You Asked, I'm Answering: Reviewing

Ti asked,

"How do you prioritize the books that you have agreed to review?

I am often overwhelmed with what I have agreed to review only because of the books that I also want to read on my own TBR list so I'm interested in hearing your response to this."

I wish I was source of wisdom on this issue, but I'm not. I am also often overwhelmed with what I've agreed to review, and still adding to my TBR pile at an alarming rate.

A lot of people will say, "I only agree to review what looks good to me." That doesn't help at all. Everything looks good to me. If I go to a used bookstore, I generally walk out with an armful of books.

I will say that I create time each month to read something from the TBR village. This month or last, can't remember, I managed to read 3 or 4 books not for review. The thing is that I never want to feel like reading is work. So if I need a week's break from review copies so be it. Most of the time, I love reading review copies. It has really really expanded my reading horizons. But sometimes books like The Hunger Games are just calling my name!

Mrs.Cupcake asked
My question is how did you get into book reviewing, and how could I?

I realized I was reading about 4 books a week, which seemed like a lot (I didn't know Swapna then), and I decided it would be fun to process through them on my blog. This blog at the time was much less active and mostly a place where I blogged random thoughts on life, so I tried starting a separate book blog. But then I kept forgetting to post there, so I brought the book discussion back to my blog. Then I learned about blogging alliances for Christian fiction, so I joined one to test the waters. At the time, I thought if I had to read something I would resent reading. Au contraire. I discovered that I absolutely loved sharing my thoughts on the book and so I joined the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, which is much much active and things really took off.

If you'd like to review books, I recommend reviewing the books you are already reading. Then maybe test the waters with a review copy or two. Something I've see happen kind of a lot is book bloggers who gorge themselves on review copies right when they're starting out, and then crash and burn. So I think easing yourself into reviewing is important to see if you really like it.

Serena asked:
Have you ever thought about reviewing or writing full-time for money? And if so, what has stopped you?

To this I say...if someone is looking for a full time blogger, I'm interested! I would love to write full-time for money. What's stopping me? Probably a lack of confidence in my skills and and a complete lack of knowledge about how to even do that. I have thought of a few companies that could use me as their social media consultant, though....I would love to do something like that.