Before I ever read her work, I discovered Liz Strauss through hundreds of comments she left behind at my favorite blogs, from chartreuse to Easton Ellsworth's site."It’s a combination of a schizo-form disorder, a vast imagination, the meds, and some tricky typing," she told me once, but I imagine there must be nine Liz Strauss' running around doing all this work.
I have no idea how she keeps her manic schedule and builds such dedicated communities, but I aim to find out how.
I chose Strauss for my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
How did you get involved with blogging? Many people worry that blogging is threatening the publishing industry. As somebody who has worked extensively in blogs and publishing, how do you feel about that? What kind of writers will succeed in this new environment?
Liz Strauss:
When you are a product person in educational publishing, a small industry, you reach a point at which there are about three jobs to choose from...
and those three weren't very interesting to me. I'd already had the best job of my life. I'd gotten to start with a blank canvas and work with the best team of people on the planet. Can't find that twice in a lifetime.
I also had been missing a writer I liked a lot who was no longer doing the books I liked. So I decided to try a writing blog to see whether I could write what he no longer did, get the kind of comments his books got on Amazon.
My little writing blog took off and got those comments.
I discovered blogging community. I'd never been able to talk to people who wrote well -- I'd always been training writers and authors. It was nice to have some colleagues.
Then I decided to take on Successful-Blog and I discovered the other side of blogging, blogging for business. My brain was very happy. I could actually use all of the experience I had acquired. I like being useful. That's important to me.
I also had been missing a writer I liked a lot who was no longer doing the books I liked. So I decided to try a writing blog to see whether I could write what he no longer did, get the kind of comments his books got on Amazon.
My little writing blog took off and got those comments.
I discovered blogging community. I'd never been able to talk to people who wrote well -- I'd always been training writers and authors. It was nice to have some colleagues.
Then I decided to take on Successful-Blog and I discovered the other side of blogging, blogging for business. My brain was very happy. I could actually use all of the experience I had acquired. I like being useful. That's important to me.
How did you do that,Jason?
You actually make me sound calm and sane? I think I should have edit my Successful-Blog posts every morning. hmmmm
Posted by: Liz Strauss | June 5, 2006 8:12 AM | Permalink to Comment