blogging and professional writers

**S* H* <s*@saxonholt.com>**

Having joined the blogeshere and getting personal feedback from friends 
in the industry, this came to my attention from an editor at a major 
gardening magazine:
>
> They keep threatening to force us editors to write blogs for our 
> website. I'm happy to do it, but everyone else gets in an uproar 
> whenever it is mentioned. More work they cry. It sounds like fun to 
> me.

I spent so much time on my reply I thought I might share it here.  (It 
should probably be a rant on some blog ;-> )

" The blogeshere is full of well meaning nearly anonymous banter and is 
getting bigger all the time, even with me as you have observed.  
(Thanks for noticing.)  In almost all cases it should be done because 
it is fun, and a way for one's own friends to check one's musings.  It 
should not be done with any expectation.

The exception may very well be magazines (both traditional and the 
emerging e-zines) where, if the blogging writer/editors are able to 
keep content fresh and current,  the magazine's own credibility may 
draw and retain internet readers and then advertising $.  The biggest 
drawback to magazines is they seem so dated in Internet time.  Issues 
planned 6 months ago may not touch a chord with internet savvy readers 
who want "now", and those readers who enjoy blogging's spontanaiety and 
intimacy.

My own current blog piece "New Year's Day Plant Count"  
http://www.gardeninggonewild.com touched off a discussion of current 
weather conditions and national climate zones that would be impossible 
in traditional publishing but fun and engaging in the moment for both 
reader and writer alike.   We all become writers and communicators in 
this moment of give and take.  I think the obvious success of blogging 
is in *that* specific connection with even a very small audience.

For professional writers, I say wake up and smell the coffee.  Blogging 
devalues professional writing.  Professional photographers like me have 
been dealing with the proliferation of cheap/free internet images for 
years now and we are struggling to find ways to convince the public and 
editors alike of the benefits and value of professional photography.  
It is not a battle we are winning and not the point of this 
conversation.   Professional writers are going to find it harder to 
sell their words for money.

Not that the best can't or won't make money, it is just a new way of 
thinking - a new way of communication.  Blogging is free and the more 
varied it gets, the harder it will be for traditional publishers to 
keep an audience.   Which is why having your magazine require you to do 
a blog may be necessary IF they find there is a good on-line readership 
and ad dollars, and if the magazine's on-line site is perceived by the 
internet audience as useful and fresh.  If not, your blog will only be 
time you resent.  But if you find it is a fun way to engage readers 
then do it - and get paid for it.  You are retaining an audience for 
your advertisers and that is worth $.  How commercial on-line magazines 
evolve with internet advertising and reader's willingness to put up 
with the clutter remains to be seen.

What I like about blogging with the Gardening Gone Wild group is that 
it is non-commercial.  Yes, we are all professional garden people and 
may be able to keep connections with people we like, but it is done for 
the love of doing it and the immediacy of getting ideas out.  I get 
ideas all time, we all do, and it is fun to write the ideas down, like 
in a diary, with no intention of profit, manipulation, or long term 
planning.  It is something many a reader worries about in a commercial 
writing venue - does this writing have an agenda?  is it PR?  did some 
industry or political group influence it ?  Not a worry on most blogs - 
especially it there is no advertising.  ( I say most blogs;  there are 
certainly some very sophisticated blogs with clever intent but there 
are so many, many other small blogs that appeal to small audiences.)

It is fun and provides interaction and community.  Not as much fun or 
engaging as real one-on-one, person-to-person, face-to-face 
communication.  Yet.  I hear from the kids that these virtual reality 
sites are more fun than real people.  Please say it ain't so.  Wanna go 
shoot some pool ? "

And blogging will never be as much fun as gardening, but hey, we are in 
the midst of a major winter storm.  I can't garden.  (Yes, even in CA 
there is winter weather....) and who wants to work on New Years 
resolutions and business plans when we can get distracted by blogging 
????

Saxon Holt
Saxon Holt Photography
Gardens and Ornamental Horticulture
www.saxonholt.com
Library  - www.photobotanic.com
415.898.8880
:

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