OnlineBookClub

What is OnlineBookclub?

OnlineBookClub is a review site that gets paid by self-published authors to have freelancers review their books. The site offers pay of up to $60 per review. But there are a lot of ways that payments to reviewers get denied.

OnlineBookClub review:

Promising pay for reviewing literature may sound like a great deal for an avid reader. But, since these books reviewed at OnlineBookClub are largely self-published, you’re not likely to find great literature here. Reading and reviewing self-published books is truly a job.

However, the first review you do for this site is free. After that, the pay is miserable given the amount of detail the site requires from reviewers — if you get paid at all.

Review requirements

To meet the site’s requirements, for instance, you must make note of whether the author uses any vulgar or profane language in the book and the page on which it is first used. If there are spelling or grammatical errors, you need to jot down the error or errors and the pages where these errors appeared.

When the book has more than 10 errors, as many self-published manuscripts do, you have to note the first ten and provide the details to the site.  The same holds true for “erotic scenes.” You note where they appear and how erotic they are on a scale of 0-5.

Take notes

Thus, unlike reviewing books on Amazon, you need to be taking notes as you read. In addition, the site has a specific format that you must follow when submitting a review.

Deviate from the format and your review can be rejected. That means you don’t get paid. There are no do-overs. Reviews are expected to be at least 500 words for adult literature and at least 300 for children’s books.

Pay formula

Rejected reviews can also hurt your “reviewer score.” This score determines how much you earn for each review.

The pay formula is not transparent, but the site says you’ll earn between $5 and $60 for each accepted review. Payments start low, but rise based on your reviewer score.

This score is calculated based on how many reviews you’ve completed, how many (unpaid) reader forums you’ve attended, and whether you’re posting about the books you’ve read on social media, among other things.

Waiting for pay

A blogger named Tracey Madeley says she’s been on the site for two years, has submitted a dozen reviews but has yet to get paid. Why? Her reviewer score (0-100) has never gone above the 35-point mark where they begin to pay.

Another reviewer said she earned $806 for reviewing 42 books — about $19 a book. Given that each book is likely to take several hours to read and then at least an hour to review, this as a poor way to make money.

It’s also worth noting that while this “club” doesn’t pay reviewers much, it charges hefty fees ($100 – $300) to authors, who want to have their books reviewed.

Social media contests

The other way you can make money with this site is by participating in contests that involve sharing OnlineBookClub books on social media. Since these are contests not pay. Any earnings here are speculative.

Recommendations

If you’re an avid reader with proofreading experience and don’t mind proofreading self-published books, consider Reedsy. Reedsy allows you to set your own rates and choose the genre of book you’d like to read.

If you want to review books, US Review of Books, has more reasonable rules and more predictable pay.

However, if you still want to review for OnlineBookClub, you can find them here.

What their users say (from Quora)

“I think the Club is fine for people who simply love to read, enjoy a very wide assortment of genres, and are happy with the pocket change and gift cards as a bonus. Nothing in the world wrong with that. If you’re approaching it from the angle of wanting a way to make some meaningful side income, it’s not a productive use of your time.”

“Just three days before I was supposed to receive my payment they blocked my account. And they are still using my reviews. I wrote seven reviews and didn’t receive a single penny. On top of that they have a huge list of guidelines which we are suppose to follow while writing the review. So basically you’re supposed to read a book, write an amazing review while keeping in mind a lot of guidelines without any assurance of getting paid.”

Changing guidelines

“I have been working there for about a year and keep getting told my reviews are good, but I do not fill the whole criteria. When I ask questions they tell me to read the guidelines. But those guidelines either do not make sense or keep changing.”

They will even reject your review but post it behind your back without your knowledge. Also, they keep changing the rules and that makes it very confusing.

Ridiculous formatting rules

“They have all these ridiculous formatting rules that have nothing to do with writing content. They promise to pay you if you submit an acceptable review. But the rules are so stringent that you can make editorial mistakes that have no bearing on the quality of the review and your submission gets rejected.”

“Yes, OnlineBookClub for Readers is legitimate. I received $10 through Paypal for the 2 books I had reviewed. I was also paid $24 for the retweets, $20 Amazon gift card for the Book of the Day giveaway, and a while ago $25 Amazon gift card for the First Ten program.”

Updated 1/14/2024