Sunday, May 17, 2009

Blogging has Hit the Big Time

Remember when a blog was a fun way to keep a journal that you could share with your friends and any random stranger who happened upon it? Then blogging became part of the way we got our news, with bloggers reporting on events that were previously reserved for the New York Times. Sure, some of those bloggers didn't check their facts and a lot of it was well written gossip, but the opinion makers were often bloggers. Now it seems that everyone has a blog, from President Obama and Nike, to your grandma. And it's mandatory for writers to have blogs.

Now, Amazon is allowing any blogger with an RSS feed to add their content to Amazon.com for Kindle users to download and read. The terms of service are here.

And,even more impressive, there is a special "blogger signing schedule" at Book Expo America this year. Fans can meet and chat with their favorite bloggers, including Jason Boog of Galley Cat, and Amy Riley of My Friend Amy. What should the bloggers sign? Laptops?

Yes, the book industry has changed. No longer are bloggers maligned and scorned; now they have author signings at BEA.

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