O'Connor says he'd like to take the blog-book concept to the United States, but says penetrating the fortress around musical stars is next to impossible. "Artists in the U.S. are almost unassailable. There are so many more gatekeepers."

McClure's agent, Erin Hosier, of The Gernert Company, maintains that her client's blog was never the selling point. "We saw, in her, real talent," Hosier says. "And poundy.com was a good example in support of that. Also, she was a columnist for Bust and had decent writing credits. So basically, it was Wendy's fresh book proposal that moved us to take on the project, not the fact that she was a blogger." (Hosier, it's worth noting, is no fan of the blogger-to-bestseller gold rush: "Paying $500,000-plus for that Greek Tragedy blogger was pretty dumb," she says, referring to the deal ReganBooks struck with Stephanie Klein. "I can’t think of any of these upcoming blog books that seem like guaranteed hits. Almost all of them feel fleeting. The pleasure of the blog is the instant gratification the reader gets.")

Andrew Losowsky's blog-book Barcabook, on his experience of living in Barcelona, is in production with a professional publisher.