Scrap Writing in the Digital Age

Cake Wrecks is a wonderful blog devoted to cataloging and critiquing errors, inaccuracies, and blatant atrocities in professional cakes. Its creator writes,

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate – you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it’s simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I’m not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

It’s frequently hilarious, always triggers my appetite, and, like so many successful blogs, will soon become a book, as this ad on its homepage proclaims:

The book, written by Jen Yates, contains 75 never-before-seen cake wrecks.

What’s with all these blogs getting book deals? I guess the Internet enables ordinary people whose ideas might never come to a publisher’s attention to embark on a creative endeavor much like a book (a blog), potentially with a large and growing readership or viewership, that can evolve over time, get feedback (reviews) from others, even generate profit through ads and merchandise — in short, to create something funny, interesting, unique, and successful that eventually attracts the interest of the book industry, which might’ve quickly dismissed an idea like “a book about bad cakes” or “a book about passive aggressive notes” or “a book about weird emails that moms write” without the blog as a successful model, which can serve as a tangible sign or assurance that the public would be interested in the book.