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About Me
- realdoc
- I am a GP Married with 2 kids. I live in an isolated, culturally backward part of the country. I am a recent convert to cyberspace thanks (mainly) to Green Wing.The picture is not me by the way but probably what you all think lady doctors look like.
24 comments:
*mutters dark imprecations about élitism, cronyism, nepotism, élipotism, necronism, nepyism, NIMBYism...liposuction...necrotising fasciitis...*
*is carried away by realdoc's colleagues in white coats, frothing prodigiously at the mouth*
I wonder if Emma Kennedy's blog's in it?
No - but I bet I can guess that girlwithonefatbottom is for a start.
Ohh - bitchy bitchy me!
Hang on...
'But with millions of blogs in the UK alone (and many millions more worldwide), it would take you more than a lifetime to read them all in search of the best of the bunch. Which is where this book comes in. The Blog Digest is the ultimate anthology of blog writing from the last twelve months.
What, so this Justin Whatsisface has read them *all*, has he? Or has he just read his mates' blogs, like the rest of us?
I was going to make some balanced and rational point about bloggers not needing to be validated by the commercial media (especially not if it's just to line some chancer's pocket in the pre-Christmas period), but fuck it, I'm not in the mood. Let's just go round his house and burn it down.
Nnnnnnnng... WHAT is the POINT? Blogs are blogs and books are books. They have totally different appeal. Schtoopid publishers.
Hmmm... I beg to differ, but only a little bit. It's quite feasible that some content that appears on a blog could work just as well in book form, just as some books make good films. Someone might review a book on his/her blog. That review could also appear in some other medium. Why not?
What you can't do is translate the whole blogging experience into another medium. Which is why a 'Best-Bits-Of-The-Blogosphere' book makes more sense than a book version of a single blog. However, those bits have to be chosen with a view to their suitability as parts of a print anthology, rather than as examples of blogging.
If it works as an anthology in its own right, that's groovy. But if, as Patroclus suggests, it's just a bit of cynical Zeitsurfing, then it deserves to perish, although it won't. Anyone remember The Little Bk Of Txt Msgs? It topped the Sunday Times Bestsellers list in Xmas 2000. I was a little peeved because I was editing the Guinness Book of Records at the time, and it knocked us off the number one spot...
But The Friday Project's blithe assumption that blog/print synergy is a raison d'etre in and of itself is possibly a little starry-eyed. Although Scott "The Demon 3-for-2 Guru Of Waterstones" Pack is on board, and he never struck me as an idealist.
There's something very 'meta' about this.
But to be honest: it sounds boring.
I'd rather read PostSecret...
And I'm not just saying that because I wasn't in it, mind...
I just don't like the idea of the blogosphere being commercialised in any way whatsoever. A blogger getting a book deal is bad enough, but at least they're getting money for stuff they actually wrote themselves. This chap McKeating is going to get tons of cash simply for packaging up stuff other people wrote. And it looks like he's got an annual franchise on it. This makes me unaccountably angry.
In answer to your question: Yes.
I'm sure I must. I haven't actually looked, you understand, but surely my blog, along with all those i read regularly (you know who you are) must feature. For we are, simply, The Best.
[If, by some foul mischance, we're not in it, perhaps we should produce our own volume.]
Oh, and Pat said 'This chap McKeating is going to get tons of cash simply for packaging up stuff other people wrote'.
Can he do that, without paying the writers for it? My blog carries a copywrite notice, which points out that 'Copyright is protected by law and is in effect the minute something is created, whether the author has a © notice or not'.
Good question Dave. There must be some sort of contract in place with the contributing bloggers. I think Tim knows best about how these things work.
I'm sure he's asked the bloggers for permission. They'll retain copyright (there's almost certainly a statement to that effect in the book) but the publishers have granted him the right to republish in this specific format.
I presume they don't get any royalties, though. Maybe one-off nominal payments for each entry, although it's quite possible not even that.
Looks like I've started something. The only reason I asked is because I wondered how anyone could possibly know if they'd got the best bits or not. I tried looking at 'next blog' once and it just doesn't work, lots of pictures of cats and Venezuelan teenagers. As pat says its just excerpts from the blogs he reads probably or those blogs that you don't quite trust because there's so many adverts you can hardly see the post.
Next thing we know, bloggers will be getting agents. Ben Hammersley already has one; it can only be a matter of time before it's de rigueur among the would-be 'blogerati'.
Gahh, the filthy hand of capitalism gets everywhere, doesn't it?
And realdoc, exactly, how can any anthology of blogging presume to say that it's the 'best' that has been written? What's wrong with just saying 'here is some good stuff'?
sneaky fucking bastards. i don't have a copyright on my blog, nor do most people. what's to stop them from simply lifting material from a bunch of blogs and publishing it in a book, without ever asking permission of the blogger who created it? seriously, if they did that i bet the blogger would have no legal recourse. it's a dead clever idea for making a few bucks with no effeort whatsoever.
they mentioned "bristol." i wonder if they've stolen any of my posts!
My understanding is that the author owns the copyright of something they've written. A (c) notice is only a warning to those who intend to pinch it. If you've written it (and haven't plagiarised someone else) then you own it, and anyone pinching your material for an anthology must, at the very least, acknowledge your authorship.
Or so I believe.
Feel free to pinch the copywrite notice on my blog, though, if it makes you feel safer.
The trouble is lots of people writing about, and compiling books and plays about blogging just don't get the medium. It's conversational not didactic and as such will not transfer well to an anthology.
Marsha: I haven't heard from the little one, she thought a phone call might upset her. If you see a small girl,wearing a big blue puffy anorak, probably doing a handstand, in a school party at the castle tell her mum says hello will you, thanks.
*sniffles off*
Awww.
Some blog writing will transfer well to an anthology, but I agree, it's the conversation and the general interactivity that gives the medium its identity and vitality. And the comments threads are usually where all the good stuff happens.
Actually I think you've hit the nail on the head - making and selling a book just isn't in the community spirit of blogging. Thank you for helping me understand what I don't like about it!
I once had someone wanting to turn my website into a book. Apart from being against my philosophy (my site is not static and it is free; books are static and cost money) I'd also have a devil of a job contacting all the kind people who let me use material and photos (plus some photos are used at risk because I couldn't locate the owner).
Nice idea, but impossible in practice. A few blogs have worked as books - wasn't there one about arguments a guy had with his g/f? As well as some of these diaries of a call girl/airline hostess/disgruntled (and sacked) worker ?
At this point I should probably advise everyone on copyright law but it's not my specialist field and I've worked long enough today. Dave has the gist of the thing anyway - it's all about proving you are the originator which is possible with archives.
The last copyright problem I had was fresh faced and eager out of law school when a little old lady came into my office claiming she had a copyright problem. I got excited as it made a change from the usual slippers and trippers, until she said she wanted to sue Kylie Minogue because she had actually written "I should be so lucky". At that point the 'nutter' alarm bells rang.
Anyway I really came on to say
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FOR TOMORROW REALDOC
HAVE A GOOD ONE. love sis (middle)
Oooh, is it your birthday? Many Happy Returns then.
Ooh, happy birthday Realdoc! Have a splendid day!
Dreadfully late as ever - happy belated birthday. xx
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