Literary Capital

by

Lauren Roberts

One of the newest entrants to the world of book review websites is the Washington Independent Review of Books (WIRoB). And it’s already making its mark. BiblioBuffet was curious about it, where it came from, and what it hopes to achieve within the growing market of online book sites. David O. Stewart is the founder and president, and I asked him to sit down (in a manner of speaking) to chat about the people and purpose of the site.

Lauren Roberts: David, thank you for joining us. In looking over your mission statement I noticed that the Independent is, in your terms, a “labor of love.” What prompted everyone involved to donate time and work to this venture?

David O. Stewart: Probably the biggest one is the desire to do something useful. Instead of just sitting around and griping that book reviews are disappearing, we started one ourselves, reached out to publishers and authors, and broke out into the Big World. The response has been very gratifying. It’s a great example of how the Internet can empower people.

LR:  Who came up with the original idea? And how long did it take to go from the idea to the actual launch? What problems did you encounter along the way?  How were people brought aboard?

DOS: I’m delighted to point the finger at Ron Collins, a very creative fellow and author of several, for cooking this one up and hornswoggling me into it. I had recently become head of the AIW Freedom to Write Fund (FWF), a nonprofit which had not done a whole lot for quite a few years. Along came Ron with his febrile imagination and sold us on this project. We spent a year or more trying to get funding from various foundations, but did not know the right people or failed to make the right pitch. So we finally just said, shoot, let’s do it ourselves. When I left for the first organizational meeting, which was sponsored by American Independent Writers, I did not know if anyone else would show up. There were twenty-five excited writers in the room, and it took off from there.

LR:  How are topics, books, and authors selected? Do your editors find themselves being wooed? What restrictions do you have, that is, will you accept a self-published book if the work is of high quality? Are there any genres you won’t review?

DOS: The editorial board, led by Harriet Dwinell, Becky Meloan, and Linda Morefield, chooses books through a collaborative process. They scan the lists of upcoming books (yes, the publishers are eager to have their books reviewed) and then huddle on conference calls to cull the lists and figure out good potential reviewers. We are willing to consider self-published books for review, but will need to be persuaded. So far, we are not able to review children’s books or romance fiction.

LR: How did you choose who to include in this venture?

DOS: Mostly, they choose us.  We have sent solicitations to members of American Independent Writers, which is our sister/sponsoring organization, and we talk it up among friends and other writer groups. And lots of folks send us e-mails out of the blue, offering to help out, which is terrific.

LR: Tell us about your staff.

DOS: Our colleagues fall into a few broad groups, all of whom are doing an incredible job. Our three senior review editors (mentioned above) lead our editorial board of about twelve (openings still available!). They and others work directly with reviewers as our first line of editing. Joye Shepperd has been in charge of our non-review features, which include author Q&As, podcasts and blogs. Diana Parsell is our style tsar, and her group casts a final editorial eye over all written content. Josh Trapani has managed the website beautifully despite a mostly unhappy experience with our initial web designer. Gene Taft handles our outreach and promotion effort and Andy Dayton has been sort of a minister without portfolio, helping out where needed. They all have different experiences as writers, editors, readers and publicists (that’s Gene), and have been amazing.

LR: At BiblioBuffet, our pay is, I am sorry to say, currently low. What we do offer our contributors is two things: (1) maximum editorial freedom, and (2) the opportunity to work with an excellent content editor (Nicki Leone). What do you offer your contributors? And what qualifications do you expect from them?

DOS: We expect our reviewers to write great reviews. Some have glittering academic credentials and long writing resumes; others are just terrific writers we happen to have intersected with. If you do a review for us, you get to keep the book!

LR: How do you see WIRoB a year from now? Five years?

DOS: Ouch. Our long-term planning department has . . . well, it doesn’t exist, actually. We will need to evolve, develop some revenue streams, become more institutionalized. Ideally, we will get to a place where we look back on these days as the simple, good times. How do we get there? No clue.

LR: Does it personally pain you to see newspapers that had quality independent book sections drop them for lack of advertising? Did you ever think that their expecting advertising was viable, especially  given papers’ experience over the decades?

DOS: I don’t think book review sections ever made money. Classified ads made money, and newspapers used that money to run other stuff that they thought readers would like. Now there are no classified ads (thank you, Craig’sList!), so newspapers have had to shrink. A lot. I used to bleed over the loss of good book reviews in newspapers, but not so much any more. They’re gone. Not coming back. So read The Independent.

LR: Do you feel that when they existed those independent book sections were good? What problems did you see?

DOS:  The only problems I ever saw were when they did not review my books.

LR: Do you think that other sections of newspapers should be opened up to straightforward reviews that relate to those pages (sports for sports-related books, food for cookbooks, lifestyle or home for architectural and/or interior design books) rather than articles that incorporate a brief blurb about several new books in the area?

DOS: I’m for anything that spreads the book culture in this country. Some business sections review business books.  But that still leaves lots of books without a home in the newspaper—for example, fiction or (ahem) history.

LR: How has the Internet changed, if it has, the nature of the book review?

DOS: The biggest thing is our shrinking attention span, which the Internet absolutely has played a role in. I study and write about people two hundred years ago who would sit down a read a book in a quiet room and never check their e-mail—not once! What did people with ADD do?

LR: I look around and I see thousands of online sites, blogs, and forums devoted to books and reading, some specialized, some general. What do you think their impact has had on the reading public? On publishers? On authors?

DOS: Some of it has been confusing (especially for publishers, who seem highly confused these days), but mostly it has been great. It can be daunting to locate an Internet resource that meets your interests and needs, but you probably can. Let a hundred flowers bloom.

LR: Do you think that online book review sites have had to struggle for respect? Do they have it now? What makes a respectable book site or blog?

DOS: Great content makes a great site. That’s our commitment. That’s why we reached out to radio interviewers Vick Mickunas and Stephen Usery to share their podcasts with our readers, and why we insist that two editors review and approve everything that goes on the site. Great content wins respect.

LR: Do you think the democratic landscape of the Internet—anyone can start a blog or a website with relatively little money, sometimes none—has been good for the world of books and reading?

DOS:  Yes.

LR: When the New York Times publishes book reviews the power of the name stands behind them. That’s not the case with online sites who must develop reputations—not an easy thing in this limitless virtual world. What should a conscientious reader look for when judging an online book review site?

DOS:  Is it interesting? There’s no other reason to go there. That’s why you should come to The Independent.

LR: I’ve read criticism, even what I’d term, snarkism, about online book sites from a few who mourn the loss of genuine book criticism. Book criticism has always been a different animal from a book review, but what do you think about this look-down-the-nose attitude? And has it changed in the last five years or so?

DOS: I’m not sure I’ve ever read book criticism. It sounds like work. I love book reviews that make me want to read the book, and reviews that make me want to not read the book, and those that make me glad I read the review even though the book is not to my taste.

LR: Do you think that book criticism is going the way of the Model T? That Amazon “reviews” are setting a kind of standard by their length and casualness? Do you yourself find value in them and if so, what is that and why do you find it so?

DOS: Ah, Amazon reviews. There are now 74 Amazon reviews of my books. Most are rather responsibly done, but highly idiosyncratic. A few are really very good. And some are spiteful or sloppy/offhand. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased or not purchased a book based on an Amazon review, so they are not setting much of a standard for me.

LR: Pardon my vagueness, but it’s necessary. Several years ago I had the opportunity to chat at a party with a very popular genre author. When we got around to book reviews she told me that she had been asked by [intentionally unnamed major newspaper] to write a review of another well-known author’s latest book. Though she normally liked his books, she did not like his latest one. Nevertheless, because she knew him she gave the book a good review. I was offended because the purpose of a review is, or should be, to inform the reader, not please the author or publisher. I know this situation is not unique, that authors do review with an eye to who will review their next book, but it . . .  well, what do you think? And how does The Independent avoid this?

DOS: Not an easy situation. We want prominent authors to write reviews for us, because our readers are interested in what those authors have to say. But, yes, an author might be tempted to pull his or her punches on occasion, hoping for some reciprocal advantage in the future. The same, alas, is true of any reviewer. We do not automatically disqualify reviewers because they have had books reviewed by the author of the forthcoming book, but we do want to disclose that situation to readers, who should know about any such relationships. And if the review is a shameless puff, we reserve the right not to run it.

LR: The WIRoB publishes every day. Do you feel that kind of deadline pushes you to be better? Do you try to keep up with the latest news in books?

DOS: It’s great and a curse. Really, a life sentence. But it does keep us moving. We’re still figuring out how to cover book news.

LR: Do you think that the growth of online book sites, blogs, and forums means that the dwindling trend of readers is being reversed?

DOS:  I hope so.

LR: What do you want readers to take away from WIRoB?

DOS:  I want them to be jazzed about books, and to have had a good and interesting time.

LR: What did I forget to ask?

DOS:  www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com

Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, nearly 1,300 bookmarks and approximately the same number of books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.