Comments on: Writers who became famous by leveraging the internet?

Question: Writers who became famous by leveraging the internet?

JaySunSee — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:54:58 -0800

I'm looking for names of writers that rose from obscurity to commercial/critical success from using the internet. Know of any?

Not personally mind you, but examples of writers who leveraged the internet to achieve some reasonable measure of acclaim. Thanks.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:56:15 -0800

Did you happen to catch the Academy Awards last night?

By: box

box — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:03:43 -0800

Depending on your definition of 'commercial/critical success,' Cory Doctorow might fit into this category.

By: JaySunSee

JaySunSee — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:05:26 -0800

ND¢: no, I don't watch tv (but I know DDL won for There Will Be Blood). That's the extent of my knowledge regarding the award show last night.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:06:27 -0800

Mefi's own John Scalzi writes a bit about this sort of thing today.

By: londongeezer

londongeezer — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:06:58 -0800

Sergei Minaev, author of Духless (Dukhless), a hit in Russia, initially circulated part or maybe all of it through his website (I think he's on LiveJournal). See NY Times article.

By: bl1nk

bl1nk — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:07:37 -0800

these authors published their first novels after getting their start as bloggers or by releasing parts of the novel for free online.

(it is, perhaps, not surprising that they are all are sci-fi authors)

Cory Doctorow
John Scalzi
David Wellington

By: phil

phil — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:08:16 -0800

i believe ND¢ is referring to diablo cody the women who won best screen play.

By: mmascolino

mmascolino — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:10:10 -0800

Julie Powell, author of the Julie, Julia blog leveraged that writing into a book.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:13:30 -0800

phil has it.

A young lady who goes by the pen name Diablo Cody won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for the film Juno last night. The following is from that wikipedia page: "At the age of 24, Cody wrote her memoir Candy Girl: A Year in The Life of an Unlikely Stripper. The memoir began after Mason Novick, a manager, showed interest in Cody's acerbic wit and the popularity [Ms. Cody's blog] Pussy Ranch had received. Novick, who would soon become Cody's manager, secured a publisher and the memoir became a critical success."

By: JaySunSee

JaySunSee — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:19:01 -0800

Some great answers. keep'm comin'.

By: phoenixy

phoenixy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:21:55 -0800

You might find this earlier thread relevant, although I'm not sure any of those writers who hadn't been published before they started blogging are amazingly famous or anything.

By: Smallpox

Smallpox — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:48:38 -0800

She isn't super-famous, but Pamela Ribon adapted her blog into a novel about five years ago. She's currently a writer for Samantha Who? on ABC.

By: quin

quin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:51:57 -0800

Mil Millington did the well liked Things My Girlfriend and I have Argued About site for quite a while before he adapted it to a fictional book of the same name.

He then went on to write A Certain Chemestry. To the best of my knowledge, both books were fairly well received.

By: scody

scody — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:53:14 -0800

dagnabbit, quit beat me to it by about 30 seconds!

By: scody

scody — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:53:46 -0800

er, quin.

By: quin

quin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:54:59 -0800

And of course, the two guys that run Penny-Arcade have managed to develop a fairly strong celebrity status from their web page, though most of their fame still seems to directly relate to the internet, some of their projects like Child's Play has done a bunch to help people in the non-web world.

By: Detuned Radio

Detuned Radio — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:32:32 -0800

Bill Simmons, of ESPN fame. As an voracious Red Sox fan his small blog rose out of obscurity, eventually being picked up by ESPN, and now he's among the most read sports writers. Probably not the best sports writer, but his quirky style of pop culture and sports (and his unabashed loyalty to all sports that are New England) make him stand out. He has a great book that is a must read for any Red Sox fan called "Now I Can Die In Peace." Really, anyone interested in a real fan's perspective on the ups and downs of following a sports team would love the book. He's also a monthly contributer for ESPN the magazine.

By: rmless

rmless — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:37:08 -0800

There are a bunch of food bloggers who got book deals from their sites.
Here are a few off the top of my head:
Adam from Amateur Gourmet
Clotilde from Chocolate and Zucchini
Molly from Orangette

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:56:32 -0800

Perez Hilton?

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:57:25 -0800

Durr, never mind, he's not a writer. But he is pretty famous.

By: SansPoint

SansPoint — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:57:37 -0800

Mark Z. Danielwski first released House of Leaves online. It's been a huge seller (and a fun book to read, I might add.)

By: phatkitten

phatkitten — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:42:08 -0800

Halfway through Jen Lancaster's first book (a memoir), she mentions setting up her blog and includes some entries/correspondence from it. Since then she's written two more books (the second of which will be published in May).

By: featherboa

featherboa — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:45:01 -0800

Petite Anglaise, Belle de Jour and Girl with a one-track mind are all British bloggers who've turned their blogs into reasonably successful books - Belle de Jour in particular had hers turned into a TV series starring Billie Piper. They are/were all anonymous (Petite and One-track were both 'outed' by the British press).

By: AmbroseChapel

AmbroseChapel — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:22:12 -0800

Yet another person who isn't really "a writer who got famous via the internet" so much as "a blogger who got a book deal", but Jessica Cutler a.k.a. "Washingtonienne".

By: dropkick queen

dropkick queen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:13:35 -0800

Elizabeth Spiers
Dave Eggers (arguably)

By: Sara Anne

Sara Anne — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:18:56 -0800

The gofugyourself girls have parlayed their blog into a semi-regular column in New York magazine. And today Joshua Micah Marshall was profiled in the NY Times because he won the George Polk Award for journalism.

By: Smallpox

Smallpox — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:57:17 -0800

The ladies of Go Fug Yourself have also just released a book.

By: NikitaNikita

NikitaNikita — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:50:15 -0800

Dana Vachon (link for background/starters.)

(we were ONE blog degree of separation, back in ye olden blog days, hence I followed this one from early on...)

By: JaySunSee

JaySunSee — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:40:32 -0800

Thanks everybody!

By: roofus

roofus — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:02:02 -0800

Charlie Brooker was only writing for video game magazines, until he came up with TV go home. Now he has a TV show and three newspaper columns.

By: indienial

indienial — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:05:40 -0800

Crazy Aunt Purl has just released a book, based on her blog.

By: indienial

indienial — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:06:41 -0800

Ooh, and Shauna Reid has just published a book about her diet battles.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:44:18 -0800

Dooce has a book coming out, and the site is her full time job.

By: Jahaza

Jahaza — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:50:18 -0800

Not sure how you define "writer" but on the more journalistic side, college student Brian Stetler's blog "TVNewser" was bought up by Mediabistro and then won him a job covering TV for the NY Times.

By: herbaliser

herbaliser — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:48:06 -0800

Tucker Max. 16 on NYT bestselling paperback nonfiction.

By: HotPatatta

HotPatatta — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:41:12 -0800

Yay Julie Powell! Her blog was so much fun and I'm so glad she got the offer to write a book. Must reads.