In addition to what I said in the video, I should have also added "if you don't care about having a social life," "if you don't mind being viciously attacked dozens of times every day," "if you don't have a wide range of interests in life," "if you don't mind paying for your own health insurance," "if you don't like taking vacations," and "if a one-bedroom apartment In West Philly is your idea of high living," then you definitely meet the qualifications for being a successful, full-time progressive blogger.
So many bloggers are writing books these days that quite a few people have asked me when I will write my book. I always tell them the same thing: I don't want to write yet another book on how to fix the Democratic Party, and / or describing the rise of the netroots and the progressive movement. There are a lot of good books like that out there already, and I can't possibly imagine what one more book by me would accomplish. Much of what we have needed to write on those topics has been written. The book I want to write would be more literary--more of a memoir. I would like to write about the personal side of being a full-time blogger and progressive movement activist, because it has resulted in some very strange changes in my life.
The personal side of being a full-time blogger and activist is a story that I think needs to be told, and one that we do not tell often enough in our movement. Maybe, since we are still in the early stages of the movement, that is a good thing, as we don't want to become too inward looking, self-reflexive, and meta at this stage in the game. But there really is some strange, personal, and interesting stuff that needs to be told. For example, when I started blogging on MyDD, I slept in the office where I was working every other night so I had solid periods of regular, uninterrupted Internet access. On Election Eve, 2004, my Internet went down, and it was only restored in time for the election when I paid $145 in late fees to my service provider (money that I didn't have until the previous Friday). Blogging has given me front row seats to Live 8, and created a sort of weird, quasi-celebrity status for me in certain circles, even though no one on the street would ever recognize me. My friends and my family always know what I am doing because of the blog, and if I don't post for a day, or even eight hours, they get worried. I have started to develop something approaching a nervous shake when I do not have the ability to get online for more than a two hours at a time. I have given interviews to the New York Times and NPR in my pajamas. I get both really mean hate-mail, and really wonderful fan mail. And the list of powerful people I have met and personally talked with--people who never would have given me the time of day just two and a half years ago--is astounding.
It is just a very weird, truly unexpected turn in my life, and I would like to talk about the personal side of being a full-time blogger, rather than write a book that is an extension of my blogging content. The thing is, I don't know if anyone would be interested in publishing a book like that, since the shift in content would not necessarily appeal to my built-in audience. Further, I don't even know how well I could write that sort of book anymore, since I haven't turned my hand to something truly literary since I began blogging, and since my focus was always on avant-garde poetry anyway. But it is a nice dream to think about.
As for my advice on how to become a successful blogger, I can only speak for myself. I don't know if it will work for other people. I bet every full-time blogger without institutional support--you know, all fifteen of us--has his or her own advice and his or her own story. I do know this: as much as I complain, there is no way I would keep doing it without the constant, positive feedback I receive from readers. I get much more positive stuff than negative stuff, and it helps me know that I am making a difference.
So, I just wanted to say thank you, to all of you, for making the last two and a half years of my life the best I have ever had. I can't wait for what comes next. Hell, today we entered the Technorati top 100 for the first time, I think, since 2003. That is certianly a good sign.
