The Writer and Reader Will be Happier or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog

By Paul Bissett

Publishers will be unnecessary

What is the purpose of reading and writing? Broadly speaking: communication and/or enjoyment. To this end, what role does the publisher play? Typically they commission, edit, publish (produce), market and distribute, while managing risk, and with the ultimate goal of selling enough copies to make a profit. Repeat ad infinitum.

In the blogosphere the work is self-commissioned by the author; production and distribution are handled largely by the blogging software; marketing’s most powerful ally is word of mouth which is no more rampant or powerful than in the blogosphere itself, social media and the power of viral marketing; risks are virtually non-existent. So that leaves:

Editing

An editor’s role is to work with an author to produce the best possible work under the circumstances. The editor’s participation can range from fixing typos to the complete re-working of a text. Usually the role falls somewhere in the middle.

In her research paper The Future of Written Culture: Envisioning Language in the New Millennium Naomi S. Baron notes that the availability of home desktop publishing tools and online publishing means that “vetting and editing jobs are falling exclusively on the author’s shoulders.”[1]

Professional editing is something which has largely been lost in the blogosphere, but amateur or communal editing has boomed. If I post a blog entry with a factual error in it, no doubt I will get a comment correcting me. If I’m not corrected then it probably means no-one is reading my post and the error is inconsequential.

The beauty of the blog is its perpetual editability. If I publish a spelling mistake or miss a comma that causes no change in meaning and/or understanding, it is unlikely to raise an eyebrow. And why should it? Sure, we all get disenchanted when we read a novel and notice typos. But why do we get upset? Is it because ‘the editor should have done a better job’ and ‘I can’t believe the demise of literary standards’ and ‘I’m going to write a stern letter to my MP’ or is it that we paid a price at the checkout for a product, and if it’s anything less than professionally perfect we feel both ripped and cheesed off. I argue that often we expect a high standard because we have parted with money, not because it’s fundamental to our enjoyment of writing. Can a good story be ruined by typos? Unlikely. Can it be tainted by typos? It can be, but we are more likely to forgive its tainting if the good story is free.

Of course there’s more to editing than fixing typos. There’s developmental editing whereby stories are honed, and authors are guided to better narratives with varying degrees of success. Ultimately editors work with authors to produce the best piece of work. But that doesn’t mean every professionally edited novel is stellar, hence the existence of bargain book bins.

Hugh Amory (cited in Baron 2005, p. 25) commented “Perhaps the majority of the books ever printed have rarely been read”.

Similarly, not every blog is bad. Can a great story or article be produced without a professional editor? Of course it can. As with anything creative there are varying degrees of quality. But the clincher for me is this: might we lose some potential future classics by eliminating the editor? Yes we might. Might we discover new and fabulous writers that otherwise wouldn’t have been published and read? Certainly. The possibility of future classics is exponential when the blogosphere allows writers to self-edit based on reader feedback, circumvent the professional publishing process and publish without constraint.

So, with this utopian arrangement, what will happen to traditional literature?

The form of the blog will shape literature

There is always someone boasting that X technology is the coolest.

Around the corner is someone pronouncing X technology dead, we’re into Y now.

Meanwhile a quiet majority sit sullen in the corner wondering what’s wrong with A technology.

Generally, what A, X and Y represent, and which one of above statements you support, usually corresponds with your age.

There is no form to the blog. Blogs by design are free-flowing, interactive, always changing, user-defined, reader-defined… so perhaps a more accurate statement is the FREE-FORM of the blog will shape literature. And it will. But this will not result in the demise of the novel, or the magazine. In their infancy blogs were shaped by traditional publication formats, and now blogs are shaping traditional publications and literature.

To be considered successful, literature must find an audience. And it is because that audience is changing that literature must also change. Scott Karp, writer of the Publishing 2.0 blog posits that the nature of online reading not only offers readers a new way to read, but actually changes how readers’ brains function.

“What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?

”What if the networked nature of content on the web has changed not just how I consume information but how I process it?” [2]

The Atlantic’s Nicholas Carr offers his point of view:

“Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going – so far as I can tell – but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” [3]

This is a very interesting change in reading habits, and if proved to be a common experience this can only result in popular literature changing in form to cater to the market’s changing abilities. One of the most popular books of recent years is Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code which had an average chapter length of fewer than 6 pages. Is that a strategy for literature to cope with decreasing attention spans?

Or, with the advent of e-books and e-book readers, will we see a less linear approach to fiction - where novels hyperlink to maps and images or you can click to see a different character’s point of view.

But the statement that blogs will shape literature misses the point that blogs might very well BE literature. Like other published works, a selection of high quality, interesting blogs will stand out from the masses and be regarded as something of worth, and something readers desire and writers aspire to.

Ever read a book and thought it’d be better if…

A recent Nielson Study found that online ‘Member Communities’ (social media and the blogosphere) has surpassed email to become the fourth most popular internet sector.

Like them or not, Blogs are a big part of popular culture. And popular culture shapes literature. But not just by way of market strategy as described in the previous section.  Through blogging and micro-blogging (Twitter), direct communication with the author is possible.

Author Max Barry issued a new page of his novel Machine Man to subscribers every day encouraging feedback. Of this process Barry commented “My readers, they kept nudging me back on course whenever I started to spin out of control. And they sent me stuff: articles on the web, research and all these little things I usually discover only after the book is published, when it’s too late.” [4]

Book authors are using blogs to open up the previously concealed writing process to the world [5]. This is an example of how blogging can influence and shape literature in a practical and overt sense.

But I want to be a star

Studios and publishing houses are constantly scouting the blogosphere for new talent with the LA Times putting it like this:

“With the rise of social networking sites, blogs and Twitter, the ability to be plucked from deepest obscurity and thrust into the spotlight in record time has rarely been so within reach of Average Joe and Jane Public” [6]

There are numerous examples of blogs being published into books, some very successfully. To name a few:

• The Book of Awesome
• Stuff White People Like
• The slightly ironic How I Successfully Turned my Blog into a Book
• Then there is Julie & Julia, which started as a blog, became a movie, and then a book.
• And Shit My Dad Says - which started off as a blog, became a book which has been made into a sitcom - has been called “the First TV sitcom with a social network theme” [7].

The Resistance

There will, of course, be authors and writers (and readers) who resist change (i.e. the people referred to above wondering what’s wrong with A). There is nothing wrong with this, but ironically, this resistance to change and actively continuing traditional writing styles and publishing models can also in some way be attributed to the effect of the blog (and other developments) as it is a direct retaliation against the onslaught of progress. A passive-aggressive comment on change, if you like.

Both the writer and reader will be happier

“I started my blog recently, partially because I was bored but mainly because I like writing and find it an enjoyable way to process my thoughts. Suprisingly though I have noticed since starting my blog that not only do I enjoy the process of writing it but it also makes me feel better once I finish and more than that I find myself looking forward to updating my blog in the future.” [8]

Sounds like happiness to me.

The point of the blog is freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom to mark a place in the world with words. Obviously free speech does not come with a built-in audience. It never has and it never will. You can yell at a street corner but it doesn’t mean anyone’s listening.

But blogs offer options. Many many options. No one is forcing the population to put down their Jane Austen and read Joel’s blog on his cat. But if you’re a cat lover, you might find his photo of a cat hissing at sushi engaging.

The important point about blogging and happiness is not found in the medium but in the content. Like any other medium there are good and bad examples. But here is why blogs make writers and readers happier:

Writers: 

• A place to put their words
• A reason to write
• A potential audience
• Discovering a community of likeminded people
• Get feedback
• Potential advertising revenue  (clicking on Google Ads on people's blogs makes them money)
• Potential big break

Readers:

• Seemingly unlimited choice
• Option to communicate directly with the writer
• Opportunity to affect and influence the work
• Help in decision making
• Discovering a community of likeminded people

According to cyberjournalist.net there are over 50 million blogs [9]. Why would this be so if it didn’t make people happy?

But are people reading?

“It remains the paradox of the world wide web and the global economy that, while this has been the decade in which millions have found a voice through the internet, only a minority has discovered an audience.” [10]

Sure, some the blogs might have an audience of 4. But without it those 4 people would be less satisfied. Who says an audience has to be large to qualify as significant? Who says 4 people’s happiness is less valuable than 4 million? Many bloggers are ecstatic when they receive 1 comment because SOMEONE is reading their words.

So what about the poor middlemen?

Publishers (and associated industries) as the middlemen, or gatekeepers, decide what to publish based on personal opinion, market research, focus groups and luck.

Ever heard the term ‘surprise hit’? This is when a (usually obscure) book or movie, or some such, becomes unexpectedly popular. A surprise hit usually breaks formula and was often produced cheaply with a higher than normal level of risk attached. The nature of surprise hits are that they surprise producers with their success – a sure sign that the producer did not understand the market they cater to.

Blogs can be bold and break formula without taking risks. What publisher would have thought that a significant audience was interested in a wannabe writer working her way through a 700 page French cookbook (The Julie/Julia Project) – but they were interested. The blog was turned into a movie and the movie into a book – the traditional industries garnering success from someone else’s surprise hit.

Who are publishers to decide what we should or shouldn’t be able to read?

Imagine a world where there are no books…

Questions

If this were a face-to-face presentation I would probably throw Minties at the first person to raise their hand. Instead, I will provide an e-reward to anyone who answers these questions in DSO.

1. What makes Hamlet better than this blog?
2. Who are your favourite blog writers?
3. Who are your favourite book authors?
4. How are book authors and blog writers different?

Quoted References

[1] Baron, N. S. 2005, The Future of Written Culture: Envisioning Language in the New Millennium, American University, Washington D.C., retrieved 20 August 2010, http://www1.american.edu/lfs/tesol/In%20Press%20Paper--Future%20of%20Written%20Culture.pdf

[2] Karp, S. 2008, The Evolution From Linear Thought To Networked Thought, Publishing 2.0, retrieved 20 August 2010, http://publishing2.com/2008/02/09/the-evolution-from-linear-thought-to-networked-thought

[3] Carr, N. 2008, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, The Atlantic, retrieved 20 August 2010, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868

[4] Steed, L 2010, ‘Read all about it’, The Big Issue, no. 352, April, pp. 15–17

[5] Leder, M., Jarvis, J., Cohen, A. & Karp, S., Blogs as Books, Books as Blogs, Tools of Change for Publishing, retrieved 20 August 2010, http://assets.en.oreilly.com/1/event/1/Blogs%20as%20Books,%20Books%20as%20Blogs%20Presentation.pdf

[6] Dawn, R. 2010, Blogs move from monitors to TV and movie screens, Los Angeles Times, retrieved 15 August  2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/15/entertainment/la-ca-bloggers-movies-20100815

[7] Callari, R. 2010, 'Sh*t My Dad Says' - First TV Sitcom With 'Social Network' Theme, Inventor Spot, retrieved 22 August 2010, http://inventorspot.com/articles/sht_my_dad_says_becomes_first_tv_sitcom_social_network_theme_42973

 [8] Alibi Alibi (username) 2010, Does Your Blog Make You Happy?, Google (Blogger), retrieved 18 August 2010, http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=5c5c10902bc67ce6&hl=en

[9] How many blogs are there? 50 million and counting, CYBERJOURNALIST.NET, retrieved 12 August 2010, http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/003674.php

[10] McCrum, R. 2008, A thriller in ten chapters, The Guardian (UK), retrieved 12 August 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/may/25/fiction.culture

Other References

Alexander, J., ‘The Personal and the political: e-zines, community and the politics of online publication’, Digital youth: emerging literacies in the World Wide Web, Hampton Press, New Jersey 2006, pp 161-227

Carvin, A. 2007, Learning to Embrace My Inner Blogger, National Public Radio, retrieved 24 August 2010, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17413887

Carvin, A. 2007, Timeline: The Life of the blog, National Public Radio, retrieved 24 August 2010, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17421022

davendeb (username), 2010, Will Travel Blogs Take Over Guide Books, The Picture Planet, retrieved 17 August 2010, http://theplanetd.com/will-travel-blogs-take-over-guide-books

Drabelle, D. 2009, The Art of Editing, Short Stack, retrieved 22 August 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2009/02/the_art_of_editing.html

Jobbins, L., ‘Do blogs, Facebook and Twitter drive book sales?’, Australian Author, vol. 41, no. 2. August, 2009, pp. 14-16

Kiss, J. 2010, How Facebook will take over the world, The Guardian (UK), retrieved 17 August 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/jul/08/facebook-international-growth

Malik, O., 2009, The Evolution of Blogging, Gigaom, retrieved 24 August 2010, http://gigaom.com/2009/08/13/the-evolution-of-blogging

White, N. 2006, Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, The Knowledge Tree, retrieved 22 August 2010, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

2005, Blogs Gone Bad, The New Atlantis, retrieved 17 August 2010, http://www.thenewatlantis.com/docLib/TNA08-StateoftheArt-BlogsGoneBad.pdf