New friend on the Internet -- The Washington Independent Review of Books

Listen up !!!  This is important !!! 

This morning, an important new journalistic venture made its first appearance on the Internet: the Washington Independent Review of Books.   Follow the link and check them out.  (Click here.)

As everyone knows, not only are newspapers dying in today's short-attention media age, but so is the book industry.  And one chief cause is the rapid disappearance of newspaper book review pages.  The 2009 decision by the Washington Post to drop one of the stalwarts, its weekly Book World section, was an unnerving headliner for the trend.  (Click here for details.) 

Now, a dedicated group of Washington-area writers and readers has decided to fight back.  Under leadership of the AIW Freedom to Write Fund,  they have launched a new, self-standing, fully-independent book review based on the Internet.  Today was the first edition.  

David O. Stewart, president of the new
Washington Independent Review of Books

Here's the welcome message from David O. Stewart, president of the new Review who led the effort.  Give him a read and send them some money.  Tell them you saw it first on Viral History:

Dear Friends,


Welcome to The Independent, the newest voice in the community of readers and writers — a website dedicated to book reviews and writing about the world of books.  The Independent is a labor of love produced by dozens of writers and editors, mostly in the Washington area, who are dismayed by the disappearance of book reviews and book review sections in the mainstream media.


We love finding books we want to read.  We love reading reviews of books we don’t have time to read.  And we love finding out about the world of books, writers, and publishing.  That’s what we want to share with you.


We will be posting new content every weekday, which will include –

• At least three times a week, a new thoughtful review of a book currently being released.
• At least twice a week, a new feature, such as a Q&A with a leading author, an essay or blog on book topics by one of our contributors, or a podcast of an interview contributed by one of our radio partners.
• Links to other sites providing book news and reviews, information about current bestsellers, and — as we find our sea legs with this new venture – much more.

The Independent is sponsored by the AIW Freedom to Write Fund, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization.  We know that Dr. Johnson wrote that “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”  But we disagree.  We have taken up this effort to share with you the excitement and pleasure we find in the world of books, and we want to hear from you about The Independent: what you like, and what you don’t like, and what else you think we should try to do.  So please contact us at editor@washingtonindependentreview of books.  (If you like our site enough, we hope you’ll consider making a donation to help keep us afloat!)


Please join us on this adventure by reading The Independent and making it one of your daily online destinations.


David O. Stewart
President



(You also should know that leading Washington writers – including Alice McDermott, George Pelecanos, Kitty Kelley, Marie Arana, and James Swanson — are supporting The Independent.)




*** Full disclosure:  Yes,  I serve on the Board of the AIW Freedom to Write Fund.  Proudly so.