How does one manage to get a job reviewing books? I (much like many here I assume) love going into Borders (or wherever) and browsing through the new non-fiction section. Generally at any given time probably 70% of the books there I’d love to take home and read. However, money and time are both limiting factors.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought to myself on my latest foray, if people gave me these books for free? And paid me to read them!?!? Where do I sign up!?!?!?!?!?
So, that’s my question. How does it happen. I imagine to some degree it’s paying your dues in your college paper/podunk village weekly or whatever, but is that it? Is it just journalism majors who get newspaper jobs first and then finagle their way into that position?
There are very few paying review jobs in newspapers and magazines. My local newspaper, for example, doesn’t use local reviewers at all (except for rare cases of reviewing local authors) but merely subscribes to reviews from a national distributor. So it’s next to impossible to work your way up the ladder. There is no ladder, only a top rung.
As you can imagine, the few paying gigs are highly sought after. Like most good things in life you have to have an “in.” It doesn’t hurt to have an encyclopedic knowledge of books that is more than just casual reading.
As BobT says, you are more likely to find a small or specialized publication in a field you know about. Publishers may already be sending them books for publicity purposes. You need to look at your own expertise to see if there is something you are sufficiently expert in to be an attractive reviewer. Specialization will get you a lot farther than being a generalist. If you just want to review the latest Harry Potter or Stephen King, forget it. And study other book reviewers to learn how to write one. Merely saying you like or dislike a book will get you nowhere. Book reviewing is an art like any other, and some people are simply better at it.
You might try writing some sample reviews on spec and sending them to a publication that specializes in that subject.
It’s almost as tough to break in as a book reviewer as it is as an author. Probably harder, actually, since there are so many more authors than reviewers.