book reviews for cash

[flying_babyb]

anyone do book reviews for money? How would one get started?

 

[Topper]

I would start by reading some books.

 

[allison443]

My brother in law used to do occasional book reviews for the NY Times and got paid, however, he was a published author and the books he was selected to review were in his field of expertise, which was a particular historical period.
Most professional book reviewers are also published authors, I believe.
The only book reviews I've seen by "regular folks" are on Amazon, etc. and of course those are unpaid reviews.
Where have you seen the kind of paid book reviews you are talking about?

 

[RitaE]

I know a couple of people that get ARC books from a couple of publishers because they have well established blogs with a proven reader base. They don't get paid though, they just get to read the books for free a couple weeks early and they post their reviews on their blogs. They get invited to some of the conferences too, but that also isn't free or paid work.

I really don't know of anybody that gets paid for doing book reviews other than career type writers. The publishing industry in itself is in a huge downward spiral. Thousands of people lost their jobs this year from the major publishers. If there was a way to get paid for that kind of job, I think they'd all be first in line.

 

[Kitzka]

Your first bet would be to check out industry periodicals. While, many magazine are losing money, most publishing magazines are still in business. They are staying afloat. I am talking industry magazines such as Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, etc. They pay to review books but it is not alot $25 per review if even that. You do not get paid by the word, or for your time reading. You will get the ARC of the book.

Most of these periodicals, and consequently their online counterparts, will require that you have some sort of background to qualify you to review for them. Most of the reviwers are either current and former librarians, teachers, professors, former editors, former author's etc.

Hope that helps

 

[MarilIncredible]

I am not sure there is a market for amateur book reviews, to be honest. With sites like Barnes & Noble and Amazon encouraging people to post their own reviews or comments for free (and lots of people willing to share their opinions) I am not sure where you'd look to sell your book reviews.


Unless you offer a struggling first-time author a stellar book review on all major bookseller websites in exchange for some money.