Monday, February 19, 2007

Blog to book in 60 seconds

Should I write about the book deal? I wasn't going to because there is such a sense of unreality about all of it. But people seem to want to know what happened so this is it...

I blogged. Someone read it. Someone else read it. Someone else passed it on. The political bloggers linked to me and the world went mad. I blogged some more. Someone read it. Someone liked it. Someone passed it on. A publisher e-mailed me. A book was mentioned. Money was mentioned. I tucked my skirt into my knickers, said "Ok then" and looked for hidden cameras.

The Sunday Times, my alma mater, decided to write about it. They decided to do a front page story, a leader, run excerpts and take my picture sitting on a rock.I got cold and the world went mad.

Blogger readers sent best wishes. Blogger readers hated me. Blogger writers wrote like me. Blogger writers wrote better than me.

What has a book got to do with my life? I am not going to mention it in future because I feel it is just something I will do at the computer in between reality. But for the record, thank you to everyone who said: "Well done. Good on you." Some have been immensely generous in their support. Some (like my mum) have been happy for the world to meet them when they weren't necessarily looking at their best.

Blogging is a strange and wonderful thing. I reached out into cyberspace because I needed to - not in any expectation of a book deal. What is a book deal after all? Better than a book deal, any book deal, have been the kindly comments, e-mails and messages from strangers who aren't strangers any more who said: "I read you and you made me laugh" and "I read you and you made me cry". My book deal isn't so much about money, it is more to do with the fact that blogging is a force to be reckoned with. Ultimately blogging is people willing to commit time, effort and emotion. How cool is that?

There will be haggis balls and pease pudding at the book launch. If I finish it.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Well I for one am delighted for you!! (bites cheek till blood flows to suppress horrible feeling of inadequacy), I thought it was od that you have no comments, but no doubt your new personal assistant will be looking through them all when you get back from a signing trip to Miami or The Bahamas and mine will turn out to be 104,956 and be mass deleted as I am not a celebrity. My friend Mr Dale has promised to promote my blog if I reduce the amount of pornography. Do you tink this is a good idea?

Gone said...

The blog is great, book deal or not keep at it. I'm a little South of you in Balamory but if/when you need pease pudding please let me know I will gladly supply. We do some great local Sticky Toffee Pudding and Doddington Ice Cream as well.
Hey, we are well versed in dealing with celebrity writers like yourself, Val Mcdermid (Wire in the Blood) is in an out all the time.
Good luck

smilingstar said...

You have the gift of making words dance upon the page. Within them we find more of ourselves. Thankyou.

Lucy Diamond said...

Congrats on the book deal - fantastic. I am one of the masses who has just found your blog and absolutely loved reading through it yesterday. Very funny and honest (and making me nervous about our planned house-move too...)
Best of luck!

Eva said...

Good luck to you! I read the article in the Sunday Times and I was so pleased for you. Since then I have had a look at your blog and you have inspired me to set up my own. I am a wife in a very small village in the Southwest and thought that the rural life could interest and amuse my family and friends in Sweden and France.

Anonymous said...

i LOVE your blog and many congratulations on the book deal! i've never read a blog before but i discovered yours in the Times and now i'm hooked! its so refreshing to read about a supermum who can't be super all the time (and i mean that in the best way) and has days like i do! sometimes i feel like the whole world copes so much better than me and its so great to see a funny spin on the times where its all a bit much! please keep it going!

wife in the north said...

re mutleythedog: do not sell out
re eva: absolutely go for it eva. I strongly recommend blogging as a pasttime
re anon: I feel the whole world copes better than me all the time

The Draughtsman said...

Live the Dream! As an ex-pat Northumbrian living in the deep south of Lancaster (UK) I can only envy you.
But having said that my art only really began to blossom when I moved here. All the best to you.

Anonymous said...

You write so well I've often sent this address to my friends as a present to ease their days!

Congratulations on a well-deserved reward for your efforts.

Anonymous said...

I, too have never ever read a blog, in fact I didn't know what one was until I heard about your blog on Metro Radio [local radio station], yes, this is when you know you have reached the higher portals of fame.

I love it 'wife in the north' keep up the great and visual blog [what does blog mean?].

A book deal/launch - wayhey - all good and great to get Northumberland on the map, although a little part of me likes living in a secret corner of the UK.

I am still ankle deep in mud, although slightly less after 3 trailer loads of leaves were dispatched to an even more secret location in Northumberland.

Bryan Appleyard said...

Thanks, Wife, not better, just with less contact with reality.

Ziz said...

I didn't have any interest in blogs until I read yours in the dreaded Sunday Times - I love it! It made me laugh and it made me cry....am logging in each morning now. Please keep it up - it is inspirational - makes my life seem very simple (dull!!??) Speaking as a childless thirty-something living in Dorset, you are a living in another world! Loads of respect.

Helga Hansen said...

Just heard about your blog while listening to the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2... what a wonderful blog! I started one in January, but after two entries, I got "writers block"... you've inspired me to kick-start my brain and stop making excuses!!

Anonymous said...

Love the blog, congrats on the book deal. Now that you're in the spotlight do people react to you differently now that they know they'll get their 15 minutes (seconds?) of fame via the blog?

wife in the north said...

re peter jones: I don't know I haven't left the house yet

wife in the north said...

re grocer: pease pudding for the launch it is then. yes please.

Gone said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mandy36 said...

I for one think you deserve the book deal, and all that comes with it, I would love for that to happen to me! - one can only dream.....
Keep it up, I love reading your blog, I have my own, I would love to know the secret! :-)
Just remember one thing the ones who moan about you are just jealous!
Keep up the good work...
Mandy

Janejill said...

I read all the details and thought it was a wonderful thing to happen and very well-done but I think I don't envy you , having to write , knowing there is expectations ; that's just me and I'm sure you are not a prevaricator.... ("If I do it") oh dear..Good Luck

bibliobibuli said...

big congrats! i followed the link from the sunday times to find your blog for the first time, and am enjoying it.

ain't blogging just the greatest!

Anonymous said...

That is very cool! How wonderful that your talent has been recognized so quickly. Congratulations! It must be a bit overwhelming. Please don't give up your blog. I love reading it. A link from another blogger's webpage led me to you on about your third post. I was immediately hooked by your insights into the humor and pathos of everday life with and without husbands, children, parents and neighbors. You make your reader feel as if he were right there with you. What a gift you have. Thank you.

Caroline said...

Just found you. Fabulous!
So pleased for you. Enjoy.

Rachel said...

really, really pleased for you!

foxxx said...

I'm incredibly proud of you and of course, jealous as hell - who wouldn't be? I found your work as a result of The Times and I've read it all.

I started blogging on myspace as my own personal therapy; it's been massively successful. But yes, a deal would not be as meaningful as the support and comments I've received from the anonymous readers who've helped me through a difficult time.

When I grow up I want to be just like you :)

Anonymous said...

I feel that my little secret is out. As I sit here in my office I log on check my emails and then get transported over to Northumberland, even though I look out on the Golden Gate Bridge from my office. It was my little secret for the last few weeks. Now though I feel that I have to share you with everybody. Not sure I like that, but congrats on the book deal. (drizzly and foggy in San Francisco today..)

Anonymous said...

I wonder if chief constable 'fatso' Brunstrom's blog will earn him a book deal?
http://www.north-wales.police.uk/en/blogs/viewblog.asp?UID=1&CID=7
(Name witheld - for obvious reasons)

wife in the north said...

re anon: what a nice thought that someone would be reading me in san francisco, a coffee by his side. I must have seemed very far away.

Ms Smack said...

I am SO pleased for you, and I dont even know you, but I have spent the last hour reading about you, and some of your excerpts.

You are a very talented, humourous writer!

I wish I were half as brilliant!

bravo to you!

Anonymous said...

We covered your 'blog to book' deal on our homeworking website at www.enterprisenation.com - now that you are a home-based business success, I hope you will pay us a visit!

Congratulations on a great blog and the contract.

dirtyconverse said...

I know the yummy mummy blog-to-novel path is well trodden, but how exactly does this work...? I was listening to your 'mum in the north' or whatever it's called, earlier today on Radio 4. I also read about it in the Telegraph at the weekend. And the Times, and somewhere else, and somewhere else else...it's very good, although perhaps not really my thing, and it got me curious.

How have you become so ubiquitous, so quickly? Is it really as easy as you suggest, here?

I ask, because unsurprisingly, I too have a blog, which is nowhere near as novel-friendly as yours - it's about lesbians, for a start, so that rules out around 75 per cent of the potential book-buying audience already...But, that aside, how on earth would anyone find out about it, let alone spend the necessary hours reading it!

http://dirtyconverse.wordpress.com

Immaterial Girl said...

Hi, At first I thought you were mad but found you were brave - a real inner lioness. Great you did what you did and showed them what you're made of, I wish I was as strong.

Immaterial-Girl

Holiday cottages said...

Best wishes for your book ,though as you rightly said people went mad when they heard about you ,start envying you or probably that wasn't envy that was jealousy but anyhow you kept on moving and i hope you must have completed your book.Have you ?if yes ,please let me know about it.I am eager to listen to your success story.