"Nearly every writer I've met has been a watered-down version of the person they portray on the page, rarely if ever embracing the grand realization they supposedly come to in their work," writes Erin Tyler, or as friends and fans call her, Bunny.
"Respectfully, the writers I've met write better than I could possibly hope to, but they don't live any of it, which shocks me, this visceral timidity. I live harder than I say I do. I drink, feel, scream, cry, and fuck a lot more than it seems. Yes, I'm even crazier than I seem."
But talk is cheap. Does Bunny back it up on her website, thebunnyblog.com?
In one post, titled, "I Love New York; Abruptly Ends," she states, "I really like nothing better than sucking a cock."
Q.E.D.
Besides her sexual escapades (of which there are many,) Bunny blogs about a childhood plagued with self-image issues, pop culture, and the livelihood of a struggling artist.
Like many of the bloggers out there, Bunny wields her website like a sledgehammer, poised to break into the book business.
"That's absolutely the reason why I started thebunnyblog.com," she says. Her normally bright and cheerful tone drops flat, and a down-to-business mentality exudes from her voice. "I wanted to practice. I wanted to get feedback. I was living in Florida when I started, and I had no one to bounce ideas off of. So I started a website, because there are a lot of people out there who devour literature."
A popular blog opens many doors. A writer with a unique perspective can instantly access insomniacs killing time, procrastinating college students, and Internet junkies from all over the world. Blogging circumvents traditional boundaries in acquiring readership, like the time and finances required to publish a work, or fickle publishers who may not want to take a chance on non-mainstream content. Blogs essentially cut out the middle man between writers and readers.
Blogs already entrenched themselves in the world of journalism. In December 2002, bloggers focused attention on the remarks of Senate Minority Leader, Trent Lott. Lott insinuated support for racial in an off-the-cuff remark at Strom Thurmond's birthday party. Lott resigned a short time later. Bloggers also kept the Rathergate scandal alive in the media in September 2004. CBS eventually issued an apology for using unverified documents that discredited President Bush's military service record.
But even as blogs gain acceptance as legitimate literature, they still often serve as mere stepping stones towards the writer's Holy Grail: the Book Deal. Legions of over-caffeinated artists pursue the quest, hands glued to a keyboard as their imagination runs rampant. They piece together the next Best-Seller, red-eyed and exhilarated, the echo of clacking keys the only sound heard.
A book deal means maybe you'll pay the rent this month. Or you can afford furniture that comes pre-assembled and doesn't smell like Swedish meatballs. And your dependency on happy-hour specials and top-shelf ramen can finally end.
It will also cover the medication for the nasty carpal tunnel you developed.
The beauty of the blog is that anyone could (and did) start one. It's as easy for the 14-year-old adolescent that wants to write about her cat, as it is for a talented writer with a unique perspective on life. Websites such as xanga.com and livejournal.com usually catered to the former, while the latter developed their own sites or used blog websites like blogspot.com.
So what differentiates thebunnyblog.com from thousands of other writers out there, who archive their lives on the web between reruns of "Saved By The Bell" and quarts of Ben & Jerry's ice cream?
Well, how about that book deal we were talking about?
Bunny doesn't strike you as an artist. Her blonde hair and broad smile are more akin to the sorority-girl type, instead of an angst-ridden writer with a piercing wit. In pictures, with long pigtails emerging from her head like wilted lilies, there is a surprising resemblance to bunnies and rabbits and the like (she says she got the nickname because of "the way my nose crinkles when I smile.")
But unlike her sorority-girl counterparts, she's more concerned with what part of herself she'll reveal to the world today than where the next party is at. And rather than wondering which Manolo's to wear, a lá Sarah Jessica Parker, she may think instead, "What is the most effective way to present this part of my life?"
"I've been trying to find my voice. I've purposely been very schizo about posting on my blog. Today I might sound like angry-Bunny, today I sound like choppy-Bunny, or stream-of-conscious-Bunny," she says in a sing-song voice.
Bunny pushed back the book deadline a few times, but hopes to finish by July 2007. The Crazy Show is the tentative title, and looks to be about 500 pages. She received a $2,000 advance from her publisher, Kensington.
And much like the other writers who used their blogs to catapult themselves in the publishing world, nothing will stand in her way of fame, fortune, and Fitzgerald-like status, right?
Well, not quite.
It turns out the "blog-turn-book" idea, which makes sense theoretically, doesn't guarantee amazing sales, or even a well-written book.
Stephanie Klein began her blog, greektragedy.com, in January 2004, and according to the site, writes about "love, relationships, fashion, family, and strength of self." The blog secured her a two book deal worth well into the six-figures. The first, Straight Up And Dirty, hit bookshelves in July 2006. It received mixed reviews, and "wasn't the grand slam publishers were hoping for," according to the Boston Herald.
"Paying $500,000 plus for that Greek Tragedy blogger was pretty dumb," Erin Hosier told The Book Standard. Hosier is an agent with The Gernert Company, and signed blogger Wendy McClure, author of the blog, poundy.com, for two separate book deals. I'm Not The New Me, published in April 2005 and The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan published in May 2006.
There's no arguing the appeal for publishers to publish a blogger's work.
"Publishers are always looking for someone with an audience," says Jill Kneerim, a director at literary agency Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson. "But writing a blog, even a successful blog, doesn't mean you can write a book… You need the kind of subject that'll get someone to pay $24.95 for the experience."
"These people live juicy, detailed lives, and are endlessly fascinated with themselves. These are wonderful blogger attributes," Bunny says. "But that's not what writing's about. It's an art form. These bloggers think because they can write something for a page or two, they can write a 300-page piece of work. They think they can just link these pieces together, and it'll be enough."
Even McClure, with her two book deals, admitted as much. "Nobody here has any idea I'm not a real writer, just a blogger with a book deal!" she wrote in a correspondence with mediabistro.com.
"You can't make a writer out of a blogger," Bunny warns. "You need to be a writer first."
Tucker Max, best-selling author of I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, provides his own take on why some of these books face lackluster sales.
"These bloggers aren't good writers and they really don't get a lot of traffic if you really look at the numbers," he told the Boston Herald. "They had a blog, people liked reading the blog, then they wrote stuff people don't want to read. Who cares what Jessica Cutler's (writer of now-defunct blog, washingtonienne.blogspot.com) novel is about? People liked reading she had sex with senators who paid her (money)."
Perhaps Max earned the right to criticize. His first book spawned off his website, tuckermax.com, and he signed a second book deal that netted him a $300,000 advance, according to his website.
Bunny says Max introduced her to the editor that set up her book deal with Kensington.
Her book will be similar to her current blog. It's a collection of memoir-like short stories, she says. "But I wanted to do something very unique, as most authors do. It's going to be half graphic-novel, half illustrated. It will be a very visual biography."
She laughed when pressed about what differentiates her work from other bloggers that are just "endlessly fascinated with their own lives."
"Oh my god, I'm going to sound so conceited," a tremor of horror rose from her laughter. "Well, I'm an artist, and I love to write. I've been writing for ten years now, and when I started, I just wanted to make art."
Later, she adds, "I worked hard for many years on this project. It wasn't like I was taking a stab at making a book."
But despite this reassurance, deep down, she knows the fickleness of the awaiting masses.
"I'm still finding my voice, you know? When I first started, I had no experience. I didn't have a writing degree. You really need to explore yourself, who you are, and what you want to say.
I never got into blogging to be a blogger. I wanted to be a writer, and building a big fan base on the Internet is going to get me there."
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