Blogger to Author: Wendy McClure

Guest Blogger: Kevin Smokler

Kevin Smokler, Zelig-like, seems to show up wherever there is new media. We met him a year ago, when he was curating the radio section of Our Media. Now he’s on book tour, and he’s talking to Chris this Thursday on new ways of writing, reading, and getting published. We gave him a login and free rein this week. We trust him. It’s an experiment.

Kevin Smokler wrote this post. Buy his book.

Wendy McClure is the author of a new memoir, I’m not the New Me, published in April and a blog called Pound, published since 2000. Which one should be listed first is up to you, since McClure is among the first generation of bloggers to segue over to writing books.

No, scratch that.

Famous bloggers like Jeff Veen, Matt Haughey and Rebecca Blood have all written earlier books that highlighted their expertise as technology thinkers or explored the phenomenon of weblogging itself. But only within the last few years have New York agents and publishers concluded that the writting chops a popular weblog displays might also work in book form (and begun signing deals based on that once-wild idea). The New Yorker blew open this secret with a piece last year on Kate Lee, a young assistant at mega-agency International Creative Management, who’s building a staple of superstar bloggers. Lee currently reps Elizabeth Spiers (founding editor of Gawker.com) and Glen Reynolds of Instapundit.com, both of whom are slated to have books out next year.