I write on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications. (Find 
In the intro to his self-published (on Lulu.com) collection of blog posts, The Wreck of the Henry Clay, New Yorker contributor Caleb Crain sums up nicely the anxieties shared by at least one other writer-with-blogging-addon about blogging, and, by extension, about self-publishing books. Which I may just do myself soon -- a collection -- because I CAN. Ellipses are mine.
I came to blogging ... as a veteran of print.... [and so] came to blogging nervous about losing what footing I had there... The quandary: If I wanted to communicate an important discovery, shouldn't I write it up formally, either for money (i.e., journalism) or prestige( scholarship)? If a discover wasn't worth these rewards, was a casual communication of it worth risking my reputation, such as it was, for accuracy and deliberation?... To speculate beyond one's area of expertise, based on no more than intuition and a few pieces of evidence, which happened to be new to oneself but not might be to specialists -- wasn't that a recipe for broadcasting one's ignorance? And at the pit of my stomach, as I contemplated my efforts to make a living as a freelancer, lay another question: Would my editors continue to buy the cow if I was dispensing the milk for free on my blog?This last question, Crain notes, turns out to be a good one. Do check this out.
Humanities & Social Science
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But does he answer that question? Certainly there is a fine line between getting significant utility out of a blog - building your personal brand, scratching an itch that your regular writing doesn't - and getting used by a blog, whether or not that blog contributes to someone else's bottom line (like Scienceblogs) or doesn't (if you're blogging on your own). I would have liked to hear more about *your* views on this subject.
You'll notice that my own blog isn't one, really. But on the other hand I can't resist the social bookmarking service that is twitter. So perhaps I'm no less guilty of frittering away what could be paid time!
Posted by: Christopher Mims | September 21, 2009 2:46 PM