Exploiting The Blog-to-Book Bubble: A Guide
Two blogs, Texts From Last Night and Look at this Fucking Hipster, scored contracts at Penguin’s Gotham Books imprint in the past week, the latest in an endless series of such deals. Shouldn’t you get a piece of the action?
It’s not like there’s any shame in aiming for a book deal right when you start your blog. As the New York Observer puts it:
These days it seems more and more like people start goofy Web sites practically counting on seeing their stuff between two covers.
If someone’s going to pay $US20 for a bound collection of stale weblog posts, they might as well be yours. Here are some tips for living what seems like the new American Dream:
1. Focus on a hot technology like Twitter or iPhone apps – nothing scares the publishing industry more than a platform that basically makes it irrelevant.
2. Intimidate the shit out of people with your sheer Internet randomness. This worked well for “I Can Has Cheeseburger” and “Chuck Norris Facts,” two websites old people do not understand at all.
3. Racial commentary. (Well, it worked for that site about white people — Park Slope’s Blognigger still seems to be waiting on his book deal.)
4. Be this guy. (You’re next, Bonerparty. The world is watching.)
5. Three words: Stalk Patrick Mulligan: The editor who acquired “Texts” for Gotham, Patrick Mulligan, is like the Ari Gold of Tumblr-to-book deals, responsible for more of these deals than almost anyone else out there: Chuck Norris Facts, I Can Haz Cheezburger, Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle and GraphJam.com the novels are all his doing.
Words of wisdom from Patrick:
“Not all websites make great books,” Mr. Mulligan said in an email. “You have to be confident that you can curate the material in such a way that it still hits its audience while also taking advantage of the book medium. For the books that I’ve worked on… my aim is that the person in the bookstore who picks up a copy will fall in love with the material the same way as someone who stumbles onto the website.”
See you in hell Mulligan.
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@GeraldHorae: its always going to be %90 marketing, %10 skill. there are amazing people and products and ideas all over the world. they just don't understand how to get themselves recognized. probably because the 10% will skill aren't looking to make money.
Robert Granholm
As a proud author of two pointedly unpublished "experimental" novels, still, I gotta say lust and jealousy for book deals is a little sad. Nobody buys the fuckers. You get quasi-renown, but most people are likely to despise you for any fame whatsoever (it's not like being Matt Damon--read Hazlitt whine about his jealous friends and how he can't get laid.) On the contrary, I've never worked in an office not staffed by farcical incompetents. While the forty point IQ gap will not win you friends, at first, try emailing the CEO. Consider selling out, smart writer people. There's no future in this. Analyze a business model, not pop culture, and eventually, I am confident, somebody lusting for value you can provide will give you money.
urbororr
@Calaverius: Actually, since her hands are crossed, she's actually a "HARD BLOG."
Whatever that means.
@Grey_Area:
Scary and true.
She is a BLOGARD?
Calaverius
This is why print is not dead: all the "web 2.0" people are dying to get a book deal.
Everyone in NYC thinks they are a writer. Just because you have a blog or website does not mean you can write well. But, just like everything else here, it is only about who you know and it is not about being good at something.
GeraldHorae
@Smitros: Could be worse.
@MargotheDoeEyedFMachine: that reminds me--I need to add popcycles to my grocery list.
Love foundmagazine.
Banjo-Sea Kitten
Knuckle tat fail.
I think the guys at foundmagazine have it right. The website is like one giant ad for the books they sell, which are hysterical.
you link to wrong cheeseburger site
So he's basically saying "no" to websites that won't work as books? I guess I see the wisdom.
kneetoe
^ perfect.
Last name: appropriate. As in, can I get one?