Well, that didn’t take long. According to Publishers Weekly, the popular “Look At This Fucking Hipster” tumblr blog—a stream of photos of clownish hipsters accompanied by short, acerbic captions—is being turned into a book by St. Martin’s Press. The author of the blog has so far remained anonymous, but today’s PW item outs him as Joe Mande, who was recently named “best new comedian” by Time Out New York and performs a one-man show at the UCB Theatre.
“Look” is only the latest in a string of blog-to-book projects that have been acquired by major publishing houses recently. Others include “This Is Why You’re Fat” (HarperStudio), “Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves” (Three Rivers Press), “Postcards From Yo Momma” (Hyperion; co-written by former Observer reporter Doree Shafrir), Chuck Norris Facts (Gotham), and “Stuff White People Like” (Random House). The last of these stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for weeks.
Mr. Mande’s book deal was brokered by Foundry Lit + Media assistant and junior agent Hannah Brown Gordon, who said in an interview that she got in touch with the author through Generate, the management and production company that represents him.
“Whenever they have a project that they feel is right for a book, they reach out to us,” Ms. Gordon said. “I had emailed him independently, but when I found out he worked with Generate we were able to come together.”
Ms. Gordon, who also recently sold a book based on the WordPress blog “Animal Review,” said she targeted editors who have demonstrated a willingness to work on blog-to-book projects, a mini-genre that in some quarters still inspires skepticism and even contempt.
Yaniv Soha, the St. Martin’s editor who acquired Mr. Mande’s hipster book in a preempt, said he is currently editing a book based on the “Cook to Bang: Recipes to Get You Laid” blog.
Mr. Soha, who said he is too old to consider himself a hipster, said the book would consist of mainly new material but would include some of the most popular entries from Mr. Mande’s blog as well. He said fans could expect the book to hit stores sometime in the spring of 2010.
UPDATE: A reader points out that Mr. Mande, in an interview with Gawker back in May, was asked abotu the possibility of a “Look At This Fucking Hipster” book. He said that, due to “all the legal issues involved” he didn’t see a book happening. “Which is too bad,” he added. “I bet a ton of people would have wanted a book full of content they can already get for free online. You know, like that best-selling IMDB book.” Oops!
