The Word Cloud

6 Comments

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  by Steve 1 year ago

  Flippin' 'eck - she makes it sound like a doddle.
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  by AlanP 1 year ago

  What Ms Whatshername did, it appears, was get Harper Collins to accept her book proposal using her blog as her submission/synopsis. Her blog itself may or may not have been successful in its own right at the time, but given that these things generally take a long time to become established and that she sold her idea within two months I suspect that its readership wasn't great at that time; although no doubt its content was prodigious. Clearly after the success of the book, which has one of those catchy titles that can easily lead to a million followers on Facebook (as discussed on the cloud recently) it would have become popular and in a virtuous circle the book feeds the blog feeds the book ad infinitum. So I don't think that she turned her blog into a book. I think she created and used a blog to sell a book. A good idea, but she still had to get it taken on by a publisher in the traditional fashion.
  
  As to her ten "helpful" points. I used to service my own car in the days when it was still possible without a mainframe computer and a PhD in combustible gas extraction. I remember the Haynes manual once led me to need to change a particular seal. It said to release the seal first remove flange bracket number 7 (see 9:43) in order to access the fixing bolt. Undo the bolt and lift off the cover to expose the seal. When you turn to 9:43 to move the bracket it begins, "To remove flange bracket number 7, first remove the engine (see 1:15)..... What I mean is, her hints and tips are not the core of the challenge.
  
  If I had a time machine I would go back and try to put myself in the place of someone like Helen Fielding (not literally, obviously) and write a column, which is what blogs essentially are, get it in a top selling magazine, make a book and a movie and everything else. In other words rather as in "first remove the engine", it's easy if you say it fast.
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  by Harry 1 year ago

  Hi Alan, I think you're completely right to express scepticism - yet it's also true that an acquisition committee finds it easier to buy something if they can believe that they're also buying an existing online readership. That readership may be slightly phoney - a two month old blog is unlikely to have a really deep, committed readership, after all - but creating excuses for publishers to buy something seems like a smart move to me.
  
  And , btw, when you've got that time machine sorted, can you let me know? I'll give you a fiver if I can ride it with you.
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  by AlanP 1 year ago

  If you manage to get the might of a major publisher behind you and you are halfway decent then I suspect it's job done. Now, where's that engine hoist gone?
  
  There are many things I will do with my time machine, not least of which is write a book. In the meantime I plan to get a life insurance policy on Wrathers and a few bets down on the world cup. 'Fraid it's a single seater, but if you want to give me a message I'll deliver it to you. All time travel stories need a good paradox or two.
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  by Harry 1 year ago

  You're on. How about you get in the time machine and kill Zeno? That'd make for a good paradox, no?
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  by EmmaD 1 year ago

  I know a good few bloggers who were picked up by among others, the Friday Project, and it varied very much how easy it was to turn the blog into a book. The blogging competition's much tougher than it was in the days when Julie Powell had thousands and thousands. of readers. What this story says to me is that a good idea is a good idea, and an appealing voice is an appealing voice. Nail those two things and you can get a non-fiction book deal, whether or not via a blog. Turning the thing into a novel is a rather trickier proposition.