Behind the Book Review: Advice from a Professional Book Reviewer

Do you know what happens when you send an unsolicited book to a professional book reviewer?

Ross Rojek does.

As a professional book reviewer, Ross and his staff receive up to 1,000 unsolicited books a month. Out of those, they choose only 300 to feature. How do reviewers pick which books to review…and which to discard? What exactly is it that makes a book worthy of a prominent review…or a trip to the trash can?

Ross, along with his wife Heidi, has run a book review business since 2008. In the wake of the Great Recession, Ross and Heidi observed that arts section in local newspapers were either scaling back or being cut entirely. To close this gap, they founded City Book Review. Since then, it has grown to five imprints: Kids BookBuzz (reviews done exclusively by kids), San Francisco Book Review, Manhattan Book Review, Seattle Book Review, and Tulsa Book Review.

Ross is co-owner of the indie bookstore, Capital Books on K. He spent fifteen years in the comic book industry, working at local shops Beyond the Pale and Comics & Comix. After leaving comics, Ross has spent eleven years in the book business.

Learn more about Ross and Heidi’s book review business at https://citybookreview.com or visit their bookstore site at https://capitalbooksonk.com.