Former Beacon Press director Helene Atwan and a group of other industry members have formed Viva la Book Review, a new nonprofit organization which hopes to match book reviews—and reviewers—with local media outlets amid what Atwan described as the "erosion" of book criticism.
The operating philosophy of Viva, which has received some operating seed funding, is to “foster thoughtful, well-crafted book criticism which will support a crucial open dialogue among reviewers, authors, educators, librarians, and above all readers in American society,” according to the organization’s announcement. Atwan said Viva plans to place reviews in all types of local media, but acknowledged it will most likely find homes in digital, rather than print, vehicles.
The number of book reviews published by all media outlets has been declining steadily for years. Most recently, the Associated Press killed announced in August that it would end its weekly book review coverage starting this month.
Viva, which currently has four media partners, plans to reach out to local media to ask them to include book reviews, and then offer to help them identify books and/or critics, Atwan said. In one instance, she added, one media partner had a book and an author it wanted to cover, but needed help finding a critic.
The organization intends to work with a variety of writers to source reviews, as well as with aspiring critics to improve their craft. Current plans call for Viva to ensure that reviewers earn at least $250 per review, either by paying the full amount itself or by supplementing whatever amount they had been offered by individual outlets. Word counts are set by individual editors.
Atwan said Viva is also reaching out to national organizations, including the National Book Critics Circle, to help identify local reviewers, as well as to work, if possible, with the NBCC's emerging critics program.
Bill Marx, who has written about arts and culture for more than 40 years and currently serves as editor-in-chief of the Arts Fuse, is president of Viva, and Atwan, who retired from Beacon in 2022, is VP. David O’Connor, who has held leadership roles with such organizations as Pearson, LearnLaunch, and Apple, is treasurer.
Other advisory board members include book critics Leigh Haber, Crystal Paul, and David Ulin; literary agents Rob McQuilken and Regina Brooks; and book marketing professionals Sanj Kharbanda and Bev Rivero.
“We all really want to try something to stem the decline in reviews,” Atwan said.
