Top 16 Reading Books For Money Updated 04 /2024

If you're a bookworm, I'm sure you've dreamed of getting paid to read books and then spending the money you make on even more books.

It's now a legit side job or even a job you can do from home. So, get out of it!

You can become a book reviewer and get paid for telling people what you think about books. Not cash? Then you can keep the book.

Another way to get paid for reading is to sum up and tell stories about books.

Or, you can make money by doing what you love to do, and that money will keep coming in.

For a list of sites that pay you to read books, keep reading. Plus, I'll show you some extra ways to make money by reading books.

Get Paid to Read Books From These 15 Legit Websites

The following websites pay you to read books with money that is sent to you through PayPal, bank deposit, or a check.

The US Review of Books

The US Review of Books gives reviewers a chance to read books from a wide range of genres.

If you write a book review, you should keep it between 250 and 300 words long, use the Chicago Manual of Style, and write about the book and not the author.

It can have a book summary, some thoughts about the book, and as little cliché as possible. As long as you don't use casual language, you can use quotes from the book as well.

2–3 weeks after taking the job, you should write a review.

The site lists book titles from time to time. Members can then choose which books they want to read. Then, they can write about them.

To become a freelance book reviewer, send the editor an email with your résumé, a sample book review, and at least two professional references.

In terms of payment, there isn't any information on how much each review is worth, but the site says that reviewers get paid every month by check.

Wellesley Centers For Women

The "Women's Review of Books" has been going on for more than 35 years in this magazine for women.

Program: "Publish reviews that draw from a wide range of knowledge, including organizing, discipline research, and personal experience, in order to help people take action and think about what they do."

The Wellesley Centers for Women don't put out a list of books they've read.

Editor.wrb[at]gmail[dot]com is the address to send your pitch with the book's publication date and your angle to. Applications are being accepted all the time.

For more information, check out these guidelines for writers.

If your review is approved, you'll get a PDF of the issue and a free one-year subscription to WRB magazine. Payment inquiries should be sent to Ian Mellanby at ian[at]oldcitypublishing[dot]com, and he'll be able to help.

Online Book Club

The website is a place for authors to show off their books and get quick and honest feedback on their work from other people.

In the beginning, new members don't get paid for reading books, but if their first review meets their standards, they will be sent paid jobs.

It costs money to be a book reviewer. You get free books and get paid from $5 to $60, depending on your experience and the book you are reviewing.

Kirkus Media

Kirkus Media hires copywriters and editors for its magazine all the time. In this job, if you can write book reviews in either perfect English or Spanish, then you'll love it.

This section of Kirkus magazine features self-published or "indie" authors who write their own books. These 350-word reviews are published on Kirkus Indie.

It's not easy to become a Kirkus reviewer. You need to send the Kirkus Indie Editor your résumé and writing samples, as well as a list of the books you'd like to review.

It doesn't say how much it costs to write a review on the website, but past and current reviewers say they make about $50 for each one.

Publishers Weekly

In order for an author to get their book out there, Publishers Weekly is the best weekly news magazine for them to check out.

"Book reviewer" isn't a job title that PW lists very often on its career page. It does, however, list jobs for copyeditors and editors all the time. Make sure to come back to this page if you want to become a book reviewer. PW is the best place to learn how to do this job.

Good non-fiction and fiction books come from both traditionally-published authors and people who write their own books. PW has a lot of both.

Applicants for book review jobs should send in their résumé and a sample of their work.

Publishers Weekly doesn't say how much they pay their reviewers, but they do give them an honorarium.

Reedsy Discovery

Reedsy is a place where publishing professionals sell their services to people who want to self-publish their work.

Reedsy Discovery is a part of Reedsy that lets people review and recommend new books to people who sign up for their newsletter.

When you work at Reedsy, you can get paid to read books written by new authors.

Fill out this form if you're interested.

People who read your reviews on Reedsy Discovery don't pay you a salary, but they can give you a tip of $1, $3, or $5.

Writerful Books

Books written by American, Australian, British, Canadian, Irish, and New Zealanders can be reviewed by Writerful Books.

Please note that all of the reviewers on this site are not paid. To become a paid member, you need to have good skills at writing in-depth and fair reviews that don't say bad things about people.

People who write reviews for Writerful Books get paid $10 to $50, depending on how long the book is and how well the reviews are written.

The best reviewers get a $100 Amazon gift card.

Booklist Online

The American Library Association's book review magazine is called Booklist Online, and it's online. There are more than 8,000 book reviews on the site every year. This helps librarians from all over the United States choose books for their shelves and recommend books to readers.

For each year, Booklist hires freelancers to write book reviews. They do this to help make this many reviews.

In an interesting twist, Booklist calls its reviews "the haiku of book reviewing," which is a good thing for reviewers because they only need to write 175 words for each review. To make this longer, you can add up to 225 more words, but you might have to get the editor's permission first.

Booklist would like you to send them your resume and writing samples if you want to review books for them.

For each review that is accepted, reviewers get $15. For each that is rejected, they get paid $5.

getAbstract

Another great way to get paid to read books is to write summaries for other people to read.

People who write summaries or abstracts for getAbstract are sometimes hired by the company to write 10-minute summaries of a wide range of books and articles. This way, readers can see what they're getting at a glance.

For now, they aren't training new freelancers to write summaries on general topics. If, however, you're a science writer, you can get jobs faster.

Payment: It varies.

Instaread

Instaread gives 15-minute summaries of the most popular books in audio or text format.

They sometimes need book reviewers who can write 1000- to 1500-word summaries that follow their style guide.

People who sign up for Instaread will get paid $100 for each summary. They don't have any jobs right now, but check back later to see if there are any.

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