Back in mid-February, I linked to a great new blog called “Stuff White People Like.” It wasn’t an especially ground-breaking discovery on my part, because apparently everyone linked to the site around that same time and the blog got huge, really quick. From a few hundred hits a day in late January to hundreds of thousands by March.

Word on the street has it that the guy behind it, Christian Lander, just signed a reported $300,000 book deal with Random House for Stuff White People Like, the book.

Wow. Also: Wow.

I always say it’s hard to make much money writing books. But stories like this one — young copywriter, on a whim, decides to create a goofy satirical blog, then hits the publishing payday two months later — make me look stupid. That was the fastest and easiest rags-to-riches story I’ve heard. The guy is a talented writer for sure — and he deserves the publicity and the deal — but a six-figure advance is stunning.

Maybe I need to make this blog more anonymous, more jokey, and a bit more demographically focused…

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