Blog-lit to ebook to big publisher

CammyMayHunny · Sep 22, 2009

I realize this isn't quite the right area for this query (wish there was a right area) *but I've gotten curious about this.

Has anybody started an online writing project, then moved it to ebook, and ended up getting published by a "real" publisher?

Or know of anybody else who has followed that trajectory?

(I realize that could describe books by Cory Doctorow, for instance, but am more interested in unknown writers who have followed that path for success.)

(I'm NOT interested in denunciations of the self-publishing process)

frenchiefrier · Sep 22, 2009

I have a similar question. Has anyone gone from self-published eBook with suppporting website to conventional publishing in fiction?

Tara Stone · Sep 30, 2009

I believe Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney was posted online before a publisher picked it up and published it in print, but I don't know the details of that story.

veinglory · Sep 30, 2009

Sure it happens, that blog by a waiter, the one that became the movie about Julia Child. Most of them are non-fiction.

NewKidOldKid · Sep 30, 2009

Lots of those. There's a book coming out written by a blogger that fed herself for a month on $1 a day. She blogged about it every day and then eventually wrote a book and sold it. There's another one but it eludes me right now.

valeriec80 · Sep 30, 2009

I don't know about gaining traditional publishing, but I do know that Alexandra Erin publishes her serial Tales of Mu online and is able to make a living doing so. (Her website: http://www.talesofmu.com/)

lonestarlibrarian · Sep 30, 2009

Don't know about the ebook step, but "Waiter Rant" and "Overheard in New York" are the two blogs-to-books that first come to mind. I know I've seen the "I Can Has Cheezburger" book (started as a meme) and have heard about the Garfield Minus Garfield book (started as kind of a webcomic). And there are blogs where the author is working on a book and documents their discoveries/insights as they happen-- I've been following "The Happiness Project" for a couple of years.

CammyMayHunny · Oct 3, 2009

Interesting. Thanks, folks.
Does anybody think this is a viable way to approach publication? Has anybody here on AbsoluteWrite done this?

Lonestar, what does "started as a meme" mean?

Okay, I ran out and took a scan of those titles. They mostly seem to be just sort of rants and grafiti and other pickups that got big enough to be one of those gift/humor books. Kind of neat to be able to do that, but hardly inspirational to aspiring novelists.

Hmmmm

lonestarlibrarian · Oct 3, 2009

You run across memes on forums, blogs, those sorts of places. A meme might be a "What Kind of Breakfast Cereal Are You?" kind of quiz. Or it might be a "How Many of These 100 Classic Books Have You Read?" kind of list. Rickrolling is a meme.

The "I Can Has Cheezburger" is the Lolcat meme, and is very visual. Other famous visual memes are demotivator posters, "Yo Dawg", "Sh*t Brix", and so on.

So basically, the "I Can Has Cheezburger" started off as an internet joke, and got so popular they made a book out of it.

valeriec80 · Oct 3, 2009

Cammy May--You might find this thread at the Web Fiction Guide interesting: http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/bloglit-to-ebook-to-real-publisher-1

CammyMayHunny · Oct 4, 2009

LOL I saw that on WFG, Valerie. It's what got me curious enough to ask around here. thanks though.
That's a really cool site, there.

And thanks to you, Lone Star. that cat cheezburger site is pretty hilarious.

It's odd, though that books would be coming from such things, just a turn of phrase of street sign or something.

Things are really getting different and that seems to me like a hint of tails wagging horses.

JFBookman · Oct 4, 2009

The one about Julia Child is "Julie and Julia" starring Meryl Streep and yes, it was a blog first, then a book from a major pub, now a movie. Skipped the ebook phase.

Keep in mind that the blog was a terrific piece of writing that had an irresistable hook: cooking all the recipes in the classic Mastering The Art of French Cooking while also ruminating on life, marriage, etc. It deserved to be a book. But it can happen!

Blog-lit to ebook to big publisher

CammyMayHunny

frenchiefrier

Tara Stone

veinglory

volitare nequeo

NewKidOldKid

diplomat

valeriec80

Got the hang of it, here

lonestarlibrarian

senior bean supervisor

CammyMayHunny

lonestarlibrarian

senior bean supervisor

valeriec80

Got the hang of it, here

CammyMayHunny

JFBookman