The Agony and the Ecstasy: Day Twenty

Blogging can be influential, interesting, funny, informative, controversial, provocative. (It can also be frivolous, trivial, inane and pointless, but those don't interest us at all.)

Forget the wave of the future, it is the wave of the present. Like any power tool, though, it must be used with care.

Elizabeth Collins, an English teacher at a private girls' high school, did not blog with caution and was fired over a post she wrote. Although she did not mention her school or student by name, Collins, known to be the blog's author, criticized a student's presentation which did not meet the assignment criteria. Unfortunately for Collins, the student happened to be the child of a major donor to the school. So Collins clearly f&%$#@ with the wrong marine even if the kid was off base. The end result is another cautionary tale demonstrating that professional decorum, or at least some common sense, must be part of your social networking plan no matter what you do for a living.

So that's the agony.

Onto the ecstasy.

An increasing number of bloggers have ended up with book contracts and movie deals. That's right--they blog, build up a following, get noticed, pitch a book or script, and their already established platform catapults them. This trend is further detailed here. Thank you, More Magazine. We also found some great strategies on how to accomplish this here. Thank you, baekdal.com.


Witness the following success stories:

Biking Blogger Bags Book Deal

The Happiness Project

Julie and Julia

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lachs

Dooce.com



As an aspiring writer with an agent who is flogging my book proposal far and wide, I have learned that simply writing a clever, humorous and useful volume only part of the necessary package these days. Hence, my experimentation and immersion here, where I am gathering the wisdom and skill to meet these requirements. Stay tuned for bedazzling future blog which will make me a household name in the future.



Posted by: Keri