You’ve probably been online severally spending your time to score through whatever pages of written content pick your interest. While you may not see this as anything profitable, on the flip side, you could get paid for reading books online.
Reviewers are always in demand online. You can get paid to read and review books online on websites like Kirkus media, Reedsy discovery, Book browse, Online book club, Moody press, Instaread, and Writerful Books. You can also make money from websites that allow you to earn from creating audiobook versions of books.
If you are a book lover and don’t mind spending hours of your time reading books online, then you can turn this into a profitable pastime habit and get paid for doing this. To learn how to get paid to read books online, keep reading this article, as we’ll be sharing the ten best websites for this.
10 Legit Websites That Will Pay You For Reading Books
Many legit websites will pay you for reading books online. These websites are free to join and can be a great way to make some extra cash. Many sites will pay you to read a book and write a review. Others offer paid surveys, but there are other ways to earn money.
Here are the ten best websites you can visit to get paid to read books online:
1. Kirkus Media
Kirkus is a trendy book review magazine. Interestingly, Kirkus feeds book reviews to really big performers like Amazon. Most books you will find on Amazon were reviewed on Kirkus.
However, reviews from Kirkus are not written by a single individual, and this is where the need for your service in reading and reviewing come in handy. Kirkus is constantly in search of both newbie and well-experienced hands to take on the task of reading and reviewing English Indie and Spanish books.
To work as a reviewer for Kirkus, you should be able to spin out a 350-word review in two weeks. To begin, visit the Kirkus website, and send the Kirkus media team your CV and samples of your previous writing.
2. Any Subject Books
If you were looking for a book review service that would pay you cash for reading and reviewing books, then Any Subject Books is where you should look. Paying you instant cash for your book reviews is their distinct feature.
Any Subject Books is a self-publishing book service and are always in need of the services of reviewers for their books.
To get hired to work review books for Any Subject books, you need to be able and willing to write well-detailed, honest, and thorough book reviews that will appeal to readers. However, Any Subject Books makes this easier and allows you to choose what genre you have a thing for. This way, writing good reviews won’t bore you.
You also get paid per review completed and not on any extended long-term agreement. In general, how much you get paid for reviewing a book depends on its volume and difficulty level.
To apply to work as a reviewer for Any Subject Books, you want to keep an eye on their website to know when they are taking new applications.
3. Online Book Club
If reading and reviewing is something you don’t mind doing on the side while still keeping up with the demands of your job, then the online book club is just right for you. The online book club is an online community for book lovers.
While you can make passive income on the side of your 9 to 5 job from reviewing books for them, the online book club is very clear about one thing. And that is that they are okay with only being a source of passive income for you and nothing more. So you won’t be getting rich anytime soon from reviewing for them.
However, the Online book club is straightforward in its terms and conditions and will pay you anywhere from $5 to $60 per book you review. In addition to this, you will also receive a free copy of the book.
To get started, visit the Online book club website, and fill in your email. You will receive subsequent instructions to help you with signing up entirely so you can be up and ready to begin earning from giving your honest reviews.
4. Book Browse
Book Browse is for passionate book lovers since you won’t get paid in money but in ARCs. Your earned ARCs give you access to Advanced Readers’ Copies of books that have not been published yet and long before they are published. And you will have a consistent stream of reads to keep you occupied since Book Browse publishes about six titles per month.
As a book browse member, you have access to their newsletter and can browse through their list of ARC books to choose whichever interest you. After making your selection, you’ll simply need to send your reply to their newsletter to get your chance to read your desired title.
However, you may not always get the chance to read the book of your choice since Book Browse only has 25 copies for each ARC title. So be prepared in case this happens.
Notwithstanding, if you are selected as matching, Book Browse will typically require that you write a review on the title ranging from 50 to 100 words. However, if you have to write more, your review should not be more than 300 words. So stick to keeping things brief and concise.
To apply to work as a reviewer for Book browse, visit the Book Browse website.
5. Reedsy Discovery
You will find Reedsy Discovery to be your favorite go-to place if you are a lover of Indie reads. Reedsy Discovery is a self-published Indie books website with hundreds of new stories you can pick from as a book reviewer.
Reedsy Discovery also allows you to access newly self-published titles before anyone else sees them. Besides this, you can earn money on Reedsy when readers tip you for reading your reviews. You could receive tips worth $1, $3, or $5 based on your reader’s discretion.
Moreover, if you have become reputable among readers for stunning reviews, you can earn from doing business with writers who contact you directly to review their works.
To become a Reedsy Discovery reviewer, visit the Reedsy Discovery application page, and fill out and submit their application form. Once your application is approved, you can search for books to read and review.
6. Writerful Books
Whether you are a novice or very experienced in book reviewing, you will find that Writerful has a lot of opportunities you can earn from. Also, if you are a book reviewer looking to gain an authoritative voice in your craft, then you want to use Writerful. Writeful offers you the opportunity not only to review books but also to beta-read them.
You can get paid anywhere from $10 to $50 for each book review you submit. Typically, Writerful prefers titles of American, Irish, Australian, British, New Zealand, and Canadian origin and will usually require that you review these titles.
Notwithstanding, you are free to choose what appeals to you when choosing what title to read and review. Writerful allows you to make this choice whether or not your book choice lies in this preferred category of titles. However, you are not guaranteed that you will always have books available for you to review.
Additionally, if you are a high-performing reviewer with many quality reviews, Writerful books might reach out to you to work on a book review for them.
To apply to work as a reviewer for Writerful books, visit the Writerful book’s website, and submit your best review samples.
7. Voice Bunny
If you have a great voice you feel will be appealing enough in audiobooks, doing voice-overs is a great way to get paid to read books online. And when it comes to getting paid for doing voice-overs, Voice Bunny is an excellent place for this.
Voice bunny is a freelance website that allows you to get paid for completing voice-overs at your hourly rate. The Voice Bunny website opens you to many potential clients seeking people to do their voice-over jobs.
While you are at liberty to set your hourly rate, you want to ensure you can deliver quality voice-overs in good time and that your rates are not exorbitant. As a rule of thumb, your rate should not be too high to turn off potential clients and not too low to devalue your service. Typically long or audiobook projects should earn you a few thousand dollars.
To get started on Voice Bunny, visit the Voice Bunny website, click on the freelancer tab, and fill out and submit their application form. However, before applying, you want to note that Voice Bunny looks out for high voice quality, your availability to work, your ability to communicate, speed, and how well you can pay attention to details.
8. Instaread
If reading books in depth and with an eye for details is not your thing, then Instaread is most likely for you. Instaread is an application that allows you to earn from writing summaries for popular books, magazines, and fiction and non-fiction titles. However, it is only available for iOS devices and on desktops.
Instaread will generally pay you to write book summaries that typically range in word length from 1000 to 1,500 words. This is longer than you would have to write for most other book review websites.
However, Instaread compensates favorably for this effort when you consider that you will get paid $100 for every book summary you complete. And besides, your summaries won’t have to be in-depth but just your most significant takeaways from the titles.
To get started with Instaread, you can visit the App store to download it. Alternatively, you can get the desktop version of the Instaread application.
9. U.S Review Of Books
If you were looking for a book review website where you can find just any kind of book to review, then the U.S review of books is that place. The U.S. Review of books is not discriminatory about the types of books it puts up for publication. For this reason, you can find just any kind of book that suits your taste.
When writing book reviews for the U.S. Review of books, you will have to keep them within 250 to 350 words. However, while your reviews are not expected to be lengthy, they should adequately summarize the title and highlight its significant takeaways.
You can also include your negative criticisms so long as they are factual and unemotionally directed to the book and not the author. In addition, you should always be able to turn in your reviews within 2 to 3 weeks of being assigned a title.
To work as a book reviewer for the U.S Review of books, visit their contact us page and send a mail to the editor. Your mail should contain your resume, sample book reviews, and professional references.
10. New Pages
New Pages is a website that publishes contemporary literary magazines and plays host to independent publishers who need brief book reviews. This website is for you if you love scoring through quality magazines and short press books. You can write short reviews for them.
As a reviewer for New Pages, you will have to write quality flash reviews of 100 to 200 words in length for every book and magazine you read. However, New Pages has a set of ethical guidelines your review must adhere to for it to pass.
To get started, email the subject “Review” to info@newpageswork.com. If your application makes it through, New Pages will vet it for errors and publish it on their blog and social media.
Yes, you can get paid for reading books online. Several websites and apps will pay you for reading books online. You can get paid to review books as a book reviewer, or you can work as an audiobook narrator and get paid for creating audiobooks. In addition, you can take to freelancing to offer any of these services.
Working as a book reviewer typically involves reading and submitting your honest review of given books on a book review website or app. On the other hand, if you choose to work as an audiobook narrator, you want to ensure your vocals are of an impressive quality as you’ll generally be the voice behind audiobooks.
You can make money from reading books online by reviewing books on websites that use the services of book reviewers like Reedsy Discovery, Kirkus Media, Instaread, Writerful, and Book Browse. Alternatively, you can make money from websites that hire voiceover artists like ACX by Amazon, Voice Bunny, or Voices.
However, you want to note that not every book reviewing website will pay you money for reviewing books for them. While some will pay you money, others pay in ARCs. ARcs are Advanced Readers Copies, which means you will have exclusive access to copies of titles ever before they are published.
In addition, you can also earn from reading books by working as a book reviewer or voiceover artist on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, etc. Freelance platforms give you the opportunity to present your gig of skills to an unlimited number of potential clients.
Apps like Reedsy Discovery, Kirkus Media, Instaread, Writerful, Book Browse, New pages, etc., allow you to earn from reading and reviewing books online. While many of these apps will pay you money for reading and writing book reviews, you could also get rewarded in ARCs (Advanced Readers Copies). ARCs allow you to gain access to books ever before they are published.
In general, to get started using apps that pay you to read, you will have to download any of these apps on your Android or iOS mobile devices from Playstore or Appstore and sign up.
Alternatively, you can earn from reading on apps that pay for voiceovers. If you have an impressive voice and can spin out quality sounding voiceovers in good time, then doing voiceovers is an excellent way for you to earn from reading. Freelance apps like Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer.
Yes, Amazon will pay you for reading books on the Amazon Audiobook Creative Exchange (ACX). ACX allows you to choose from the thousands of books listed by Amazon for narrating auditions. If your narration gets past the audition test, Amazon will add you to the list of narrators, and you can begin getting paid an hourly rate of your choosing.
On average, as a new narrator on Amazon, you can expect to earn anywhere from $50 per hour to about $350 per hour. Amazon also allows you to make money from royalties whenever an audiobook narrated by you is purchased.
As a newbie audiobook reader, you can earn anywhere from about $10 to $50 per finished hour (the amount of time it takes to record one hour of audio material completely). However, with good experience and once you have found your footing, you could earn from $100 to $500. It really is all about how skilled you are.
There are many legitimate opportunities to get paid to read books online. If you know where to look, there are also many options available. Although it’s not as much money as you would make for writing an original article or book, it’s still good money for passing the time.
I hope you enjoyed our list of websites for readers and writers. One thing that I strongly recommend if you are going to be using these sites is to use an email address specific to the sites because you will be receiving emails from some of these sites.
