Dina Zaman forwarded this article to me today and I thought I'd share it. It describes how many bloggers have won lucrative publishing deals with major publishing houses in the US.
Blogging means exposure for writers:
"Anything that helps someone who is writing come to the attention of the public is going to help them on their road to being published," says Robert Miller, president of Hyperion ..."
It also allows writers "to really hone a voice, and that's something that, to me as an editor, is very important to find," says associate editor of Riverhead Books, Megan Lynch.
I also think one of the greatest values of a blog for those-who-would-be-published is that because of it's interactive nature, you can gauge just how interested (or not!) readers are in your material, and what touches them, makes 'em angry, and so on.
If anyone's blog should find a home between the pages of a book it's Dina's Gongkapas Times which I miss very much indeed for it's humour, charm and wisdom. (It was her blog that made my fingers itch to start one too.) Am feeling not a little sad also to see that Shakeel Abedi has stopped blogging recently - really miss his intelligent and thought-provoking entries. Then the Hustler - entertaining naughty guy has been harrassed from the blogosphere perhaps by those who would like to see only thoughts more sanitised. (Shock horror, the guy actually had the nerve to write about sex!) I'm not too sure what goes on behind the scenes, but sincerely hope that all of these bloggers will come back to share their words with us again before too long.
2 comments:
I also felt sad to see Dina's and Shakeel's blog coming to a stop. I enjoyed their posts and in fact, like you, was inspired by them to start a blog of my own.
Hustler is back online! The fan club shouted loudly enough.
Post a Comment