Bibliophile? You? Absolutely. You're a good reader, a good writer and are convinced you can find interesting perspectives on new releases. So how can you turn those into assignments? I talked to some reviewers.

"The dirty secret is that book editors, especially at big newspapers, are starving for good reviewers. So, the best thing to do is dig up as many email addresses as possible, find a book you want to review (make sure it's well in advance of its pub date), and email pitches. It's surprising just how easy it is," says Clay Risen, assistant editor of the New Republic who recently published a book review in the New York Times Review of Books.

"Publications are becoming more and more likely to print reviews of genre work, from science fiction to fantasy to mysteries to comic books," adds However, there are significantly fewer reviewers who are excellent at covering them. If you do your research and geniunely love a specific genre (or medium, in the case of comics), you'll be in demand. Of course, if you're only writing about genre now without much interest in the hopes that someone will eventually ask you to review the new Michael Chabon, it'll show in your reviews. The point is to find a niche that there's a need for and then be excellent and passionate. Also, read your ass off. Read everything in that genre, the good and the bad and the stuff that looks really bad but might actually end up really good. Go all the way back and read the classics and the forgotten classics and the recommendations of the big name authors in the genre" says Jessa Crispin, who is the editor of the site Bookslut.

If you want to be noticed, you might want to start a blog, too. "In addition to pitching smaller publications like local city papers and little literary journals, I broke into book revieweing by starting a literary blog, which, apparently, big-time editors read. Who knew?" says Elizabeth Skurnick, whose reviews have appeared in the NYTBR, Washington Post Book World, The Baltimore Sun, New York magazine and elsewhere and who edits Old Hag. "I made a crack about about nice Ben McGrath, and the next thing I knew, his father had contacted me about writing for the NYTBR. Other assignments for other places followed--even agents. So what can I say? Find the EIC of the publication you would like to write for, and make fun of his or her child.

"In terms of making book reviewing better -- I actually think book reviewing nowadays at large publications is very good. Many editors seem to be following the Jonathan Yardley model, which is to allow someone with a vast and eclectic knowledge of literature to take a work and wale--in his idiosyncratic--away on it. This method can be hugely painful for the writer, but it's fairer to readers, who, after all, have to pay for the book. It also beats the here's-the-plot-what's-your-hurry model, which has cost me so many regrettable $17.99's, I don't even want to think about it."

Finally, before you write your review, Maud Newton, editor of MaudNewton.com and published book critic, says "Say what you really think. As a reviewer, your obligation is to readers, not writers. And you're not doing readers any favors if you recommend a shitty book."

Oh, by the way, Kirkus is now accepting payments to run reviews. Discuss.