Want to Get Paid to Read? Do These 3 Things

[image description: a young Black woman sits cross-legged on a black leather couch reading a book. A wall of bookshelves stacked with books is behind her.]

Every so often I see folks on book Twitter saying they wish they could get paid to read. I feel this because I used to say that often myself. Then it hit me… That’s basically what I do now.

Between editing books for clients, writing book reviews for magazines, and the occasional affiliate money from this book blog, I do essentially get paid to read. It’s not a ton of money, but it’s fun to earn. So since this is apparently something people want to do, I thought I’d share how it came to be for me.

I wrote professionally for like 8 years before I started editing professionally. While both writing and editing obviously take skill, I think the best editors need to be excellent writers so I wanted to build my portfolio before asking writers to trust me with their work. I joined a bunch of online writers groups and a local writers group in my hometown (now online) and when others in the group said they needed an editor, I pitched them. Sometimes they said yes, sometimes they said no. That’s just how it goes.

I’m thankful for the folks who said yes because they trusted me with their work and I got to try editing professionally. Turns out I’m pretty good at it! I got rave reviews from folks who worked with me, which led to more folks working with me, and it snowballed from there. Nearly all my editing clients come from word of mouth.

I should mention that when I started editing professionally I didn’t immediately jump into editing books. I started out with clients who needed smaller projects like worksheets, artist statements, website copy, and even secular sermons edited. When I got comfortable with those, then I started taking on larger projects like books.

While I don’t have anything against working as an editor under a publishing house, I prefer to work for myself so I can set my own work hours. Plus, I like the freedom of being able to accept and decline projects as I see fit rather than being stuck with whatever is slapped on my desk. I'm not saying I'd never work for a publisher, though I'm enjoying my loner process, so a publishing job would realllllyyyy have to come with some hella perks. However, there are some indie publishers I'd love to work with on a contract basis. Two Dollar Radio and Catapult, for instance. I admire and respect their work immensely!

I also prefer working with authors individually because I can really focus on helping them achieve their goals for the manuscript. Even if an author is picked up by a traditional publishing house, if the publisher decides their book isn't one of the big marketing dollar projects, they may not get what they want out of the experience. So I work with authors individually to get their manuscript where they want it to be, then they can decide from there if they want to submit it to agents and traditional publishers or if they want to self-publish.

Whatever their publication route, in every case after working with me, they're happy with the end result because they got what they wanted without being strong-armed into whatever the publisher or agent wanted. Not everyone wants to spend a decade tweaking a book and not everyone cares if they get on the New York Times bestseller list, so they don’t want to be stuck in a cycle of endless edits. A lot of authors want actionable edits that will clarify their writing and better engage their readers without upending the entire book, writing a totally different ending, dramatically changing the plot, etc.

I should also add that specializing in a genre helps. I specialize in creative nonfiction and when people contact me about fiction projects I tell them that (and sometimes they hire me anyway!).

This is just my two cents and how I do things, so trust your gut and know your mileage may vary. If you want to get started as a professional editor, I say start with building up your writing portfolio first and read a LOT. Then do some small editing projects (like editing an essay in exchange for a review) and when you've got some good reviews, start pitching yourself for full book projects.

In terms of getting paid to write book reviews, that’s fairly new and these paying gigs came as a result of this book blog. People saw that I’d been keeping this blog consistently for years and knew that I could be trusted to read a pre-publication book and come up with thoughtful things to say about it. I’m thrilled to announce I’ve got two magazine clients I’m writing book reviews for now (and I’ll definitely be sharing more about that when those reviews are published!).

This obviously isn’t a “get rich quick” thing because I’ve been keeping this book blog since 2014 and these opportunities came my way in 2021. I don’t think anyone should start a book blog with the sole goal of getting paid to write book reviews because you might be disappointed. However, I think editors can tell when you’re doing something because you love it and every editor wants a passionate person writing for them. A book blog isn’t a means to an end, though it can be a nice vehicle for getting the attention of folks who might pay you to do something you love.

I should also note that when I say I get paid to write book reviews, I’m not talking about “payment” in the form of free books. As much as I love free books, I can’t pay bills with them. And even as cool as free books are, I’m not sure you can consider them a perk when you have to be able to read the book in order to write a review.

It also really helps to build relationships with publishers, even if your relationship is just online. Just this week a publisher whose books I love reached out to me because they’re publishing a memoir by a Southerner and because she knew I was Southern she thought I’d like a copy to review. (More on that soon!) That makes my life easier because it keeps me from having to chase PR folks down to get copies of the books I want to review.

And lastly, though it’s not much at all, I do technically make money from sponsored content and affiliate links on this book blog, so that’s kind of getting paid to read. Occasionally folks will reach out to collaborate on a sponsored post and if it’s a good fit and they seem like a reputable, ethical company that’s in alignment with my values, then I’ll go for it. (That said, you’d be surprised at how many scam offers I get.) And if I’m writing a book list anyway I’ll create the list through my Bookshop.org profile so if folks want to buy them they can.

I’ve gone through a couple of different affiliate programs over the years, including Better World Books and IndieBound, though I like Bookshop because 1) it’s easy, 2) it supports indie bookstores, 3) it’s a competitor to Amazon and one that I believe can take the market share of book sales away from them in a couple of years, and 4) it’s not just e-commerce––they actually do a lot of events and outreach with authors whose work they share. They also don’t promote authors just because the author is popular and will make them money (like James Patterson, for example). They do a good job of shouting out debut authors, diverse authors, and authors who perhaps didn’t get the biggest marketing budgets for their books. It feels like their values are in alignment with mine.

That’s really what everything on this list comes down to. I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m not just going to do something for the money. When I started this book blog––before I ever made money editing books, writing about books, or promoting books––I expected it to be a labor of love, one that would end up costing me money in the long run. I was fine with that, so for me to be able to do what I love while making enough to maintain the site (SquareSpace ain’t cheap, y’all!) and pay some bills is a happy accident and welcome development.

So there you go! That’s how I get paid to read. I hope this helps and that you’re feeling encouraged.