I don’t hate baking cookies as much as I say I do. I just like the idea of pouting and complaining while wearing a reindeer apron.
Inspiring article for writers with websites
The New York Times online featured an article this morning entitled “Crossover Dreams: Turning Free Web Work into Real Book Sales.” Many authors have either gotten their start or have intentionally marketed their book ideas on the web. Literary agents or publishers then determine that page views will translate directly into sales and they give the web authors six-figure book deals. Usually they’re wrong (I don’t remember Jessica Cutler’s novel The Washingtonienne doing so well), but every once in a while they’re right (e.g. My Secret based on postsecret.blogspot.com and I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell based on tuckermax.com had decent sales).
But not only blogs, cartoons, and online fiction can turn into books.
Hyperion recently made a leap of faith when it reportedly paid $6.7 million to acquire the rights to “Last Lecture,” a book to be based on a talk given at Carnegie Mellon University by Randy Pausch, a 47-year-old computer-science professor who has terminal pancreatic cancer. Videos of the lecture — or parts of it — on YouTube and elsewhere on the Web have been viewed more than 6 million times.
This reminds me of Disney making a billion dollar movie dynasty out of its Pirates of the Caribbean amusement park ride. A YouTube video that gives you the warm-fuzzies or a rollercoaster that makes you throw up can be a crossover hit when deal-makers have a vision.
Whoa, I just watched the Last Lecture YouTube video for the first time. Randy Pausch actually achieved one of his childhood dreams of designing a Disney ride. Disney evidently has its finger on the pulse of innovative business practices. Next they will probably launch a popular line of pancreatic cancer hot dogs. I’m going to make myself cry. This is sad stuff.
The point is, you never know what the world at large will gravitate to, and eventually something brilliant that you post online could make you a million dollars. And that is the meaning of life, after all. One million dollars.