I don’t commute, so I don’t usually get to see amNY, which is why I didn’t see (until somebody forwarded it) yesterday’s article on the end of the blogger book trend, which boils down to the same old story: “Online popularity doesn’t translate into sales.” (Nobody tell Tucker Max.) And, yet, we’re told, “hardly a month goes by without some new announcement of another blogger book deal—even though, for the most part, they’re coming with lower paydays.”
Maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t this seem to indicate not that the blogger book deal is dead, but that publishers have finally figured out rational spending guidelines for books written by bloggers? First and foremost, perhaps, being “don’t buy the concept, buy the writing.”