Calling All Professional Book Reviewers

[sdeangelo]

As this is a forum dedicated to books, books, books, I was thinking that some of you might review books for a living. My boyfriend and I both read a ton, and he is very interested in pursuing reviewing as a career. I am trying to learn about the job so I may be able to share some wisdom with him.

 

Some of my questions are as follows:

What is the nature of the job? How difficult is it to get a start in the field? Is it very important to have connections? Would he be able to support himself in this job? Any other miscellaneous advice?

 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you!

[Kell]

I don't thnk we have any professional reviewers here, but we do have a review team who do it for the sheer love of it.

 

My advice would be write reviews - lots of them - and if possible, join a review team without pay to gain experience and build up a portfolio. THen contact magazines, papers, whatever publications you like, and find out their policies on hiring reviewers and what it involves. After that you need to see if you can tailor your style to theirs and apply to them to see if they'll empoly you.

 

Best of luck!

[sdeangelo]

Thank you very much! This helps a lot. Looks like he'll just have to jump in and get some experience.