If Marrit Ingman (Inconsolable, Seal Press) could blog about postpartum depression and get a blook deal, it should surprise no one that something as highly personal as infertility should have a shot.
Oshun Books made history in August 2006 when they published the first book based on a blog - or blook - in South Africa, So Close: Infertile and Addicted To Hope by Tertia Albertyn. In their presss release Oshun said: "Tertia Albertyn’s moving, funny memoir of her battle with infertility is one of six blooks from around the world to be shortlisted in the Blooker non-fiction category, announced on 12 March. Tertia, who is a mother of twins, runs one of the top rated blogs in South Africa, www.tertia.org, which receives up to 3500 unique visitors a day." |  |
An online tech magazine, iWeek, gives slightly different numbers -- "35,000 hits a week, with an average of 3,200 people visiting her blog on a daily basis."
Readersdigest.com.au reports: "Tertia has had more than 800 comments to various entries she's posted. (The majority of people who read blogs won't post comments, but "lurk" in the blogosphere.) [too true - comment on this article!]
Analysis
I don't what the blog was like before the blook. I scrolled through just the current page and, to my surprise, found three polls from PollDaddy in three posts. [Do polls work? Not sure that that's the question to be asked, rather, Do polls increase the interaction between blogger and reader?]
Her About Me page yields this:
My name is Tertia and I am 38 yrs old. I live in Cape Town, South Africa.
This blog started off as a chronicle of my journey through infertility. Amazingly, nine IVF’s and a few losses later I managed to get knocked up and keep the babies this time.
I'm a bit put off by that, but I'm sixty years old and a bit stodgy :-)
Under the heading, THE CAST, she calls herself "gorgeous and divine." She says she works in IT as part of Sales and Marketing. Could be why the blog was so successful. Or it could be that it's because she has "a degree in Social Sciences, an honours degree in Human Resource Management and a MBA."
The Good Stuff
I found several things of interest that have next to nothing to do with So Close. [Why do I keep thinking the title is Addicted to Hope? Maybe it should have been.] The first is an article, "Falling Pregnant" by Rachelle Unreich at readersdigest.com.au. It's a wonderful story of the online friendship between South African Tertia and a 34-year old American, Julie Richards (surname changed). Both had trouble conceiving and met through ivfconnections.com. Both had popular blogs - Julie's "A Little Pregnant" gets 25,000 page visits per day!
Unreich does a great job of comparing/contrasting the two blogs.
Julie is clearly aware of her audience, and keen to get a laugh. Although she'll reveal details about procedures and treatments undergone, Julie's blog doesn't display photos of her, and she only recently told her husband about its existence. (He was supportive, even posting to it himself.)
Reading Tertia's blog, by contrast, is like taking a peek into her most private thoughts. It is littered with personal photos: a snapshot of her stomach, a portrait from her wedding.
Read Tertia's full reaction to winning the 2007 South Africa Blog Awards for a sample of her style.
The second fun thing I found (no, I didn't watch it) was a video interview with Tertia in which she shares her thoughts on the difference between online and offline writing. Purportedly done at a Book Fair, it sounds like it was filmed in a bowling alley!
Lastly, from iWeek comes this quote from Tertia on being published:
"There really is very little money in writing in this country unless you are really established and can move large quantities of books. My first print run was 3,000 copies and the return on those will certainly not allow me to retire," she laughs.
Nevertheless, she says her husband, who has only just gotten past the first 100 pages of the book, may be tempted to go out and buy the lot of them. This purchase, together with her new agent in Northern America, who is busy promoting the book to publishers there, may just get her reprints and the volumes that are so important to the book world.
Is there any topic that you think is or should be off limits to bloggers or to blooks?
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