If you already have your sights set on reviewing for a particular publication, or in a particular field or genre, read lots of relevant reviews. Get a feel for the language, style, and content that reviewers in that vein utilize. Take note of what you feel works and what does not. Try to realistically assess your skills and commitment. Can you read books quickly but with a full grasp of the material? Do your writing abilities approach the level of the reviewers you’d like to join? Regardless, there are options available to you, but you may need to temper your dreams of achieving fortune or fame. (Although, honestly, you probably shouldn’t see book reviewing as a path to those things anyway!)
At most, you’ll have to create an account in order to review books, but take the process seriously if you are indeed serious about being a book reviewer. Read the books you review, obviously. Take some time to craft thoughtful critiques that you would be proud to claim as your own. Even simple reviews like these can be used as samples of your work if you want to advance in the book-reviewing business. So make them good samples.
There are numerous book review websites that will provide you with even more free books and perhaps even a bit of cash in return for independent, quality reviews. [6] X Research source If you really want to see your name (and work) in print, you can find many literary journals that simply require evidence of your reviewing skills in order to sign you up in a freelance capacity. Again, you may be working for free books or a bit of money.
Contact a group such as the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC, http://www. bookcritics. org/) and request a directory of book review editors. Use this list to determine which publications to target and which editors to contact. If you have any inside connections with someone who works at one of the publications, by all means use it to facilitate contact with the editor. You’ll need all the help you can get. Assemble the best “clips” from your existing reviews and contact the review editor(s) at your target publication(s). (Don’t expect to start with the New York Times. Focus first on smaller local or regional publications. ) Express your interest and offer to provide your sample work. Request catalogs from major publishing houses so that you can pitch reviews for forthcoming titles as part of your application. After all, you won’t be reviewing books that are already out. Be persistent but not aggressive with follow-up emails. You want to show your sincere interest without annoying an overburdened review editor.
Ideally, of course, your area of specialty in book reviews will be based on your personal taste, and your training, education, and/or experience. Practically speaking, though, if you can fill an area of need with your review specialty, you will improve your odds of snagging a job. Keep up with your reading so that you are familiar with what genres are “hot” in the publishing industry. Your goal is to become the “go to” person whenever a particular type of book lands on the editor’s desk.
Carefully read over any style or formatting guides, and take word counts seriously. Space is at a premium for most book reviews, so you need to be able to winnow down your writing to the essentials, while still providing the necessary information and critique. Don’t take on a review if you are not sure that you can complete it on time. Regularly missing deadlines is one of the easiest ways to get on an editor’s bad side — and another willing and capable reviewer can almost always be readily found.
Reading a book, especially a good book, is all about making a personal connection between the reader and the world evoked by the words on the page. Think of it as your job as the reviewer to help prepare potential readers for entering this world. Share your unique experience with the work as a guide for them.
Try to understand what the author intended to write, and don’t punish him or her for something her or she did not attempt to do. Provide enough quotations from the work to give the review reader a feel for the quality of the prose. Confirm your description of the work with quotations and other evidence from it. Limit your plot summary, and never give away the ending. Don’t spoil the experience for others. When a book is deficient in quality, cite similar examples of good books (perhaps even by the same author). Try to understand and explain what went wrong; don’t just do a “hatchet job. ” Don’t review books your are predisposed to dislike or like (for instance, one written by a friend); don’t see yourself as a caretaker for some tradition or standard of literature; don’t try to put an author “in his place” with your critique; and always review the book, not the reputation.
