GALATEA
Reviews and Complaints

I am an avid reader and have read books in all sorts of environments throughout my life. I really enjoy e-books for their portability. It is nice having a “library” available and at my fingertips whenever I’m having to wait for something. The concept of immersive books sounded intriguing to me, so I thought I’d give it a try. In all honesty, I didn’t really do much research into which immersive app would best suit my needs. I installed this app with the promise of unlimited chapters for a limited time. I figured that would be a good way to start. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to start reading the day (or for a few days after) I installed the app.

The app alerted me that my unlimited chapters were soon expiring. I proceeded to the app, picked a book and began reading. It was a bit clunky at first, but I quickly got the hang of it. To my immense disappointment, the “chapters” for the book I chose were extremely short. Additionally, my “unlimited chapters” for that limited time were not what I was expecting. I was stopped after reading just six chapters into the book. A count-down timer popped up saying I could read the next chapter in 6 hours or pay an annual fee to unlock the book. I was not a happy reader.

I proceeded to do some research into the truly “unlimited” options. The price to gain access to unlimited chapters is quite steep. In a standard e-book or a hard/paperback book, the chapters tend to be at least twice as long as those provided by this app. In reviewing the comments for the past TWO years, there is a frequent complaint - how difficult it is to “earn” points and the little return you would get for the usage of those points. There have been recommendations, ideas and requests made over the past two years to make the app a bit more competitive and a more enjoyable experience.

The most common complaint is how difficult it is to earn a SINGLE point and how few you could freely obtain per day. There really isn’t a reason for such limited “earnings” and such an exorbitant point-cost. There should be options for earning additional points - most commonly through ads.

The second common complaint is having to expend 10 points for a single chapter within just a single e-book. The number of chapters made available per points should be increased. Having the option to unlock a specific book for a point-equivalent amount could be offered.

The final issue is the cost to make the app truly unlimited. There is no other option than an annual price. As with many other apps, you could provide a monthly or per e-book purchase option. Typically, a monthly rate would be a bit more expensive than the convenience of an annual charge. But, it could be a more affordable option for your readers

All three of these complaints should be addressed by the developers. Move forward with the times. You’re already partly there with your immersive books. Now…make reading them more accessible and enjoyable!

I’m an avid reader, reading daily. So far I’ve really liked just about every book I’ve read and am currently reading on this app. There is a wide variety of genres & subject matter and the various authors ✍️ do a pretty good job with character & story development (the Faery Godmother books are AWESOME with both of these things) and the stories keep you intrigued & coming back for more.
However, a few things I don’t like are 1. The long wait times … 6 hours before you can read next chapter — 12-18 hours if you actually work and sleep; 2. Galatea recently went significantly up on the cost of points (it costs 10 points to “skip” the wait time to go ahead & read the next chapter)… until just recently, for example, it only cost $4.99 for 110 points ($1.99 for 40 I think) but now it’s $7.99 for those same 110 points. I didn’t mind doing it for $4.99 for 110 points but the $7.99 is simply too much. I can buy entire novels for that price which I can read in my Kindle as often and as many chapters as I want. 3. There is no really good, effective way to regularly “earn” points… you can get 1 point a day for making 1 comment. So it takes forever (over a week) to earn enough points for ONE CHAPTER. I realize these 3 things are done to entice us to spend money and more money spent by us = more profit for them and also to entice us to simply purchase the Unlimited Plan (which also increased in price) but not everyone can afford to do that. So these 3 things are definitely downsides & negative factors. Oh I almost forgot, you can also watch an add once a day but all you get is 2 measly points. So yeah, as much as I’ve enjoyed the books, it’s become so frustrating to have to wait so long (bcuz I both work in the day & have to go to sleep at a decent hour bcuz of that & so when I finish my chapter in my books ay night, it’s at least 18 hours or longer after I work, drive, fix dinner, clean up etc… before I can read again. Longer if I have errands to run after work. And well, I just can’t justify paying $8 for 110 points bcuz like most working class folks with a fam, living expenses, bills, and the ever increasing prices of groceries & gas etc… we are on a budget. So while $20/month allowed me to buy four 110 packages every month, now that same $20 will only get me two 110 packages. So I don’t know… I may just have to delete the app when I finish these books I’m currently reading to eliminate both the frustration & the temptation to go over my budget. Bad as I’d miss Galatea. Bcuz I do enjoy what I’ve found & read so far. It’d be nice if y’all made it easier to accumulate points such as 1 point for 1 comment per book per day. That way those of us reading more than 1 book could earn more than 1 point total + it might would entice more folks to read multiple books … or at least award 5 points per ad watched & offer that like twice a day… it’d go a long way towards keeping your readers engaged & happy.‍♀️ Happy satisfied folks will be more apt to spend money than frustrated folks. ‍♀️

I’ve just got the app because I saw an add that gave a preview of a popular story and I wanted to read it. No where on the add did it say you would have to pay to read the chapters. That is the most frustrating and annoying thing ever. They offer some free options but they won’t get you very far. You can read a chapter a day or you can write a comment and get one (as in a singular) point. That may sound easy to just write comments and get points but no you have to write on different count down pages it can’t be on the same page. So it forces you to go through 10 different books to leave comments just so you can read one chapter of another book. I can understand locked chapters for continuing readers but for the people that are new to the app like myself have a lot of built up chapters and it’s annoying to not be able to catch up with the story. Not only that but I woke up early because I couldn’t sleep and decided to download and read a story on there. It was a little past 6:55am when I finished the first chapter and it said wait til 7am to read the new chapter and it offered a countdown screen that said 5 min. I decided to wait cause I’m tired of paying money just to read stories and I went to another app and came back exactly at 7am. It then proceeded to tell me I have to wait until 7am the next day and gave a countdown of 23 hours. And they gave me no way to read the chapter. WTH! To be honest that pushed me over the edge I’m probably going to delete the app. It’s not worth it to me. The only people suffering are the authors because there writings are very good but I don’t understand how anyone could deal with how this app offers very little help to those that are unwilling or like myself can’t afford to pay to read chapters. I’m about to get the 10 points for writing this review so I can read one more chapter and then I’m deleting.