From Blog Post to Spread in Glossy National Mag - Yeah!

Hey, guys, remember my recent post called "Me and My Landscape Architect"?  Well, here it is again, reprinted as a 3-page spread in a classy national magazine.  Yes, Landscape Architecture Magazine bought it, along with some photos, and it's now appearing in their January issue, including the credit line: "Excerpted directly from Susan Harris's blog at GardenRant.com." (For verification, click the close-up on the left, you doubters.)  The language is largely unchanged (still bloggy), and a sidebar about how landscape architects can attract gardeners as clients was added.  Here's the beginning of the article.

Now I'm pleased as punch to grace their pages, but this is bigger than me - it's about about blog crossover, something whose time has definitely come.  Traditional media are just plain smart to spice up their publications by reprinting from blogs, or even hiring us outright.

So how did it happen?  Well, figuring that the good people at the American Society of Landscape Architects couldn't spend all day surfing gardening blogs, I sent them the link myself as a friendly hello - to both their print and on-line editors (and they have a terrific site with accompanying blog, now in our sidebar - Dirt by ASLA).  Next thing I knew, we were negotiating terms.

Next, a wonderful local photographer, Peter von Pawel, arranged to come to my garden to photograph me and Holt Jordan, the landscape architect in my article.  Peter's wife came, too, which was great because she's one of us and we could have talked gardening all day.  Here they are on the right, and on the left is my favorite of the photos he took that day (see how generous he was to let me use it, no charge?)

If you're a reader over on my blog you might remember when a TV crew came to interview me about blogging.  Well, that  happened immediately after the photo shoot for the magazine spread, so unless you count weddings, it had to be my most exciting and glamorous day ever.  Good thing, too - it meant I only had to get the garden and my hairdo right once. 

But gardeners, how would you feel about having your garden photographed for its first spread in a national magazine in mid-November?  You know the lament:  If you'd only been here a week earlier - man, the fall foliage was perfect.  And it was, you know.

Comments

[firefly]

Congrats, Susan! That post was an excellent one. I've been planning to call the local nursery's designer for help with my front yard and hell strip ever since I first read it.

It's also about time bloggers started getting some respect from the print media -- and everyone else too.

I belong to a webmasters discussion list (yeah, e-mail -- so last century!) and just in the past couple of days one of the more vocal members tentatively suggested starting a blog because the list had gone so quiet.

Great idea! I thought. Blogs have enormous technical advantages over e-mail discussion lists.

Oh no! said everyone else. Blogs are for navel-gazing twentysomethings who will be sorry they posted on the Web someday when they're trying to make partner at a law firm. (Seriously -- this is as near to a quote as I can get without asking for reprint permission from the person who so irritated me.)

And these people call themselves "webmasters" ... !

[The County Clerk]

A Hearty Congratulations!

(Of course, I'm NOT surprised at all.)

Keep doing what you are doing!

Hank

[Eliz.]

I have 3 writers at my magazine whose writing I found on local blogs. For many, blogs are not naval-gazing in the slightest. They are used for community activism, political commentary, institutional outreach, and, as seen with many newspapers, a way for tradfitional media to expand its interaction with readers.

Congrats Susan!

[Heather]

Wowza! Congrats! That's big time stuff, lady, but doesn't surprise me in the least. You're fab!

[Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener]

Firefly - now that JW Marriott is blogging I hope that will change their minds! I know I'm preaching to the choir here but I find blogs to be community-building and the definition as a 'personal journal' that is often given out as misleading. It gives the wrong impression. We need to redefine or rename blogs.

[Christopher C in Hawaii]

Blogs - Independent Electronic Publications

[Trey]

Well done Susan. It's good to see your work appreciated by a wider audience. I do check in regularly to see what you have done. Until I get a computer at home, maybe in a couple of weeks, I am stuck at the work computer unable to comment much on your posts. That will change!

[pmo3ws]

Congratulations! Job well done!

[Ed Bruske]

Congratulations, Susan

[Peggy]

You go Garden Rant! This is so exciting.

[Debbie Notaro]

I am new to this garden coaching experience...anyone have any suggestions?

I am anxious to get started...how did you all get the word out that you were open for business/coaching?

[Debbie Notaro]

I am new to this garden coaching experience...anyone have any suggestions?

I am anxious to get started...how did you all get the word out that you were open for business/coaching?

[Debbie Notaro]

I am try my best to be interviewed by our local paper, and a local-regional garden magazine the Chicagoland Gardener to spread the Garden Coaching information to my St. Charles, IL area. Also talking to the local newspaper about writing articles for the Home and Garden Section. I'll keep plugging away!