From Blog to Book Deal to Blog to…

Posie Gets Cosy By Alicia Paulson

Creative ways to find your audience as an artist. It’s a topic that pricks the ear of any artist or writer.

Last week I went to the ProBlogger Conference (#pbevert) in Melbourne arranged by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.

Not only was it a great opportunity to hear what some successful (perhaps the most successful) bloggers are doing it was also great to get time to sit, reflect and think  about how all things blogging and from a personal perspective what I could be doing better with my blog (turns out a hell of a lot!).

I was especially interested in one speaker – Pip Lincolne from craft /lifestyle website Meet Me At Mikes. Not so much from the fact that she is a successful blogger but because she has managed to also navigate from the online to the print world.

Having fired out a fair number of letters to publishers in my day and knowing how damn hard it is to get their attention never mind have them agree to read AND publish something, I  have to say I was full of admiration (and yes a tinge….oh sod it a bucket of envy!) with Pip’s revelation that she  wrote her first book only 6months after starting her blog and the  publishers agreed to publish it.

Like many sucessful artists Pip has a clear message and voice. As such she has managed to carve herself out a successful niche. Much like US craft blogger and author Alicia Paulson from Posie Gets Cosy. Paulson book- Embroidery Companion: Classic Designs for Modern Living – came about whilst convalescing from a serious accident. Apparently she stitched her way to recovery and 12 years later with a lot of blogging in between her book was released.

Earlier this year social media site Mashable did up a list of bloggers who managed to get a book deal. Take a look it’s food for thought.

Do you know of any artists or writers that have successfully used their blog as a platform to reach their audience? Would love to hear.