so excited for this app to come out. I downloaded it and have waited 48 hours but only a handful of my books have shown up. And most of those I’ve already read. The app guide says you can delete the books by holding the image, but the delete option is not offered. I’m not certain how this app is helpful if I can’t get to the books I should be able to read.

I love NetGalley and so appreciate getting access to ARCs through their site, BUT this app is terrible. It is basically impossible to listen to an audiobook. It gets stuck between chapters and some chapters just refuse to ever play. You can spend hours closing the app, restarting your phone, fast forwarding, rewinding, jumping chapters back and forth just to try to hear and audiobook in its entirety. It’s 2021, is listening to an audiobook that high tech? Why can’t you fix this known problem?

This is great!! Before this app I’d download janky mobi files to my kindle app which never rendered correctly. This app downloads the ebook files much better allowing for a way better reading experience! Also Bravo on finally providing audiobooks!! I am able to listen at work which is great!

I downloaded the app so I could listen to an audiobook I was approved for and it refuses to download on my phone. I thought the book would download in the background. I went to other apps and an hour later circled back to see no progress. Then I tried staying on the app and not messing with my phone, an hour later no progress. Then I tried getting out of the app and trying to download again. It started back at square one! This app does not work at all for me.

You can read the books and that is helpful. The automated voices, should you choose to turn it into an audiobook, are terrible. Really, really terrible robot voices that are really frustrating to listen to. Also, they need to add a rotation lock option. I like to lay down to read and if I don’t hold it just right the rotation flips and it’s annoying.

The formatting on this app cuts off 1-2 lines at the bottom of each page. I am getting this no matter the view I use. When I realized swiping to the next page wasn’t making sense, I messed around with the view and was able to eventually see the missing lines. Seems like I’d have to do this on every page.

I’m happy NetGalley now offers audiobooks but I’ve had issues with downloading books. It takes a long time. Sometimes I have to cancel and restart. It helps sometimes but other times it does not. I’ve also had issues with it just stopping while listening to a book and again I have to exit the app and restart.

I’ve had books that are expired still show up. Any time I try to highlight anything the the WHOLE app freezes making it hard to select and remember portions I want for my reviews. The app is so simple yet hard to use at first. Definitely not intuitive. If possible, I recommend sticking to the website