Becoming a book reviewer was one of the best decisions I ever made however there are some days when it can all get a bit too much. I decided to write a blog post about the best and worst things about being a book reviewer to share with you the kinds of things we do.
Firstly, book reviewers DO NOT get paid; we don’t sit with our noses in books day after day to be rewarded at the end of the month with a hefty cheque and a day off. We read books and review them because we LOVE to read. I think you will struggle to find a book reviewer who doesn’t think of reading as one of the biggest parts of their lives. There are some FAB perks of being a reviewer. You get books sent to you weeks and sometimes months before publication to review, you get to have conversations with lovely publishing people who are probably the kindest people I have ever known to email, you have the opportunity to interview and chat with the authors of books you review and lastly, you get to read and read and read!
However, sometimes things aren’t so rosy! The dreaded reading slump can be a curse over a reviewers head; what do you do when you have no motivation to pick up a book? How about a publishing date approaching and eight books to read in the space of four days? Or you can sometimes be faced with a humongous, precariously balanced TBR pile that is probably the biggest health and safety risk around. Also you can face the challenges of some self published authors. Now by NO means am I tarring you all with the same brush here, there are some amazing self published authors out there and you all do a wonderful job. Secondly, I have nothing against self publishing. I am writing my own novel right now and would hate someone to refuse to read my book because it was self pubbed which is why I have never and will never stop accepting self published books for review. The problem comes when we are asked to buy books to review or are pressured into helping promote a book.
As I mentioned before, we don’t get paid to do this so what do we gain from promoting your book? Absolutely nothing! So why would we promote your book if you don’t have the correct manners to approach us nicely and ask politely?
Also, we aren’t made of money, in fact, since leaving university I have about £4.64 to my name (that’s another story) so I don’t have the chance to walk into a bookshop or log into amazon and order 100 books that people want me to read and pay for them with my own money. If I had done that for every book that I’d been asked to read I would be in a humongous debt! All we ask as reviewers is for a review copy, whether it be a paperback, emailed Word Document, anything!
Wow, that all sounds rather negative!
Don’t get me wrong, I love reviewing books and I have no desire to ever stop but please have a little love for us reviewers! We don’t gain anything from reviewing or promoting a book, we don’t get sent hampers of cheese and wine from publishers if we give a book 10/10 (I WISH) we just get the satisfaction of knowing we’ve helped an author to get the word out about their book and hopefully encourage sales.
And I promise, if you treat us with some love and respect, there will be a whole lot of love and respect coming back your way!
Oh and a final note, reviewers all talk to each other so you know, be careful because once you upset one of us, you’ve got a lot of people to answer too!
Firstly, book reviewers DO NOT get paid; we don’t sit with our noses in books day after day to be rewarded at the end of the month with a hefty cheque and a day off. We read books and review them because we LOVE to read. I think you will struggle to find a book reviewer who doesn’t think of reading as one of the biggest parts of their lives. There are some FAB perks of being a reviewer. You get books sent to you weeks and sometimes months before publication to review, you get to have conversations with lovely publishing people who are probably the kindest people I have ever known to email, you have the opportunity to interview and chat with the authors of books you review and lastly, you get to read and read and read!
However, sometimes things aren’t so rosy! The dreaded reading slump can be a curse over a reviewers head; what do you do when you have no motivation to pick up a book? How about a publishing date approaching and eight books to read in the space of four days? Or you can sometimes be faced with a humongous, precariously balanced TBR pile that is probably the biggest health and safety risk around. Also you can face the challenges of some self published authors. Now by NO means am I tarring you all with the same brush here, there are some amazing self published authors out there and you all do a wonderful job. Secondly, I have nothing against self publishing. I am writing my own novel right now and would hate someone to refuse to read my book because it was self pubbed which is why I have never and will never stop accepting self published books for review. The problem comes when we are asked to buy books to review or are pressured into helping promote a book.
As I mentioned before, we don’t get paid to do this so what do we gain from promoting your book? Absolutely nothing! So why would we promote your book if you don’t have the correct manners to approach us nicely and ask politely?
Also, we aren’t made of money, in fact, since leaving university I have about £4.64 to my name (that’s another story) so I don’t have the chance to walk into a bookshop or log into amazon and order 100 books that people want me to read and pay for them with my own money. If I had done that for every book that I’d been asked to read I would be in a humongous debt! All we ask as reviewers is for a review copy, whether it be a paperback, emailed Word Document, anything!
Wow, that all sounds rather negative!
Don’t get me wrong, I love reviewing books and I have no desire to ever stop but please have a little love for us reviewers! We don’t gain anything from reviewing or promoting a book, we don’t get sent hampers of cheese and wine from publishers if we give a book 10/10 (I WISH) we just get the satisfaction of knowing we’ve helped an author to get the word out about their book and hopefully encourage sales.
And I promise, if you treat us with some love and respect, there will be a whole lot of love and respect coming back your way!
Oh and a final note, reviewers all talk to each other so you know, be careful because once you upset one of us, you’ve got a lot of people to answer too!