“With that malignant envy which turns pale, And sickens, even if a friend prevail.” - Charles Churchill

Notes on Envy

I allow myself a couple of minutes to wallow in bitter blogger envy every time I read about some blogger’s success, like landing a fat book deal.

And then I pick myself up off the symbolic floor and get down to the business of updating clients’ blogs and my own blog and pitching article ideas to editors.

And then I remember that someone else’s success, whether I think he/she deserves it, does not prevent me from succeeding. There are at least two people in book publishing interested in receiving a book proposal from me about me. What’s stopping me from sending it isn’t other bloggers or anyone else. It’s my own self-doubt. I just don’t think my life or my past success as a political and faith blogger is all that interesting to fill, let alone sell, a book.

A $300,000 Parody

If you haven’t heard of the blog Stuff White People Like, you must have been offline for the past month. Bloggers and journalist types have been buzzing about it for weeks.

Launched just a few short months ago, Stuff White People Like is satire on the fetishes, fantasies, and fixations of upper-class white urban liberals.

Examples: dinner parties, shorts, Asian women, “awareness,” - and my favorite - knowing what’s best for poor people.

Check out the full list of stuff.

It’s funny. It’s controversial. It’s irreverent. It’s self-deprecating. It’s heavily trafficked. People love it. People hate it. Some get it, and some don’t. I’ve heard it called racist. I’ve heard it called truth crouching in humor (my expression). Regardless, the blog’s founder, Christian Lander, just landed a rumored $300,000 book deal with Random House. Read all about it in the New York Times, bastion of the upper-class white urban liberal:

The outcry over Mr. Lander’s book deal suggests the trend that has been building for a half decade may have finally reached apogee.

One of the first literary agents to troll the Web for talent was Kate Lee, who in 2003 was an assistant at International Creative Management, the sprawling talent agency, looking for a way to make her name.

When she started contacting bloggers and talking to them about book deals, many were stunned that a real literary agent was interested in their midnight typings. Her roster was so rich with bloggers, including Matt Welch from Hit & Run and Glenn Reynolds from Instapundit, that the New Yorker profiled her in 2004. Two years from now, the magazine noted, “Books by bloggers will be a trend, a cultural phenomenon.”

And two years after that?

“If I contact someone or someone is put in touch with me, chances are they’ve already been contacted by another agent,” Ms. Lee said. “Or they’ve at least thought about turning their blog into a book or some kind of film or TV project.”

Blogger Lecture

Takeaway lesson for bloggers: Don’t let blogger envy block your success. Use the energy from that vile emotion to create something of your own. Self-esteem comes from doing something worthwhile, not from hearing affirmations on how good or special or smart you are. Every time I felt an envy-wave coming on, I turned it into something positive. And I counted my blessings.

God is good all the time, and he knows better than I do what’s best for me. I’m on his schedule. If he says it’s time for me to send that proposal, he’ll help me overcome doubt and procrastination. And I’ll send that proposal.

However…I doubt I’d get an advance anywhere close to $300,000, as I’ve never gotten fired or lost a client because of my blog or been a call girl or strung out on cocaine and meth or lived like one of the “Sex and the City” women or had 10 abortions or had sex with someone famous or worked at a high-profile fashion magazine or married a prince or had sex with a prince or…

P.S.: A few years ago when LBC was at its peak, I wrote a rant about blogger envy directed toward me, Blog Irony.

(Photo credit: Stuff White People Like)