See, it was midnight, and raining. And Cold. Still, the line to meet this guy stretched from his table deep in the bowels of the Zone, outside, and all the way around the block. The line, about 4 people wide and a hundred-fifty or so yards long, looked like it should have been for the midnight releases of the Harry Potter series or a new twilight movie. Only instead of families or teenagers and their parents, it was twenty somethings and middle aged men, with the occasional girlfriend in there doing a favor for her boyfriend who couldn't make it. I digress.
The point is, for those of us who enjoy finding our voice through new media, Simmons is an inspiration. Now possibly the biggest sports writer in this country, (I can't imagine another who would draw what I saw last week) ESPN's "The Sports Guy" had his first gig writing for himself, on his startup website, bostonsportsguy.com (this blog is still running and it looks eerily similar to yours). His only readers at that point were family and friends, and he was bartending and chasing a dream. Without getting into a detailed biography here, I just find it interesting how this story wouldn't have been possible 30 years ago. Actually, it might be impossible now too - Simmons began his website at a time when there weren't millions of bloggers clogging the web, and by harnessing new media he was able take the alternoute route.
What's the point? I honestly am not sure. No one needs a motivational speech from me on this subject, especially given my media393 blogging record thus far. I suppose its simply that occasionally one might be inclined to zone out during class, or miss a blog as i do, but it was just refreshing to attend that signing and view living proof of what can happen when you ride the cutting edge.
Simmon's ESPN page is located here.
If you want to see an interesting interview he did with "The Huffington Post" before his book tour commenced, check here.
I guess I'll leave you with a clip from that interview that relates closely to our experience right now, and see if you agree or disagree with "The Sports Guy." Leave a comment and tell me how you feel:
When I was younger, I was something of a journalism/book/short story junkie and read every conceivable type of writer. I had hundreds and hundreds of books; I had every issue of Sports Illustrated and Inside Sports since 1974; I had two decades of clippings from GQ, Esquire, The National, New Yorker and other places saved in manila folders. Now, if there had been an internet back then ... would I have done all that? Probably not. I would have been surfing the 'net all day like everyone else.
And again, it's dangerous to have the ability to get an audience instantly. I started my old web site in 1997, when there wasn't the quid pro quo system of "I'll link to you if you link to me." I needed to bring readers to my site every day -- knowing that I wasn't getting traffic from other places -- and the only way that was happening was if I pushed the envelope and wrote angles that I wasn't seeing anywhere else. That constant fear of "I need people to keep coming back!" made me better in the end.
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