Read All the Books You Want for Free: Sign Up as a Reviewer

Many of us like to read, but we can’t afford to buy every book. Those with a voracious appetite for new and unusual books can easily spend a fortune and still not be satisfied. When I was younger, the best solution to that problem was to go to the public library. But have you ever asked yourself: how did the books get to the library? How were they chosen? Which books that I might have liked to read never even made it to the list from which the local librarian chooses the new books?

To buy your books from the local bookshop or to borrow them from the local library is to be a passive consumer. It’s like being your average voter, who gets to choose Democrat or Republican, when all the really significant choices were made before the primaries. People who only shop for best sellers are letting others make all the important decisions for them.

Would you like to get free books and also have a vote in the marketplace? Consider becoming a reviewer. Here’s what you will need:

• an Amazon customer account
• a blog of your own
• a few social networking accounts such as Twitter or Facebook or Pinterest or Chime
• A reviewer listing with a service that sends publishers’ books out to reviewers

Here’s what you will need to do. Start reviewing books on Amazon and on your blog. Start with books that you have already read. Write interesting informative reviews that tell what you really thought. When you  like a book, let everybody know why you liked it. If you hated a book that you read, be fair and list specifically those details that turned you off. By doing this, you are helping other people to select books that they may want to read. Someone who reads a negative review by you should be able to tell whether he shares your views or your taste in books, so that he can predict whether your judgment and his will be the same. This also goes for positive reviews. Put a little of yourself into the review so the reader will know whether you share the same preferences in books.

After you have established a following as a critic, you will be eligible to receive free books from publishers in return for your review. Once you become one of the top Amazon reviewers, you could be eligible to join the Amazon Grapevine program. If you are really good, you might also think of turning this into a career. Professional book critics are reviewers who are so highly regarded that they earn money for writing about what they have read.

Do you like to read? Do you want your opinion to count? Do you want to participate in the process of literary selection? Then being a book reviewer is right for you.

Sign up here to review books.