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28 Jan 2008 07:48 am

Is Blogging Harder Than Writing A Book?

Will Leitch says so:

Much has been written about the relative lack of sales success for books written by bloggers, as if bloggers were an ethnic group, or some sort of easily charted genre. Every blogger is different from the others; I can't think of a single shared characteristic among bloggers, save for lack of a tan. The one thing we do do, however, is write. A lot. I've worked for newspapers, magazines, television stations, doctor's offices, you name it, and no job requires more daily effort than being a professional blogger. If people have a slow day at the office and do a little less work than usual, hardly anyone notices. If I have a slow day, every commenter on my site lets me know immediately.

I'd say they're just very different genres and each can be hard in their own way. I have to say that producing a book - I have four under my belt if you count my dissertation - is a draining, soul-sapping catharsis. Part of the strain is working for a long time and not knowing if any of it will be worth it. Blogging is almost the polar opposite: almost everything you write is read and used by someone. On a simple hour-by-hour basis, blogging is harder work. But the thinking required for a book - the slow sifting and weighing of competing ideas, themes, structure, arguments - is a deeper, more painful process.

Most of my books have clocked in at around 80,000 words. I write around half a million words a year on this blog. On a pain-per-word basis, books are harder. But at least there is a point at which they are over, at least in the writing. A blog never stops. The deadline is always with you. Yes, even on a Sunday evening.

(Hat Tip: Frank Wilson.)

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