Neil Gaiman on Blogging

In Influences, Quotes by Doug2 Comments

Re: Journal – by burrows
William Gibson just stopped blogging [williamgibsonbooks.com], stating that informal blog/journal writing gets in the way of writing fiction.

Is there a conflict for you between maintaining your journal and writing fiction? How do you manage your time / ideas / approach, in order to stay active in both?

Neil [Gaiman]:
I’ve enormously enjoyed the immediacy of having the blog. In some ways it sort of bypasses established promotional and advertising systems. It means that, for example, if I’m giving a talk or doing a signing, many of the people who would have wanted to know this, know it. So while Steve Martin and I were both headlining at New York Is Book Country, and his face was on the ad material, mine was the talk that sold out. And if he had a blog, and blog readers, and so on, like I do, his would have sold out as well. It also means that I have several hundred thousand people cheerfully being some kind of a knowledge pool, for when I need to know things (especially techie things, which are always very mysterious to me) and more questions always being sent in than I could ever answer.

I found this snippet really interesting. It is very telling about the power of the blog/online journal. Not only can blogs be a non-intrusive, opt-in marketing tool (intended or no); the medium also provide an unprecedented means of two-way communication between artists and thier audiences. This recipriocal and potentially symbiotic exchange has tremendous potential.

Comments

  1. Hello hello Doug! Many thanks for the shout-out for our film, and if you’re in Boston on December 20, come down to the Somerville Theatre for a special screening of Sex, Lies & Superheroes. Also, we’ve got about 10 screenings coming up in 2004 across the nation through the various scifi and comic cons – all will be posted on our web site soon!

    Kind regards, and hope the film is as much fun to watch as it was to make!

    Cheers,
    Constantine

  2. Constantine,

    My pleasure. I am always glad to spread the word about quality projects. Any plans for a Las Vegas screening? If so, I am there.

    Doug

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