Bloggers & Books
By Rachelle Bowden in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 26, 2005 3:02PM
Last night Chicagoist, along with about 40 other people, attended "Author's Roundtable: On Authorship, Blogs, and the Changing Literary Landscape" which was moderated by Andrew Huff and featured Chicagoist's own Erin J. Shea as well as Wendy McClure, Kevin Guilfoile, Kevin Smokler and Claire Zulkey.
Although Chicagoist is friends with all but one of the featured authors, it was really insightful to hear the panel talk about their experiences. .. because you know, when we're sitting around drinking beers together we're usually discussing things like Britney Spears' boobs and "Did you see that thing on that website today!?" and not intellectually discussing how the barrier between author and reader is breaking down.. or how creative people aren't sitting on thrones any more.. or what is the future of book publishing.
Our favorite quote of the night was by Kevin Guilfoile. He said "Being a blogger doesn't make you a good writer, just like being 16 doesn't make you a good driver." There was a lot of discussion about bloggers getting book deals and if blogging, along with an abundance of indie publishers, is flooding the literary landscape and making it easy for anyone to write a book. And if so, how good those books are. It was agreed that since blogging is hot right now there will be a lot of bloggers cashing in and writing books, making money on the trend. But that writers, who are really truly writers, will be sticking around and will be here long after the trend has run its course.
One other observation: Kevin Smokler is one funny mofo!