It’s a common complaint among readers that they hate when a good book ends because there’s no more escaping into that world. I think there’s a lot of truth to this, but I’ve found ways to stretch that feeling out. One way was in learning how to analyze a story.
From class discussions on assigned readings in school to adult book clubs to YouTube video essays on classic or popular books, I’ve learned to seek out book discussions that break apart stories into small pieces that can keep the spirit of the story alive or help you to better understand its strengths, weaknesses, messages, and how well its author pulls off the components that make up the story as a whole.
My ultimate goal is to create enjoyable stories for readers, which I understand also means that they will be dissected for analysis and judgement. But one way I’ve been able to study writing and really understand what works and what doesn’t is by reviewing the works of others.
From debut self-published authors to friends and family and best-selling authors, my career as a professional book reviewer has spanned over 20 years. Below is my history as a book reviewer.
Education
Growing up, I can remember occasionally writing book reports and book reviews in school, but there was really no in-depth instruction or template as to what to say or how to frame it. They also weren’t very harshly graded. So, it felt like just another writing assignment that I could master.
Then, in high school, I remember struggling in my ninth grade English class because I was suddenly asked to really pull some deep thoughts from my reading and write sophisticated papers about them in a really specific style. It was a very hard nut to crack, and I didn’t like it, especially when it came to the stuffy novels we had to read and talk about in class day after day.
I sat there silently, watching my participation grade plummet, afraid to open my mouth and say something stupid. It felt like everyone else was understanding the text better than me, and my thoughts couldn’t even come close to matching theirs.
In my senior year of high school, I took an English class at the community college for early college crit, mostly as a way to escape the prison that was my public high school. At 17, I had a professor whose teaching style far excelled any of those who had instructed me through my high school career. And it was either this teaching style, my increasing age and experience, or a combination of both that finally taught me how to write sophisticated papers.
Suddenly, my high school English paper grades began to skyrocket. I was thrilled when my teacher even used one of my papers as an example of an A paper. And it changed the way I viewed stories.
Early reviews
After my freshman year of college, I planned to get a summer school job so I could earn some money over summer break. Hoping to avoid a food service or customer service job after a disastrous after-school job in high school, I quickly realized that was pretty much all there was in terms of summer work for college students.
I decided to think outside the box went online to see if there were any freelance writing jobs available for college students. There, I discovered blogging.
I wasn’t out to start a blog. Instead, I found a news blog called the Blogger News Network where writers could contribute short news articles to their site and earn small stipends for the posts. You basically just Googled any topic, found a few articles on a topic, and then rewrote them for the site, citing your original sources.
I wrote one to three articles per day everyday for the summer. They were easy and didn’t take too long to write up. Then, I’d have the rest of the day for summer activities.
By the end of the summer, I had earned just under $100. It didn’t come even close to what I would have earned making fries at McDonald’s or working the cashier at a department store at the mall. But I got paid to write, and it felt like a great experience to add to my resume.
The next summer, I signed up for a blogger news site called Suite 101. Their stipulations for news blogs were a bit longer, but they also had a section where you could request ARCs and movie screeners. There were limited copies, and it was first come, first serve. So, it was tough to get accepted to review these titles.
My first professional book review
The first book review I landed was a memoir called Thanks Jack, In Need of a Miracle, by Jack Rose. The book came in the mail and was signed by the author. I devoured it and remember really enjoying it.
Once I was done reading, Jack emailed me and asked if I would also interview him about the book over the phone. I agreed, but I explained that I didn’t have a cell phone, and my parents’ landline didn’t include long distance. So, he had to call me.
We scheduled a time for him to call, and I spent a good half hour on the floor of my childhood bedroom asking him a list of questions and scribbled furiously as he answered them in great detail. A short time later, the review and interview were published, and the review bug hit.
I reviewed a handful of books and independent films for Suite 101 throughout the rest of my college years. It was always fun to get a piece of physical media in the mail and be trusted with helping to promote it.
Jack Rose continued to reach out to ask if I would be able to help promote his book further, but I really didn’t have the resources or experiences to even know where to begin with helping with that. But it was nice to have him continue to trust me with his work and help me think bigger in terms of how far I could take this side gig.
Freelancing after college
Just before college ended, I resigned from Suite 101, letting them know that I was leaving to pursue a full-time career, hopefully one in writing. Instead, I fell into administrative work in the insurance industry, a safe job that could pay the bills.
After a few years, I decided to get back into blogging. I found a site called HubPages that let you write about whatever you wanted and divided commissions based on views as well as views based on sales from Amazon ads for relevant products that you embedded into your site.
I wrote hundreds of posts on a variety of topics throughout the years. My biggest focus, though, was on books and movies.
In a college movie review class, I’d learned how to review films by choosing two or three elements to focus on and keeping the review concentrated to those elements. I was taught to be as glowing or as brutal in my reviews as I wished, as long as I supported my views with professionalism and made solid points.
I adopted this technique on HubPages and really worked at improving my review writing skills. Over time, the site earned me larger and larger commissions as my catalog of posts grew. It wasn’t nearly as much of a payout as the time spent writing and publishing these posts, but it was still a nice side gig, and it felt like I was heading in the right direction.
Side gigs
In 2018, I switched jobs and took on a very low-pressure admin job with a lot of downtime. During this time, I looked for ways to continue to break into the writing field.
I joined two sites: Horrorscreams Videovault, a horror review website, and LitPick, a review site for kid reviewers.
The Horrorscreams Videovault gig didn’t pay, but they did send me free books and screeners to review and let me work around my schedule. The reviews were also short, so most of the time was spent reading or watching movies, which was really just fun and something I’d be doing with my free time anyway.
The LitPick Gig started out as an editing gig, reviewing and correcting the student reviews before they were published on the site. They then opened it up to adult reviewers and paid in gift cards of your choice. So, I took on as much of this work as possible. I got to read a lot of good books and earned a lot of credit to stores where I shopped.
Indie author interviews
During this time, I also put out a call to interview indie authors on HubPages similar to how I had interviewed Jack Rose in the past, only I would write up a list of questions and let the authors answer whichever ones they wanted. Then, I would publish the questions and answers in the form of a blog post.
These interviews earned very few views. However, I felt like I was doing a small part in helping out my fellow indie authors. It also let me keep contributing to HubPages while I worked on these other side projects.
A few of these authors also reached out and asked if I’d also review their books. I agreed, but I was generally underwhelmed by the books I was getting. I was agreeing to read anything only to realize that I was agreeing to read books that I would have no interest in reading for leisure.
I felt like I was generous in my reviews and ratings, but the authors who expected five-star reviews from me were generally disappointed. And then I felt terrible at being unable to deliver on this promise, and I realized that I didn’t want to become a book reviewer just to bash other people’s books. I knew exactly how hard, time consuming, and humbling it was to put a story out into the world, and I didn’t want to block anyone’s way in pursuing their writing goals.
Learning how to blog
Like I said, my day job had tons of downtime. So, I also took on two paid writing internships during this time. These internships were for blogging sites that taught me how to use WordPress and SEO tools to write blog posts that earned views.
There was a vague promise of a full-time job when these internships ended. However, when I inquired about this, I found that they actually weren’t hiring after all. But they did encourage me to start a blog now that I had the tools, skills, and knowledge in order to do so.
I took this advice to heart and started Laura’s Books and Blogs. Here, I could create my own rules, and those rules included only agreeing to read books that I was confident I’d be able to write at least a positive review for and that I would stop reading and refuse to review at all if I felt that I couldn’t genuinely rate three stars or higher.
I’d also bring in the indie author interviews to give a platform for authors in genres that I didn’t typically read. I wanted every type of indie author to benefit from my site and build a reputation for being kind and reliable to fellow indie authors. I will be critical when necessary, but ultimately, my reviews are gentle, constructive, and clearly subjective.
The LBB legacy
As of the date that this essay posts, I’ve written nearly 200 book reviews for this site. They are the posts that I work the hardest on and spend the most time on.
I still keep my college and intern training in the back of my head, try to bring in my own unique thoughts and perspective, and ultimately want to do the author’s work justice. There’s no better reward than when an author gushes over my review and lets me know that I understood their message, characters, and story in the way that they had intended.
It took a lot of effort, experience, and improvement to get to where I currently am. Even though all of the work, effort, and expense falls on me, it feels like a safe and comfortable place where I can put my work out into the world, and it has led to some modest success and additional opportunities throughout the years.
I hope you’ll check out my book review section and indie author interview series and consider supporting the indie authors whose stories resonate with you. They may even inspire you to write your own book and end up featured in one of my next 200 reviews.
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