Blogs and bloggers' self-perception, 2003-2008.
Admittedly, this is a bold title and would probably suit a magister thesis better than a simple blog post. But read on.
nchenga of Chiperoni shared a link with me this morning to a piece in the NY Times by Allen Salkin (link to his feed is here): Why Blog? Reason No. 92: Book Deal.
The article is interesting, as it highlights an interesting phenomenon in the blogging world that has merely started in 2003 and become quite a trend.
Book deals for bloggers started to pop up around 2003, and in 2004 the New Yorker predicted books by bloggers to be "a trend, a cultural phenomenon." in 2006. The reality in 2008 looks as if this trend has become quite the way to go. Not only this, but it looks like bloggers' self-perception in regards to their blogs has changed from a modest "Why would anyone think my blog is good enough for a book or a movie?" to a self-conscious "I blog, and it's good enough for you."
Besides the route via agents and big-dollar deals, there also is a trend to self-publishing one's blog, and thanks to print-on-demand services that operate via the web, realizing a little dream like taking one's blog into print (likewise, one's photos, recipes, ideas or whatever else deemed worth publishing) is not as expensive as it used to be only a few years ago. It's a bit like the extension of the internet's "instant fame" notion: the blogger and their readers decide what's worth to be put out there, not an agent.
In addition to the examples highlighted in Allen Salkin's article, let me point you to two projects of two bloggers I read on a regular base, and who have published their blogs and insights inspired by their blogging as book without agents:
Hanna Andersson of iHanna decided to put her blog into print in September 2007, and her book is now available via lulu.com.
Likewise in late 2007, Marie-Chantale Turgeon of Vu d'ici published her first book "First thoughts on life, blogging and the creative process". It can be purchased via her shop on Etsy or Blurb.
Blogging as a medium of online self-publishing, if you so want, thus is currently being supplemented by online print-on-demand services. Self-management, it seems, is one of the trends that is building up around this online life. But if you think about it, blogging itself is already a way of cutting out agents and whatever else "middlespersons". An interesting development.
