The Role of the Bookish Blogger

Fascinating article in the most recent Publisher's Weekly this week. Entitled Working Your Assets it tells the story of a small independently written small-press title that recently hit #1 on the Amazon.com bestseller list. It hasn't come out yet, it spent $0.00 on publicity, and it was sponsored by the company Working Assets. So where did the buzz = dollars come from? From blogs. Author Glenn Greenwald wrote it and then promoted it heavily on his own blog. As a result, it's cashing in and publishers are taking notice. All this is mighty interesting to me, a lowly children's book reviewer. Consider, however, the role of the blogger. If ALL the children's book blogs happen to like the same book (whether it's Learning To Fly or Mocking Birdies) then we know that we're standing up for the little publishers. We're bringing attention to books that normally wouldn't get a second glance from the conglomerate bookstores and review journals. That's a kind of publicity you cannot buy. Intriguing.