By Mary Jaksch, Chief Editor of Write to Done

When you start a blog, it can seem as if you are a tiny island in the vast ocean of the Internet. But you soon realize that you are part of a interactive network and lively community.

Why blogs are the brain of the world
If you think about the network that blogs form, and imagine a graphic representation, you can see something familiar. Because each blog with its connections looks like a neuron in the brain with its many synapses. Each ‘thought’ or post in this ‘ueberbrain’ triggers other neurons and results in a new ‘thought’.

Write to Done has grown into big blog because many people have inspired each other to make it happen. It’s an illustration of a blog as a brain. Here’s the story of WTD:

Write to Done was started by Leo Babauta on the 9th of January, 2008. His first post How to Write Without Distractions contains this memorable quote:

Writing is a fairly lonely business unless you invite people in to watch you do it, which is often distracting and then you have to ask them to leave. – Marc Lawrence

Luckily all of us here at WTD are writers so we can keep company – without distracting each other.

I was very excited when I saw that Leo had started a writers’ blog. I must have been one of the very first subscribers of WTD.

Soon afterwards I offered Leo a guest post. When he said ‘yes’, I ran around in tight circles, screaming so loudly that the neighbors rang up. At that time, my blog GoodlifeZEN still had less than 100 subscribers, so it was a great opportunity for me to have Juicy Writing: 5 Ways to Glue Readers to the Page published.

Leo went through a very busy patch in June and July of 2008 and I started lending him a hand at WTD. In the end we agreed to share Write to Done, and I subsequently took up the position of Chief Editor. You can read the story of how that happened in my article Why Leo Gave Me His Blog At the time Write to Done had 4,500 subscribers.

One of the most interesting experiments I undertook as a new Chief Editor was to interview Liz Strauss: The Secret of Being a Successful and Outstanding Writer

We devised a great way to do the interview by approximating a face-to-face conversation by email. I sent her one question at a time, she would answer. Then we would sent follow-up remarks and questions back and forth, until it was time for the next question. It was a time-intensive way to conduct an interview, but it created a rare human depth.

While Write to Done grew at a steady pace, Leo’s central blog Zen Habits experienced a meteoric rise.

Here are two posts that show up why Leo is one of the most experienced and successful bloggers worldwide:
The Anatomy of a Post: How to Get Blog Readers to Play Attention and Concise Answers to Your Top Beginner Blogging Questions

Working shoulder to shoulder with Leo at Write to Done gave me an amazing chance to learn from a master blogger. I began to dream about creating an opportunity where other keen bloggers could also learn from Leo.

In October of 2009 the dream became reality. Leo and I launched our first A-List Blogging Bootcamp. It rocked! Many of the participants were Write to Done subscribers. Quite a few have since written guest posts for Write to Done.

Talking about guest posts, I recently got an email from a new guest poster, saying: “Write to Done is a fantastic place to land a guest post because you take the time to train inexperienced bloggers.” It’s true, I enjoy coaching rookies on how to become confident and successful guest posters. Recently I replied to a new guest poster like this:

“Sure – I’m always happy to look at a guest post. Let’s think of this as a training opportunity. The first thing you need to learn is how to sharpen your pitch. Now, let’s pretend you’ve never written to me. Write me a good pitch – make sure you include a couple of links to your best posts, and a guest post or two so that I can see your style. Also, add the four following steps…”

After four weeks the end result was a very successful guest post.

I love the Write to Done community! Comments are supportive and friendly. There’s no bitching or ranting. Everyone is upbeat and helpful.

Write to Done is now hovering on the edge of 16,000 subscribers.

We are celebrating this new milestone with a makeover. It’s a family affair: Eric Hamm has kindly given us a copy of his beautiful Frugal theme with the Zen Habits skin. Leo created the mnmalst header.

It’s time for thanks. I’d like to thank Leo for believing in me, and for being a great partner and friend. My heartfelt thanks also to our many great guest writer. And to you – our wonderful readers – I’m grateful for your loyal support. You make Write to Done the inspiring place it is.

All of us together make Write to Done a part of the brain of the world.

Mary Jaksch is a Zen Master and the Chief Editor of Write to Done. Read more on her blog Goodlife Zen and secure a place on her upcoming FREE Virtual Zen Retreat The Miracle of Kindness

By Kelly Diels of Cleavage

Want a book deal? Think your magnetic, compelling, ninja talent for the written word is all it takes?

Think again.

Now, says author/blogger/truth-telling goddess Danielle LaPorte, “two-thirds of a publisher’s decision is based on your platform”.

In other words, your blog. How famous are you? How big does your audience and ‘platform’ need to be?

“Pretty effing huge, apparently…” continues LaPorte, who was in New York last month pimping her latest book proposal to agents and publishers, “because I just got told I’m not famous enough.”

Publishing. It is Ancient History so Study the Scrolls.

Danielle LaPorte knows a lil’ something about the publishing racket.

In a former life, LaPorte was freelance book publicist for publishing houses like Simon and Schuster and Harper Collins. Now she has a juju personal development site called White Hot Truth, a rockin’ inspirational speaking career, and a new TV gig. And thatís not all: four years ago, she and a co-author wrote Style Statement and sold it to the prestigious Little Brown and Company for a $150,000 advance.

Back then, she didn’t even have a blog. True story.

Bestselling author Gretchen Rubin didn’t have a blog, either, when she pitched her Happiness Project book proposal to publishers. An established, best-selling author of four books, her read on the blog/book deal relationship is a little less go-blog-go.

In publishing circles, says Rubin, “there is some skepticism about bloggers. Books and blogs are very different mediums. Can a blogger write a book that hangs together as a narrative?”

Still, Rubinís agent encouraged her to start a blog.

“She planted seeds,” says Rubin, “and I was resistant…” Eventually, though, she started her blog, The Happiness Project, to test her thesis that novelty (new medium, the blog) and consistency (maintaining the blog and writing new content daily) are essential components of happiness.

Now, Rubin has been told that “your blog is more important than your book. Never forget that.”

Those stories’n  legends of non-fiction book deals signed only three to four years ago and captured without carefully cultivated venus-blog-traps – might be ancient history.

Printasauras Rex? Meet Twitter. It Will Eat You Alive. Play Nice.

It was about a two-and-a-half year process from securing an agent to it [the book] coming off the presses. Painfully long. It is totally Jurassic. The publishing industry is antiquated.

Publishers have not seen the future. There are a few who are admitting that things have to change and that they are Jurassic and that the future is social media. The future is multimedia expressions of all forms of literature. ~ Danielle LaPorte

The publishing industry might be prehistoric, Jurassic and slow-moving, but it will follow the scent of food. Or cash.

You’ve got a blog and an email list and an RSS feed of devoted readers to whom you can announce – and pre-sell – your book? Yes, please.

Gary Vaynerchuk knows this. He also knows his worth. Vaynerchuk worked 5 days a week for seventeen months to create his cult/platform and estimates the audience for Wine Library TV at 90,000 people per episode. He has 850,480 followers on Twitter. When he mentions a wine, it sells.

Craig Haseroty, the owner Sojourn Cellars, a small winery in California, told the New York Times that ìnothing has put more people on our database and sold more wine than Wine Library TV.î Vaynerchuk mentioned their wine and their switchboard lit up. In 24 hours, Sojourn Cellars answered 500 phone calls and e-mails. They sold a lot of wine.

Thatís the power of suggestion. Vaynerchuk’s followers are vayniacs.

Somewhere out there, Seth Godin and Chris Brogan are smiling, knowingly.

With this kind of clout, the wine-spitting social media maestro Vaynerchuk was not likely to say ìbook deal? Really, ME? Really REALLY? Oh THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.î

Legend has it that Harper Studio is publishing 2.0. They’ve heard of this little thing the kids call a ‘platform’ and are willing to share the profits – and also the pain and price of promotion – with authors.

And President Bob Miller apparently doesn’t pay a penny over $100K for an advance.

What is a Vaynerchuk with a legion of devoted, possibly tipsy vayniacs to do with a price ceiling?

Blow it up.

Veynerchuk set up shop in the Harper office. Tweeted about The 26^th Story, the Harper Studio blog. Watched, in real time, as that blog suddenly drowned in traffic.

His point: my people like me. They like my suggestions. They WILL buy my book and make all of us rich and pfooey! I throw down my handkerchief in a faux snit and laugh at your measly $100K!

(This is not a direct quote.)

The result? Gary Vaynerchuk ñ who casually admits that he doesnít read books – signed a seven figure (translation for the math challenged: at least a million dollars), ten book deal with Harper Studio. His first book, Crush It, debuted in September 2009, and yeah, it did make the New York Timesí bestseller list.

And he’s not even a writer.

I know. I just died a little, inside, too.

The moral of the story? (And, I argue, the moral is not just a story because it is based on a very comprehensive, validated sample of at least three published authors, which makes it a scientific fact.)

Get a blog, rock it out, and then go get yourself a book deal.