Book review work?

October 14, 2009 12:53 PM

How can I get paid book review work?

As a freelance writer, I've done the odd paid book review here and there. I now want to get more reviewing work, but (unlike general writing assignments) I'm not sure where to start. If you write or assign paid book reviews (however poor the pay is; even a token amount), what advice can you offer?

NB: I am interested in doing more reviews on a professional level, which is the reason for wanting paid work. I'm (fortunately) not trying to make a living at it. As a pro writer, I don't particularly want to do Amazon reviews, if for no other reason than that they'll most likely end up topping Google searches on my name which could make me look amateurish.

posted by different to Work & Money (8 answers total)

I would recommend starting out by doing reviews on your own, on a blog, and especially establishing a niche for yourself. Take a look around local papersa and see who does book reviews, including small neighborhood newspapers; it's especially helpful to pitch your wares at them first, as they are always in need of content. It's really a matter of hopscotching your way up, step by step, from unpaid to low paid to paid, and each step bulking out your resume and demonstrating your skills, your niche, and your dependability.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:01 PM on October 14, 2009

Yeah, I agree with AZ. I know you want compensation, which I totally understand, but the benefit of building up a good blog and getting some traffic to it is tons and tons of review copies, which will be worth more than whatever pittance people are paying for book reviews these days. When I was a paid, weekly DVD critic for a national chain I probably made as much money selling review copies as I did for getting published. (If you have an ethical problem selling review copies, you'll still profit from all the free books).
posted by Bookhouse at 1:54 PM on October 14, 2009

You could try submitting to a small but respectable online lit publication to build your reputation. The Second Pass and The Millions spring to mind.
posted by martens at 2:04 PM on October 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm not in the publishing biz anymore, but when I was, we just had a flat fee we paid per review. If someone sent us clips and we liked their style, we'd tell 'em what we could offer. If they thought that was good enough, they got published. If they proved reliable, they got published a lot. There's nothing wrong with just sending your clips out to editors and seeing what happens. The problem is that the majority of people who send unsolicited stuff really aren't very good or unique, so it can take a lot of time and a lot of trial and error before you hit on an editor who likes what you have to offer.

So, long story short.... do your thing, fling it out there, take what you can get, and then do it again. Eventually you'll get somewhere.
posted by spilon at 2:39 PM on October 14, 2009

Best answer: Try hitting up Publishers Weekly. No byline, hardly any money. But it's good practice.
posted by scratch at 3:19 PM on October 14, 2009

Best answer: Forgot to mention Kirkus Reviews. Same deal as PW, I think.
posted by scratch at 3:20 PM on October 14, 2009

Find someone publishing reviews (either written or radio) and get contacts from them - to get free books, you need to talk to publshing marketers. The person will a) be able to provide you with the means to publish reviews, and b) give you contacts for the publishing people will give you the books.

Cautionary tale: Book reviewing is not as great as you think it is - especially if you're doing it for money. If you're getting paid, you will have limited choice as to what to review, and let me assure you, the vast vast majority of books published are not good. They're not terrible, either, perhaps best described as on the bad side of mediocre.

There is nothing harder than trying to write a review which could be summarised as "This is book pretty bad, I guess, but you can tell that from the cover and the blurb. It is not surprising in any way. If you like this kind of thing, you'll probably like it. If you don't, you won't like it. I don't like this kind of book".

I found it very depressing (mostly), and reading became a chore rather than a pleasure. I'm not saying it has to be this way, but it was for me.

Also, in my experience of about 5 years freelancing and sometime editing - editors do not give a shit if you're writing for Amazon, The Times, or your own blog. They'll look at your work and judge it on its merits. The only thing a publishing record demonstrates is that you can write to a brief, and you haven't pissed someone off too badly. Not a bad thing by any means, but your Amazon reviews will only hurt your publishing chances if an editor thinks your reviews are shit, not because they're on Amazon.
posted by smoke at 3:36 PM on October 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

A few months ago I got an email invitation for Amazon's Vine program: this involves them sending out a monthly newsletter of targetted books (etc) from which members can choose to have some delivered. It's an invite-only scheme - in 2007 they started by involving their most prolific 2,000 reviewers. I am guessing (given they contacted me) that they are now less selective.

I mention this because an invitation to to take part may be a side benefit of writing more Amazon reviews yourself. I'd also echo smoke's point about the process sometimes being a lot less exciting than one might imagine it to be: it is great to feel that you are helping a wonderful book to get a wider audience but sometimes frustrating to think you are a party to some publisher's dream of astro-turfing on behalf of something mediocre.
posted by rongorongo at 4:22 PM on October 14, 2009