Blogging: O, Brave New World!

By Joan Gelfand, San Francisco Chapter

Somebody said that the Internet has made everyone a journalist. Nowhere is that truer that in the proliferation of blogs (short for the Web logs), Web site diaries that range from the personal to the political. Bloggers "outed" Dan Rather's story on President Bush's National Guard Service during the Vietnam War, forcing Rather to admit that the story was based on fraudulent documents. A number of mainstream journalists now maintain their own blogs as well.

Now, with easy-to-use blogging tools available (see "Resources" below) posting to your blog is as easy as writing an e-mail. In no time, you can be part of what's been dubbed the blogosphere.

Michael Cader, creator/publisher of a PublishersMarketplace and PublishersLunch (his blog), was a panelist on a WNBA panel, "Everyone's a Critic, the Rise and Resonance of Literary Blogging," held in New York on Nov. 18. PublishersLunch began as an experiment in sharing links and lists. It now serves 30,000 people daily who are looking for news about people, promotions and hot deals. Other bloggers on the panel were Maud Newton (MaudNewton.com) and Sarah Weinman (sarahweinman.com).

There are plenty of professional blogs such as Publishers Lunch and political ones, including Instapundit and Daily Kos. Wendy McClure, another member of this panel, started a blog about her experience with weight loss. After a year, she heard from agents and is now working on a book project.

To understand the power of blogs think "conversation," think "a dynamic interchange of ideas and information." Think of writing a letter to your favorite columnist and actually having it read!

WHY CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG? ONE REASON IS THAT THE STORY OF THE BLOGGER DISCOVERED BY LITERARY AGENTS IN BECOMING MORE AND MORE COMMON.

Why create your own blog? One reason is that the story of the blogger discovered be literary agents is becoming more and more common. Last spring, The New Yorker ran a small piece on how agents were surfing the Web for blogs that might alert them to new talent. A blog also gives a writer a way to create a larger writing community - from the comfort of the office. My blog, CIEL./typepad.com, has been accessed locally and internationally. E-mails range from people I meet socially who wanted to "check me out," to questions about WNBA (I am president of the San Francisco Chapter), to professional writing advice.

After you take the time to set up your blog and post to it, there is one last issue you must tackle: How do I get people to read my blog? By linking to other, widely read blogs, adding your comments and opinions, you will be noticed. The good news is that popular bloggers keep an eye out for who is linking to them. By using tools such as Technorati.com, a blogger can quickly see who has commented on his or her post. Who is linking to whom, and the number and frequency of links to a blog, is considered a measure of influence and authority. By reading blogs you can learn about events, calls for submissions and information about books and authors. The idea is to keep current.

Thank you to WNBA-NYC for hosting the panel on blogging and to Adam Hertz for technical advice on the article.

RESOURCES

Literary Blogs:
Poynter on line: book babes
Beatrice
MaudNewton.com

Where to find information on setting up a Blog:
Typepad.com
Blogger.com