NetGalley Shelf Reviews

I loved that audiobooks have been available and NetGalleyShelf 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

While I greatly appreciate what NetGalleyShelf 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 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 NetGalleyShelf , 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 NetGalleyShelf 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 NetGalleyShelf (I use my kindle to read DRCs) was to access the review copy of an audio book, but NetGalleyShelf is unusable in the regard. I’m very disappointed!

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 NetGalleyShelf is closed and reopened, which is inconvenient (and dangerous when driving). Conveniently, NetGalleyShelf 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).

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 NetGalleyShelf and return later. Seems to be some sort of delay?

Otherwise a pretty convenient app.

My biggest problem with NetGalleyShelf is that the audiobooks are difficult to listen to. Frequently the audio quality isn’t great, with echos or tinny sounds. NetGalleyShelf 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 NetGalleyShelf 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’ve tried for weeks to access my books through NetGalleyShelf, 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 NetGalleyShelf like I once did in the past. I don’t understand what is going on but I hope it will be fixed soon!!!

I love the idea of NetGalleyShelf . 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 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!

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 NetGalleyShelf after every chapter to get it to play again!

I gave NetGalleyShelf a 4 star review because I know the stars are important and I think NetGalleyShelf has promo side once the bugs get worked out.

At first I thought I was having horrible narrators but reading reviews it seems to be an issues with NetGalleyShelf playing anything higher than 1.25 speed. NetGalleyShelf 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.

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 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 NetGalleyShelf 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 NetGalleyShelf is turned sideways. There’s no point in reading in landscape mode when it’s one long gargantuan line of text.

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 NetGalleyShelf. The only pleasant aspect of NetGalleyShelf is it is the easiest way to read Net Galley literature.

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 NetGalleyShelf doesn’t allow for that. I may have to use kindle until this is fixed.

It is a decent app but has a LOT of room for improvements. NetGalleyShelf 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 NetGalleyShelf is that you cannot take notes, highlight passages, or copy text in NetGalleyShelf . 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.

Disclaimer: I have only used NetGalleyShelf for audiobooks, not ebooks.

First, let me say that I am THRILLED Netgalley is now offering audiobook ARCs. However, NetGalleyShelf 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 NetGalleyShelf 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 NetGalleyShelf. 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!

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 NetGalleyShelf . 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 NetGalleyShelf is not available for kindle fire. Boo.

I love being able to use NetGalleyShelf 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.

I was so excited for NetGalleyShelf 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. NetGalleyShelf guide says you can delete the books by holding the image, but the delete option is not offered. I’m not certain how NetGalleyShelf is helpful if I can’t get to the books I should be able to read.

This is great!! Before NetGalleyShelf I’d download janky mobi files to my kindle app which never rendered correctly. NetGalleyShelf 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!

So happy to have an easy way to access my books. Previously, I had to find a pdf app just to read since it never downloaded onto my kindle. This saves me time and hassle free. ❤️❤️❤️

I’m still learning the options... but the audiobook aspect lets you playback up to 3x speed! That is HUGE!

This is really awesome to have all of your NetGalley books/audiobooks in one place. So convenient!

Love NetGalley. Always wanted an app. But I can’t get audio to download. It says it’s loading and never finishes, on wifi or not.

Absolutely excited to finally have this! Please add paragraph spacing.

Perhaps there is a server issue? I have no trouble downloading audiobooks from other sources. I certainly hope this can soon be remedied.

I’ve been trying to download audiobooks for DAYS.

24 hours and still cannot get audiobook to download. Only reason to get their app and it does not work. Trash!