More news of bloggers getting book deals. One of the more amusing ones is “Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves,” created by comedy writer Duncan Birmingham after he got a bunch of Christmas cards featuring dressed-up animals.
He started the blog in January and soon the contributions started rolling in: cats wearing wigs, Chihuahuas wearing reindeer horns, etc. The New York Times reports that he was approached by editors and publishers within one week and in February he made a book deal with Three Rivers Press for “enough money to buy a Lincoln Town Car” (according to my research, that would be around $45,000).
More books based on blogs that rely on contributions from readers are coming up. They’re gift items that sell for $10 to $15. In the Times article, Gotham Books editor Patrick Mulligan says, “Just about every [publishing] house is paying attention.” An agent is is quoted as saying there are a lot more agents chasing own hot properties.
The book of funny cat photos based on the site, “I Can Has Cheezburger” sold more than 100,000 copies and was on the Times best-seller list for thirteen weeks.
Another example: “This is Why You’re Fat,” photos of gross food combinations (which attracted calls from agents almost from the day it was launched and got a six-figure deal from HarperStudio).
If you have an idea along these lines, there are two things to keep in mind: the blog has to generate a lot of traffic, and you will need to get permission from every person whose contribution you want to use in a book. Therefore it’s important to keep track of the emails of people who give you material and to be prepared to spend at least as much time marketing the blog as maintaining it.
(For help writing and marketing your book, see my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and my www.timetowrite.com site.)
