Does blogging build a writing career?

Abha from Writtenroad.com asks several travel writers HERE, “How important is blogging in building your career as a travel-writer? Has blogging ever got you any work with print publications?” She included part of my answer, here’s the rest:

As far as advancing my career as a writer, blogging has been every bit as important as dumb luck.

It was dumb luck when Literary Agent A stumbled upon my blog, www.whereamiwearing.com and asked me if I had considered writing a book about the subject. This was before I had even left on the trip the blog was about.

When I returned from the trip I went to a writer’s conference in Muncie, Indiana, (not exactly a hotspot for meeting agents) and asked Agent B about pre-contract etiquette dealing with Agent A. Agent B asked about my book and was darn near more enthusiastic about it than me. Agent B, Caren, became my agent and a few months later sold my first book, which shares a name with my blog.

In the year I’ve kept the blog, I’ve spent over 72,000 minutes (50 days) writing it, but never considered myself a blogger until the Publisher’s Marketplace listing of the sale was released:

Non-fiction Narrative: www.whereamiwearing.com blogger Kelsey Timmerman’s WHERE AM I WEARING?, in which the author learns about the garment industry by following the Made In China/Bangladesh/Honduras tags of a complete outfit and goes to the countries to visit the factories that made his clothes and talk to its workers…

I started as a blogger and, with a little dumb luck, I became an author.

As for print publications…

I rarely direct editors of newspapers and magazines to my blog, for the simple fact that they might visit on a day I write about shaving my tongue or farting on airplanes. However, I have adapted blog posts that eventually ran in print publications or aired as essays on NPR. In this way, blogging is more of a personal writing tool for me than an eye-catcher for editors.

Wal-Mart saving the world one funny light bulb at a time

Yep, that Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott:

Companies should create businesses that focus on building products and services for the poor. “Such a system would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives for those who don’t fully benefit from market forces,” he plans to say….
In particular, he said, he’s troubled that advances in technology, health care and education tend to help the rich and bypass the poor. “The rate of improvement for the third that is better off is pretty rapid,” he said. “The part that’s unsatisfactory is for the bottom third — two billion of six billion.”

In the next three years, we would like to build a very different system. We believe that there should be one framework of social and environmental standards for all major global retailers. And there should be one third party auditing system for everyone.

You can read more about Wal-Mart saving the world on salon.com and in this NY Times story.

Here’s an excerpt from Where am I Wearing? about a buddy recalling the W-A-L-M-A-R-T cheer he had to do each day before his shift:

John told me, “There are a lot of things that I have done in my life that I have tried to forget and having to shake my ass in that cheer is one of them.”

Happy Bengali New Year

Last year on this day I celebrated Pohela Boishakh with Bibi Russell and her gang of models, weavers, and fashion designers. Basically the day was the exact opposite of a New Year celebration in the USA.

Instead of staying up late we got up early.

Instead of drinking lots of alcohol we drank lots of water because alcohol isn’t really socially acceptable in Bangladesh; not too mention if we didn’t drink water, we would have died of dehydration.

Instead of dancing with our hips, we danced with our shoulders.

(I’m the one in the yellow shirt)

Today’s writing exercise: Rolphing

If only I would have discovered Rolphing before I finished my book. I’m sure it would have taken my creativity to whole other level. Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda of Chad Vader fame spoke at the conference this past weekend and introduced a room full of middle-aged women to rolphing. Some of the women may have thought it was funny. I thought it was hilarious.

U.S. Passports Made in Thailand via the Netherlands

In terms of the previous post, if there is anyone that should be a red, white, and blue consumer, it’s the United States Government. I’m not sure how many hundreds of millions, if not billons, of dollars they spend per year protecting farmers and American jobs, yet they turn around and do something as stupid as outsourcing the production of our passports to save a few bucks.

Apparently there are security issues too.

Your tax dollars at work.

Global warming good for water-skiers

Economist William Nordhaus on global warming:

Snow-skiing will be hurt – but waterskiing will benefit.

As a fella who has dreamed about SCUBA diving around the ruins of Angkor Wat, I think I would enjoy an early morning ski through Manhattan or Athens.

(I read the quote in Bill McKibben’s book Deep Economy)

Diarrhea…

Can you spell it?

It is a word that I’m pretty sure I have never correctly spelled in my entire life. And, as a 3-time Spelling Bee Champion of Mississinawa Valley Middle School, I like to think that’s saying something. Lucky for me, I don’t think they ever include diarrhea in spelling bees due to its unseemly nature. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t be so jealous of my 3 shiny spelling bee trophies because I wouldn’t have them.

Xing in China

I’ve noted the hotel rooms in China are equipped for nights of passion. I’ve written about the rise of Chinese promiscuity. I even wrote about Chinese hookers and ice cream. Today, on CNN there’s yet another report on xing (sex) in China.

There are several things from the piece that freak me out. The first is about the rooms that young couple rent by the hour to get their xing on:

A sign on the wall warned: “If the linens are too dirty, you will lose your deposit.”

They don’t change the sheets!

And ever more disturbing:

A walk-in abortion costs $140 at the Haidian Maternal and Child Health Hospital, a large public hospital in northwest Beijing. Too pricey? Skip the anesthesia and the price falls to $55.

Writing under the influence

Hemingway, Thoreau, Emerson, Twain, and Melville are just a few of the writers who have NOT influenced me. I would never insult them like that.

I’m not sure whether it sounds more conceited to say writers like these have influenced you or that no one has influenced you – as if you are doing things with words that no one has ever done before (you trailblazer, you). If someone asked me who my influences were – and no one ever has because I’m not that successful – I would list the following, for better or worse, as my influences:

1) Some dude that wrote about paddling a canoe down the river that runs through his backyard with his son for National Geographic Adventure. The story taught me that adventure is a state of mind that can occur anywhere at anytime.

2) My fear of punctuation leads to a fair amount of short sentences. Sure, I could reference Hemingway here, but I’ve only read a few of his books (I don’t remember which ones) and I just spelled his name with two M’s, so I’ll stick with fear. Hyphens, colons, semi-colons, I think I know when and where to use them, but I often opt for a period and new sentence out of fear.

3) Spelling Bees. I’m a three time Mississinawa Valley Middle School Spelling Bee champion. Not that my vocabulary is great by any means, but it would be worse if I hadn’t learned all of the darned words on those dreadful lists.

4) Rick Reilly. Finally, an actual person. Rick Reilly used to write for Sports Illustrated, and I read his column The Life of Reilly religiously during the time I was developing my travel column. His stories always had a beginning, middle, and an end, and he often poignantly tied the beginning to the end. Plus, everything he wrote had a point without being preachy or superior. I don’t get Sports Illustrated anymore, but I was at the dentist yesterday and I was horrified to flip to the last page of the magazine and there was no Rick. Apparently, he has moved to ESPN and will write for the magazine in addition to some TV work, starting in June. Of all the things on this list, Rick’s column in SI influenced me the most.

So, my influences are some dude, fear, spelling bees, and a sport’s journalist. I’m sure there are probably other things and people that should get some of the credit/blame for my writing style, but more likely than not, they aren’t pillars of the literary world.

They aren’t impressive. But they’re mine.

The sentence of the day/Today’s tongue twister

In front of the flip flop factory, the flip flop fabricators wear flip flops.

How fun is that? I’m having an awesome day writing and that sentence just made it twice as awesome.