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Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.
Book bloggers read and review books for the love. We are not paid. At best, some of us will sell a review here or there, or we might earn a little cash from advertising. But almost all of us do this because we love books, and we do it knowing the only form of compensation is the thrill of getting a new book in the mail.
But this is not a job. We are not employees on the tab or paid under the table. Free books does not equal compensation, in part because free books is an unequal relation of value. You give us a book, but we have to read and review it, which means the value of the book in relation to the time spent working on it averages out to less than minimum wage. Effectively, if free books constitute compensation, then those of us who blog about books are making less than someone who works at Taco Bell.
The point is: this is not a job. We do this for the love. Most of us will never have jobs at magazines as reviewers. Most of us will never get beyond sharing our love of books with people who share our interests. That's just the way it is.
From The World in the Satin Bag blog.
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