Accept no substitutes

WSJ – Blooker article

The Wall Street Journal article on the Blooker Prize is out (and will be out in print tomorrow). Great coverage informed I think somewhat by the long phone call to Buenos Aires that I had with the author, Ian Mount, on Wednesday. Cory and I aren’t directly quoted or mentioned (only indirectly) which is okay.
I love that the Executive Editor of Little Brown says first what a hit “Julie and Julia” turned out to be, but then warns other editors and publishers away from blogs (the better to keep that resource to herself?):

Little, Brown Executive Editor Judy Clain, who acquired “Julie and Julia,” says she was amazed by the boost the book got from fans of the blog. “What we underestimated was how huge the audience was,” she says.

Still, not every blogger is a born author. “I don’t think a blog is a great place to look for new writers,” says Ms. Clain, “because there are so many, and so many aren’t very good.”

1 Comment

  1. James Aach

    While I would agree that it’s likely most blog authors aren’t of publishable quality, Ms. Clain’s comments are interesting. If blogs not a great place to look for new writers, where is that place? Most publishing houses depend on agents, who in turn tend to filter out books that publishers have no track record on, so it can become a vicious cycle of similar authors and similar titles. The best ways to break the cycle seem to be having an inside track in the industry, or to be famous.

    A shameless but intriguing plug on one such blog book follows.

    Regards, James Aach

    My science-based novel has the backing of both a Pulitzer Prize Winner and a National Medal of Science winner. After striking out in the agent/query arena, I’ve put it on my blog for free, and I’ve gotten great reviews from a wide variety of readers. (See the homepage comments.) http://RadDecision.blogspot.com.

    Readers also keep asking – why isn’t this published? I can’t answer that, but I’ve taken my best guess at http://www.lablit.com/article/83).

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