After the movie Julie and Julia was released, writers everywhere started turning to the blogosphere with hopes that their hard work online would result in a deal with a major publishing house. Approximately 60 blog-to-book titles were acquired by publishers in 2009, said Patrick Mulligan, senior editor at Penguin Group’s Gotham Books, the publisher of the blog-to-book titles I Can Has Cheezburger? A LOLcat Colleckshun; The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the World’s Greatest Human; and Texts From Last Night: All the Texts No One Remembers Sending. Mulligan personally selected and published only two of the estimated 60 to 80 blog submissions he received that year, and in just the first few months of 2010, he has received — and passed on — more than a dozen pitches for the burgeoning genre. It seems that everyone who aspires to publish their own story thinks a blog is the way to do it.
But what headlines like this one and this one, and this one, don’t tell you is that convincing a large publishing house or an agent of your work doesn’t become easier simply because you can blog. Before branding your own dot-com, here are some realisms to consider.
High traffic does not a book deal make
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A five-digit number of visitors to your Web page does not necessarily entice big publishers to come a-knocking. Take Brette Sember, whose 17-month-old blog, “Martha and Me,” takes readers along as she incorporates Martha Stewart cooking, crafts, and inspiration into her daily life and averages about 300 visitors daily. A published author of more than 35 books, Sember has experience writing about a wide range of topics, from parenting to law. Her blog has also landed her several interviews with Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius. But her high-traffic blog and years of experience have yet to translate into a book deal for “Martha and Me.”
| “Just because you have a blog with a lot of followers does not add value to me. I need to know how else you are going to sell your stuff.” |
Sember says that the consensus among publishers who have turned her down is that “this idea has been done before,” but Sember and her agent, Gina Panettieri, are confident that “Martha and Me” puts a new spin on the popular “year of living like so-and-so celebrity” genre and will interest a broad range of readers — and soon, an editor. According to Panettieri, president of Talcott Notch Literary Services in Milford, Conn., it’s not uncommon for editors to pass on a title simply to avoid the appearance of “copying” another popular work. “The idea that, ‘We don’t want to be accused of trying to rip off Julie and Julia‘ ___ that can happen in the publishing world,” she explains. And competition between publishing houses isn’t the only concern. As an aspiring author, you have no way of knowing when a sister imprint — another line of books under the same publishing house — has already acquired a similar title already, making yours that much less valuable. Large publishing houses don’t want to create competition that will essentially work against them.
For other publishing houses, high traffic may also not excite, but for different reasons. Dave Morris, who runs New Year Publishing in San Francisco, a five-year-old publisher with 50 titles (four of which started as blogs), says, “Just because you have a blog with a lot of followers does not add value to me. I need to know how else you are going to sell your stuff.” In the case of Morris’ authors, the answer might be speaking engagements; his most popular blog-to-book author is a professional speaker by trade.
Aside from all those reasons, sometimes concepts are just not executed in a way that hooks editors. “Some editors have said to me, ‘We’ve seen a number of different I’ve-lived-a-year-doing-x types of books, blogs, and memoirs, and that’s been done and is getting old,'” Panettieri says. “But editors will say themselves that they may turn around the next week and break that rule. It’s very arbitrary because something can come in the next week that they said they didn’t want, but there’s something unique or just so winning about it.”
Brilliant ideas aren’t enough — a book has to be able to sell
Agents, editors, and publishers agree: One of the biggest misconceptions shared by bloggers and authors alike is the idea that a true work of art will be appreciated, and subsequently published, by someone somewhere. But book publishing is like any other business — and a publisher has to have confidence that your product will sell.
| “People might visit a Web site to talk about things or people they hate, but you’re going to have a tough time convincing self-identifying cynical people to spend $12 to $20 on a book.” |
Selling a blog-to-book title can be tricky. According to Mulligan, the book has to also be able to reach an audience that the blog doesn’t. Mulligan said he knew that plenty of cat enthusiasts who didn’t know about the LOLcat phenomenon online would still be interested in the Cheezburger books (now a series), and he was right. Similarly, some blogs with great traffic just don’t sell in book format. “I’ve stayed away from snarky blogs that trade in meanness,” Mulligan said. “People might visit a Web site to talk about things or people they hate, but you’re going to have a tough time convincing self-identifying cynical people to spend $12 to $20 on a book.”
Accordingly, it’s important to first consider the marketability of a topic before committing to weeks, months, or years blogging about it. Penny Sansevieri, chief executive officer and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., in San Diego, Calif., suggests that aspiring bloggers investigate the market before committing to a subject matter, both by reading other blogs and pouring over bookstore selections to find out what sells. Furthermore, while it might be easier to rely on reader commentary for your blog, publishing that content as a book introduces other legalities to the equation. Make sure that your site qualifies that comments posted online become property of the Web site. “Clearing rights retroactively, as we had to do for the first Cheezburger book, was a huge undertaking,” cautioned Mulligan.
A blog submission may not beat a traditional one
Once your content is out there on the Internet, editors already have an idea of who and how many people are reading it — which doesn’t always help a writer’s chances. “I think your odds are no better if you are writing a blog and intending to do a book based on that than they are [when you send] a standard submission to a publishing house,” Panettieri says. “You’re one of thousands, or tens of thousands of writers out there with that intention.” That’s why Sember encourages other bloggers like herself to pursue only topics that truly interest them. Blog for enjoyment, motivation, or practice — not to get your heart set on a publishing contract.
Stephen Markley, a 26-year-old author in Chicago, can attest to the fact that good ideas can still capture a publisher’s attention without the benefit of a blog following. Markley’s book, Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold and Published This Very Book was not based on a blog, but on personal experience. In it, he chronicles his time spent trying to create and publish his book, while recounting the other challenges and hilarities from his personal life at that time. His story was a perfect fit for the independent publisher Sourcebooks.
“There’s been this proliferation of the A.J. Jacobs-type live something for a year and write about it [books],” Markley says. “It’s a gimmick, but it’s a matter of, does the gimmick lead to a successful piece of literature? The goal I set for myself was for it to grow outside the gimmick, to be funny, interesting, and emotionally resonant.”
Being a one-trick pony can limit your success
Depending on your publisher, it may help to demonstrate an ability to produce work in the future. Dave Morris isn’t interested in signing a blogger who can’t produce more than one title. “The cost of acquiring a customer is the same, so if you only have one product to sell them, you’re screwed,” Morris says. That’s why his company focuses on authors who use the blogs and books to promote another primary career, like motivational speaking.
Still some of the best-known blog-to-book titles belong in the humor genre, where an author’s other skills matter much less than the pop culture phenomenon they’ve created online, like I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell or Stuff White People Like. If you have one of those hits on your hands, publishers aren’t likely to care about whether or not your idea can be sustained through multiple books.
“We don’t specifically look for books that can become a series,” said Mulligan. “At the time of first acquisition, we’re entirely focused on the one book. ___ We’ve had success turning out BTBs into series [Cheezburger and Chuck Norris], but I think that’s rare.”
And, after all this, you might still need an agent
There is some debate as to whether agents are integral to the publishing process. Morris speculates that agents won’t be around in 10 years and that the Internet does their job for them. But in many instances, it may be an author’s best chance of getting noticed. “If you want to try a larger publisher, you have to have an agent, because they won’t look at you otherwise,” Panettieri explains. However, she notes that editors have instigated a number of these deals on their own. Mulligan approached the people behind Cheezburger and Chuck Norris directly, and they did later acquire agents to help close the deal. But for the many that don’t get noticed, an agent may help. “These days there are so many literary agents scouting blogs that they’re likely to discover something long before I stumble upon it,” Mulligan said.
For bloggers who are interested in finding an agent, industry pros point to two top resources: Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents and the Web site Publisher’s Marketplace. Looking through the titles that different agents have published will give you an idea of where their interests lie, and how successful they are at securing book deals. Agents agree that you shouldn’t give up on work that you believe in — but just keep in mind, their successes may not extend to you.
“Your blog can be fantastic, but if there is no market for it right now, no one will want to buy it right now,” Sember sums up. “What I’ve come to learn after 13 years: When it’s the right time for a book, it’s the right time.”
Katie Bunker is an associate editor at Diabetes Forecast magazine and a freelance writer in Washington, D.C..
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