Have you ever read a particular book and had a really strong opinion of how good or bad you thought it was? And have you ever thought about making money from those opinions?
The chances are you haven’t, and yet you could be doing just that if you are an avid reader and you always get through a lot of books. The time it would take to write a quick review at the end of each one could earn you a nice chunk of money to spend on your next big read!
There are plenty of ways to write for cash online, but writing book reviews isn’t one of the most popular. People tend to go straight for writing articles as this is the most well known way of earning money from your pen (or in this case your typing fingers…), and that leaves a good chance for those people who want to have a go at reviews.
So how do you get started?
Well there are a number of ways you can sell your reviews, and you can actually sell them both online and off, depending on which markets you have locally that may accept them.
A good first step is to search online for websites that pay for book reviews. There are some writing based sites that pay according to how many people view your reviews, such as Helium for example. Other websites allow you to sell your reviews direct to anyone who may wish to buy them; a good example of this kind of website is Constant Content. You set your own price and write whatever kind of review you want to, at whatever length you desire. This can be a good place to sell your book reviews.
But if you want to sell directly to a particular market then you may need to submit your reviews (or ideas for reviews) straight to the editor of a specific publication. Check out your local newspapers and magazines to see if there is a book review slot that isn’t taken up by a regular writer. You can also offer to write a regular review for a particular magazine if you like the subject it is concentrated on; many people get started in a regular job by offering their services like this.
The trick to writing a successful review is to be able to write to any guidelines that people require you to. It’s no good writing 500 words if they only want 300. You have to learn to be able to write tightly and get everything in the required amount of space otherwise you won’t succeed at writing reviews.
Before writing any real reviews try a few practice ones to get the hang of how to do it. There are also plenty of writing based websites and blogs where experts will help and advise you on how to write well and get your ideas and opinions across in the right way. These sites will often also give you more contacts for places that are looking for good reviews to start your career off with a bang.
Incidentally the review business doesn’t just stop at books. If you find you have a knack of writing good concise reviews on many different subjects then why not try your hand at reviewing other things as well? There are plenty of websites which pay you either in cash or in vouchers to review anything from everyday products to cars to electronics, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
In short you can make a nice second income from review writing if you do your research and start adding several markets to your list of possibilities to write for. Take your time though and get used to the process of writing first; if you get off to a good start you will be making more money in no time.
Do you fancy writing for a living? Why not start by writing a comment for us in the box below?
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