I'm Drew Breunig, an anthropologist/advertiser/developer/geek. These are things I think are interesting. Here are some things I read. Questions? Comments?
Anyway if you know who runs Look at this Fucking Hipster then tell me, because a HarperCollins editor wants to get in touch with them
sigh.
So are any of these “take free content from blogs and sell them” books actually selling?
I see a ton of Stuff White People Like copies at Borders, but that could simply mean they really want to sell them, not that they’re selling a ton of them.
I hear SWPL isn’t selling nearly as well as they’d hoped. A real shame because the book is a lot better than I had assumed.
It’s not like all blog books have equal potential. Some are ill-advised, some are good ideas but get blown out of proportion (“This Is Why You’re Fat” sold for six figures even though it’s so obviously just a five-figure idea), and some really are a sure thing. “I Can Has Cheezburger” sold for six figures, and they must have earned it quickly, because they made another deal for twice as much as their first.
(I’d un-humbly put “Twitter Wit” in this sure-thing category because it’s so tied in with the culture of the ten-million-user site where the content came from. As long as Twitter’s star keeps rising, so does the potential for this book. Deservedly so — the book is now relevant to millions. Of course I’m just purely lucky to have sold the book during Twitter’s rise, for a respectable advance that’s still low enough to earn back. Instead of starting a bidding war, I went with the first editor I approached, because she had handled the similar book “Not Quite What I Was Planning” extremely well. Once we reached an adequate number, I accepted. Had I been greedier, I might have driven the book advance into six figures, but to no actual benefit. Now I’m confident the book will sell well enough to earn back my advance, which means I’m a profitable author. If that happens, I’m much more likely to successfully sell whatever book I have in the future, especially if it’s a second volume of “Twitter Wit.”)
In my opinion (and only mine, as far as I know), “Look at this Fucking Hipster” is a low five-figure idea. If they don’t get greedy, the authors could have a tidy little deal, maybe make their advance back, and move on. But it’s not a sure thing, and it very well may linger on store shelves. They should make the deal quickly before the novelty wears off, and tighten up their writing to meet a higher standard. LATFH is poppier than Boner Party, but it’s not as well-written and it definitely has an expiration date.
The question is: can/should Tumblr turn this into a business model?
