Reviewers can be found everywhere. In magazines, newspapers, universities, supermarkets, and even blogs. Their thoughts and opinions about a book become as important as the author’s look, if not more. They create a short review from which readers can get an idea about the book.
How To Become A Paid Book Reviewer?
1. Read Ample Books
Are you looking to become a book reviewer? If the answer is yes, then I would highly recommend that you read books often. It is a characteristic that is very important, and I am very sure something that is built inside you, so much so, to choose book reviewing as your job. A book reviewer is a professional who reads and critiques books. As ample reading books create thought patterns, it will help you to improve your analytical thinking and help you get ideas for writing an article about the book. Reading incessantly will also help in understanding the different genres, whether the reading material is a novel, a blog article, or a business article. Book reviewing is one of the best ways to make money by reading books!
2. Build A Readership
If you’re a book lover, then getting the chance to be a book reviewer is a true delight. But building a readership of your own is very important and is the second step towards your dream job. Readership means a community of regular readers around you who are interested in reading your critique on the books. You can do this by first creating a book blog of your own and writing reviews there or building your readership on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, where you can post your reviews on particular books, and your readership can tell you what they liked about your reviews. As a book reviewer, you want to build a community around your brand. As your community grows, you can also offer more services that will benefit them. You can publish an ebook with the top quotes from your book reviews, for example.
3. Always Think Of The Reader First
As a book reviewer, as important as it is to give your honest opinion of an author’s book, we also need to keep in mind that we’re first and foremost writing for the reader. The book review is an important element in the book business because it allows readers to get a better perspective on a certain book; hence as a book reviewer, it is very important that you always think of the reader first while writing a critique for a particular book.
Using your sharpened critical acumen, you are presented with the opportunity to help guide readers toward books that will touch them deeply on some level. Writing a book review is a lot like writing any other type of content online. You should always think and feel like the reader as candidly as possible because your main motive will be letting your review engage with the readers while writing a review.
4. Join Online Book Clubs
It is crucial for book reviewers to actively participate in online book clubs as it definitely improves their ability to provide a meaningful review of a book they read. The importance of joining an online book review club lies in the reach it can bring to your readership and to your business. To me, online book clubs are like an online community. When you sign up to participate in them, you enter a spot where you can let people know what you think about books and use it as a practice platform as a book reviewer.
You can also ask questions if you need help with the book you’re reviewing and see what other members think about it. Online book clubs are the best places to discuss your favorite books and meet new authors and new readers of your art. Even reading becomes a better experience when you join one of these clubs that share the same passion for reading as you do and help you understand other readers’ perspectives on particular books.
5. Have Your Own Opinions
Having your own opinion is an important quality of a professional book reviewer. A good reviewer should read the review copy and take the time to formulate their own opinion. They should be able to state their considerations for or against the book and mention what the other reviewers said, although it might be different from what they had to say about it. Not doing this could lead to misinformed decisions on the part of the book’s potential buyers. When you are a book reviewer, it is hard to read through dozens upon dozens of books. Being able to express your own strong opinions about them is sometimes the only way to avoid getting caught up in all the noise.
6. Write Easily Understandable Reviews (Without Jargon)
The main goal of any book reviewer is to be able to capture the essence of the book they are reviewing in a way that everyone can understand. Writing easily understandable reviews (without jargon) is an art that has to be perfected. Otherwise, you will portray yourself as someone who does not know how to put together a good review that will help the readers.
For a book reviewer, part of the challenge is in finding the right tone and voice for your reviews so that you don’t lose your readers within the review itself. The importance of an easy-to-understand review is just as important as it is for someone to be able to understand the language being read or being spoken. It allows that person or group of individuals to form opinions about the subjects being discussed and about you as an individual. You can check out Grammarly tool for this, it’ll be really helpful when you edit the articles.
7. Research About The Books And Their Topics
Before you write your book reviews, it is important to do some research about the authors and their topics. When it comes to book reviews, you want to help promote the good and alert them to the bad. To make a review, you need to read a variety of books within your genre and outside your genre. This gives you a perspective of what is engaging in the industry and what has been known to be bogus. Book reviewers write reviews that provide an opinion about whether or not the reader should read the book. However, the job only entails telling the reader whether they should buy or read it. Hence, one needs to research the topic of the book and its reviews from sources other than just the author. It is important to research how popular or successful a certain book has been.
8. Keep A Portfolio Of Your Reviews
As your career progresses, your skills and experience grow. When you start to reach out and connect with other authors and publishers in the industry, it becomes crucial to create a portfolio for yourself as a reviewer. Keeping a portfolio of your reviews is important as you’re building up your resume. It can also be extremely helpful when you’re trying to build connections with other authors and publishers as your career progresses and the networking begins. Also, when you’re getting started, it can be easy to forget which books you’ve reviewed and the outcome of the review. Keeping a portfolio can give you a solid overview of all of your reviews and which ones were the most impactful.
9. Learn How To Pitch To Authors
Learning how to pitch to authors so they can be your potential clients is the last and one of the most important steps to becoming a book reviewer. Being a book reviewer sounds like a really cool gig. And it is. Once you get enough under your belt and establish yourself as a legitimate reviewer, it is important that you learn how to pitch your services as a reviewer to authors around the globe. Authors need and pay book reviewers to promote their new books with the help of quality reviews, and most bloggers want to read quality books to write good reviews that will help them establish themselves and their services.
Everyone has an opinion about the book you just read, but if you want to create an income for yourself by writing reviews on books, follow this article and the steps given above to start as a high-paying book reviewer.