| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Beginner Issues > Topic: Getting into book reviewing |
Topic: Getting into book reviewing
| Author | Message |
| harlemwriter | Posted – 8/8/2006 4:18:14 PM | show profile | email poster Does anyone know how to get started reviewing books? I don't have journalism experience but am a fiction writer as well as a freelance editor/writer. The professional writing I have done has been mostly long reports for the UN, and I do editing/proofreading for publishers and a few small companies. I'd really like to get into book reviewing, though, and don't know where to start. I am definitely willing to do a few reviews for free in order to get clips. If anyone has suggestions of publications that would be open to new writers, I'd appreciate it! |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 8/8/2006 7:41:22 PM | show profile A lot of reviews for small publications -- like little newspapers and web sites -- usually pay very little, sometimes only the book you're reviewing. Those are the best places to start. --Posted ? 8/8/2006 4:18:14 PM | show profile | email poster Does anyone know how to get started reviewing books? I don't have journalism experience but am a fiction writer as well as a freelance editor/writer. The professional writing I have done has been mostly long reports for the UN, and I do editing/proofreading for publishers and a few small companies. I'd really like to get into book reviewing, though, and don't know where to start. I am definitely willing to do a few reviews for free in order to get clips. If anyone has suggestions of publications that would be open to new writers, I'd appreciate it!-- |
| BluePooka | Posted – 8/9/2006 10:17:31 AM | show profile | email poster Book reviewing You need five clips--written like your life depended on it--from no-pay weeklies. Get these, send them out. Mail (that thing with stamps and envelopes) works best. Then move on to PW. Not a lot of money, but good experience. For your first 10-20 reviews, take pages and pages of notes on the book. This will help your learning curve--I'm serious. Since you've worked as an editor/writer, beware of conflict of interest. Yeah, publishing is incest with poor paychecks, but make an effort to avoid reviewing books by people you're working for, pitching to, or have worked for recently. Best, BP |
| kasthu | Posted – 8/9/2006 11:06:55 AM | show profile Another really great way to get clips is to write reviews on Amazon.com. I've been doing it for about two years and its been a great way for me to build my own portfolio. Just a thought. |
| kasthu | Posted – 8/9/2006 11:07:06 AM | show profile Another really great way to get clips is to write reviews on Amazon.com. I've been doing it for about two years and its been a great way for me to build my own portfolio. Just a thought. |
| kasthu | Posted – 8/9/2006 11:07:33 AM | show profile Another really great way to get clips is to write reviews on Amazon.com. I've been doing it for about two years and its been a great way for me to build my own portfolio. Just a thought. |
| kasthu | Posted – 8/9/2006 11:09:52 AM | show profile Sorry for the multiple post. |
| salsera | Posted – 8/9/2006 12:23:23 PM | show profile reviewing books I write some book reviews for my hometown paper. How did I break in? I knew some of the reviewers there and asked one of them how she broke in. She gave me the name of the book review editor, and I contacted him. He said I could give it a shot--that if I wrote something he liked, then he would run it and pay me for it. Since then, I've written a number of reviews for him. |
