How to Write a Blog

The topic is Sara Peretsky's new book.

Listen:

First off, it's $10. WTF? I like V. I. Warshawski, but not that much. Second, it's "Specially designed for comfortable reading"--which means that it is the same width as a normal mass market, but slightly taller by about 3/4". This translates to not fitting comfortably in the inside pocket of my jean jacket. How am I supposed to take this book on the subway?!

I know this is a new trend, especially because it gives the publisher a higher return on their investment, and it gives the author more money in royalties ($.799 on a $9.99 book instead of $.559 on a $6.99 book, although I imagine Sara Paretsky's royalties are higher than 8%, but whatever), but I disapprove. Instead of enjoying the book, I now have to spend time figuring out how to hold it so it doesn't hurt my fingers, and also resenting that I'm being soaked for yet more money.

Can you guess who that is? If you've ever read her blog, even once, you can probably guess it's TOR editor Anna Genoese. How can you tell? The voice.

This is classic Anna Genoese - breathless, full of colloquialisms used to maximum effect, silly quotes effectively skewered, and exuberant punctuation. The content always mixes her wickedly mathematic brain (witness the off-the-cuff royalty calculations) and sharp insights into the publishing industry with the relentlessly personal (her sore fingers, her feelings of resentment). And we have the absurd humour that a large publishing company (which no one knows better than she herself) is committing an offense by refusing to consider Miss Genoese's jean jacket pocket when issuing a book.

What I am suggesting is that Anna Genoese, though she may not have thought about it in so many words, is - gasp - a writer.

You don't have to write books to be "a writer". You don't have to make a living writing to be "a writer". You have to write a lot; you have to use words to express yourself instead of another venue. It helps if you have a distinctive voice and a personal way with vocabulary and punctuation. It helps if you're good at it.

Blogs are not considered writing. Bloggers themselves don't consider it writing; they consider it goofing off. But there's a lot of interesting writing in the blogosphere, and the open-minded writer can learn a lot if she pays attention. Much of it is colloquial, and sounds a lot like dialogue, like Anna Genoese. People edit themselves less on a blog, and the result is more like written speech.

When I read blogs, it usually occurs to me that all letter-writers of the past thought nothing of their daily correspondence, while we in the present find their writings incredibly valuable. I wonder if people a century from now will think the same?