Publishers Turn to Blogs for Hot New Authors

(from New York Times – stupid free registration req’d)
Marrit kept trying to convince a publisher that mothers might be interested in a book beyon “prescriptive or ‘positive’ books about being a parent.” She turned to her blog’s audience – where she’d been writing for 2 years and had a loyal audience of mothers.

I turned to readers of my blog. I asked them to comment on whether a book like mine would be relevant to them. Readers wrote back expressing why they wanted to read about the experience of maternal anger. I stuck their comments into my proposal as pulled quotes.

Nuggets:

• Publishers like when an author has a built-in audience.
• Word-of-mouth buzz instead of traditional adverts.
• “Mostly they simply enjoy the blogger’s writing and want to publish a novel or nonfiction book by the blogger, usually on a topic unrelated to the blog.”
• Blogs show a commitment to subject matter.
• Mentioned: Salam Pax (the Baghdad Blogger), the Jessica Cutler (Senate skank who boffed lots of politicos), Belle du Jour (London callgirl), Wonkette (politics gossip with lots of adult situations), Julie/Julia (cooking all of Julia Child’s recipes in one year).