"When I started blogging, I knew diddley-poo about publishing," Sarah Wendell confessed to the audience for her keynote address at the second annual Book Blogger Convention last Friday morning. Many in the room were returning to the Javits Center after several days of BookExpo America, others had come to New York City expressly for this one-day conference aimed at helping bloggers improve their craft and their relationships with the publishing industry. Wendell, the co-creator of the popular romance fan blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, was one of this year's most prominent guest speakers, and the crowd (more than double last year's attendance, organizers reported) listened eagerly as she described her path to blogging success--which, for her, was defined as providing enough income that she could work from home and pick her children up from day camp.
"Having a website is a lot like having a child," Wendell suggested, and one of her first bits of advice came from a parenting guide, Wendy Mogel's The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: keep two pieces of paper in your pocket at all times; one says, "I am but a grain of sand," while the other reads, "The world was created for me." Along with that balance of humility and self-esteem, Wendell identified three other traits--authenticity, consistency and generosity--as crucial to any successful blog, and also noted that while praise from online reviewers might be viewed with skepticism, criticism can catch readers' attention: "If I say something smells bad," she quipped, "you're totally going to sniff it!" When readers discover a shared breaking point for what constitutes bad writing, she explained, it helps bolster the reviewer's credibility.
In a later session, Shelf Awareness editor Bethanne Patrick (aka the Book Maven) discussed the need for standards as blogs become an increasingly prominent outlet for book coverage. "If we want to be seen as an important force in the publishing world," she emphasized, "it's important that we be professional in everything we do." Even, as she noted, in describing what it is blogs do: "If you don't finish a book, it's not a review," she said. "I love when you don't finish something and you tell why, but it's not a review."
"To me, professionalism is about your state of mind," added Mother Reader blogger Pam Coughlan. "It's about how you handle yourself online. A lot of times, it's about taking a deep breath before you do anything." Such reassurances were helpful, as questions from the audience revealed an undercurrent of insecurity: Is it okay to write negative reviews? Should bloggers review every book they receive from publishers? What are you allowed to do with galleys once you're done with them? (Wendell had a story pertaining to that last point: when she first started receiving advance review copies, she e-mailed a publicist to make arrangements to send them back, and was shocked to learn she could dispose of them however she liked. Sometimes, the publicist told her, she took them on camping trips and used them for kindling.)
For the most part, the bloggers in attendance were eager to spend a day with their colleagues--sometimes meeting in person after extended online exchanges--or to chat with authors who'd come to make personal pitches to potential fans. Some are already making plans to come out for the 2012 convention, and the publishers who came to this year's event will be glad to see them return. As Simon & Schuster's Lucille Rettino commented during another of the day's sessions, "There's no more online marketing. There's just marketing." And readers so hardcore that they'll plan a trip around books? That's an audience worth picking up.--Ron Hogan