Love reading and what to improve your writing skills…
I’m constantly asked for writing tips and one I always mention is becoming a book reviewer and here’s why-
If you’re a beginning writer and can’t figure out what sort of book you’d like to write, reviewing might be for you. You’ll be able to read lots of genres and sub-genres and figure out what sort of books you like to read the most. Those genres are the ones I encourage you to write in.
Do you want to know what publisher is publishing what? Reviewing is perfect for that. You can target a publisher and read and review books by that publishing house. You might even find one’s a great fit for your story or even prevent yourself from wasting time by sending them a genre they never publish.
The more you read, the more you learn the mechanics of writing. How does the plot progress, how has the author developed their characters etc. I don’t believe there is a great author out there that’s not also an avid reader too.
When you read with your reviewer hat on, you’ll think in a different way. You’ll analyze and think about what worked in the story and what you did and didn’t like. You can then apply the same technique to your own work when it comes time to doing your second draft.
You’ll get practice at writing reviews and putting your impression of a story into words which also helps you when it’s time to polish your own story.
Think about how much it would cost if you had to buy all the books you need to do all the above research and gain these valuable skills. You probably won’t get paid but it’s a win-win thing for a writer (you can even mention in a cover letter that you’re a book reviewer), so if you’ve ever thought about reviewing, now is a great time because lots of reviewing sites are currently overwhelmed….too many books, not enough reviewers.
Here are two you might like to contact. I’ve known the owners of these two sites for many years and they’re all fun people to work with-
The first one is Coffeetime Romance, here’s the link to their site and also Karenne’s contact information if you want to review for them-
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/
karennelyn@coffeetimeromance.com
The second one is Long and Short Reviews and I’ve included two links telling you how to become one of their reviewers and the other one telling you about the perks-
http://www.longandshortreviews.com/book-reviews/who-we-are-and-why-you-should-review-for-us-10/
http://www.longandshortreviews.com/become-a-reviewer/