Read & Rate connects you with readers on the platforms where your books actually sell: Amazon, Goodreads, Apple Books, Kobo, and more. Start free. No $450 annual fee.
Trusted by INDIE AUTHORS WORLWIDE: over 2,000 books, more than 5,000 reviews delivered, and Christian book reviewers among them
NetGalley was built for traditional publishing. The platform's reviewer base is librarians, academic reviewers, literary critics, and book bloggers. That is the exact audience that major publishers need for pre-publication trade buzz. That audience is valuable for a Big 5 release chasing a Kirkus review or a Library Journal listing. It is not the audience that moves an indie author's sales.
Indie authors need reviews where readers discover and purchase books: Amazon, Goodreads, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes and Noble. NetGalley reviewers rarely post there. Their natural destination is their own blog, a trade publication, or a Goodreads shelf that book club buyers follow, not the retail storefronts where your potential readers are browsing right now.
This is not a criticism of NetGalley. It does exactly what it was designed to do. But if you are a self-published author paying $450 a year for ARC distribution, you should know that the audience you are paying to reach is not the audience that will post reviews on the platforms that determine whether your book converts browsers into buyers.
Before you pay for NetGalley, ask yourself:
How many of NetGalley's reviewers posted their last review on Amazon? How many have a Goodreads shelf your target readers actually follow? If those answers are unclear, the $450 fee carries serious risk. You might get reviews, just not the kind that move your book on the platforms where your readers shop.
What you actually get for your money.
| Feature | Read & Rate | NetGalley |
|---|---|---|
| Readers who post Amazon reviews | Rarely | |
| Goodreads reviews | Sometimes | |
| Apple Books / Kobo / B&N targeting | Not available | |
| PDF watermarking | Not available | |
| Private reviewer feedback | Not available | |
| Book Biometrics | Not available | |
| UGC video reviews | Not available | |
| Author community | Not available | |
| Annual cost | Free trial + affordable tiers | $450-600+ per year |
| Built for indie authors | Built for traditional publishing |
Readers who post Amazon reviews
Goodreads reviews
Apple Books / Kobo / B&N targeting
PDF watermarking
Private reviewer feedback
Book Biometrics
UGC video reviews
Author community
Annual cost
Built for indie authors
NetGalley is the right tool if you have a traditional publishing deal and your publicist needs to reach librarians, book club buyers, and trade reviewers for pre-publication buzz. For that specific use case it is the industry standard. But for indie authors self-publishing on Amazon KDP, Apple Books, or Kobo, NetGalley's audience is not your audience. Paying $450 for a tool designed for a different publishing model is not a good investment.
Four things NetGalley cannot give you at any price.
NetGalley was designed for the traditional publishing pipeline: to get books in front of librarians, trade reviewers, and book club buyers before publication. That is the right tool for a Big 5 release. For an indie author on Amazon KDP, Apple Books, or Kobo, you need reviews from the readers who already shop those stores. Read & Rate connects you with exactly those people.
NetGalley charges $450 to $600 per year, per title, with no guaranteed reviews in return. Read & Rate offers a free trial with no annual commitment. Paid plans cost a fraction of what NetGalley charges and include features NetGalley does not offer at any price: watermarking, Biometrics, private feedback, and multi-platform targeting. The math is simple.
NetGalley distributes your ARC with no watermarking. If your book leaks before launch, you have no way to trace it. Every ARC sent through Read & Rate is watermarked to the individual reviewer. If your file appears somewhere it should not, you know exactly who had it. That protection costs nothing extra and is built into every campaign.
NetGalley gives you download counts. Read & Rate gives you Book Biometrics: reader engagement data that shows where attention holds, where it drops, and how your pacing compares to bestsellers in your genre. A download count tells you nothing about what readers did with your book. Biometrics tells you everything about how they read it.
We are the best book review site for authors targeting Audible, Apple Books, and Google Play. Supporting authors in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Italy, and many more.
Honest answers for authors weighing the cost.
Read & Rate connects your book with readers on Amazon, Goodreads, Apple Books, and more, for a fraction of the cost.
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