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Has a trend officially hit the mainstream once it's reached the NY Times? We think so.

The Times Allen Salkin has an article out on bloggers and book deals, featuring mediabistro's own Galleycat blogger Ron Hogan. "I was shocked and amazed that they got that much money for a concept that Martin Mull had written a book on back in 1985," Ron told the Times.

That quote was in reference to Christian Lander of stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com landing a $300k book deal.

While literary agents are scouring the web for potential blogger book deals, they are not always a success. For example, "Gawker.com spawned the book, 'The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media,' which has sold fewer than 1,000 copies since its release in October 2007," according to Salkin.

We mention this on the heels of two PR book releases this week. Ogilvy's Rohit Bhargava published Personality Not Included: Why Brands Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Companies Get it Back.

In a clever way to promote the launch, Rohit issued an open call on his blog to ask for any blogger to send him a five question interview that he would personally respond to. So far he's done over 57 interviews.

Meanwhile RLM PR president, author and pundit on "media culture and hype," Richard Laermer sent PRNewser an advanced copy of his next book, 2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade. We'll read it soon, Richard! It is now available on Amazon.com.