While I worried about how web writing affects your writing style, a couple bloggers defended bloggers against the "bloggers can't sell books" claim. The novelist and blogger John Scalzi weighed in with his own expert opinion, reminding us that bloggers don't sell books by themselves.
If you are trying to sell a book, I recommend thinking about this first:
"Indeed, if you want to sell books online, converting your own audience into book buyers is a secondary tactic -- you want to have other bloggers recommend you to their readers.
The person who moved the most copies of Old Man's War online was not me -- it was Glenn Reynolds, who the Instapundit readers saw as a trusted recommender, giving a thumbs up to something he really liked. A secondary cascade of recommendations came from other bloggers who picked up the book from his thumbs-up."
Thanks to Edward Champion for pointing out this thoughtful post...
One of the things the Boston Herald's article didn't mention was the "blook" - an author putting an entire book on the web. This can demonstrate both the book's quality and marketability. (It also gives the author a sense of accomplishment, if nothing else.)
The mainstream fiction market in particular is very tight, with a limited number of screeners (agents and publishers) who tend to lean toward topics of their own interest. (Their realization of this may be one reason they are turning to blogs to get more of a pulse of the public.) The "blook" offers the unknown author a way around the gatekeepers, versus trying to attract the attention of the industry by becoming famous or infamous. Of course, the blook may suck, but readers will tell you that.
In my own case (which you were kind enough to mention back in March) my novel "Rad Decision" has garnered a lot of postive comments. It provides a rare inside look at nuclear power in the form of a thriller. Readers seem to find it enjoyable both as a story and as a peek at a controversial industry that is much in the news. ( I've worked in nuclear power for over twenty years.) As I noted above, there is satisfaction in these reader's comments that one just doesn't get from form letter rejections.
So the blog has it's place in literature. We're still just figuring out what that is.
"I'd like to see Rad Decision widely read." - Stewart Brand, internet pioneer and founder of "The Whole Earth Catalog".
http://RadDecision.blogspot.com
Posted by: James Aach | September 27, 2006 11:20 AM | Permalink to Comment