Our devoted Managing Editor Eric Garris is featured in a new book called Making it in the Political Blogosphere: The World’s Top Political Bloggers Share the Secrets to Success by Tanni Haas. It’s a brilliant insider’s look at the political blogosphere and the minds that lead it. Other top figures in the blogosphere featured in the book are Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post fame, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Nick Gillespie of Reason.com, Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution, Ben Smith of Politico, Lew Rockwell of lewrockwell.com, Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, Juan Cole, among many others.
Eric has a chapter devoted to him and it features a lengthy interview. Here is an excerpt:
You’ve contributors of various political persuasions.Has that been a challenge?
No, it’s not really been a challenge. It’s given us the ability to be different.We’re not left-wing or right-wing; we’re anti-war. There’s an anti-war tradition that goes back on the left and on the right. Our goal is to bring those traditions together, as well as every other part of society that’s against war, or at least against particular ones. Th e only way we’re going to be able to stop wars is by uniting, regardless of our positions on other issues.
…Why do you think Antiwar.com has been so successful?
I think it’s the focus on a very important issue that’s probably not going to go away for a long time. And there are a certain number of people out there who realize how important an issue it is to them, and they’re the core of the people that have kept us alive both in terms of readership and support…
…Do you have any other, more specific advice for aspiring political bloggers?
There are successful sites that are all over the spectrum, in every way. It’s just a question of saying. “This is what I want. This is why I want to do it.” If you want to do a site just because it’s cool, you’re probably not going to succeed, because you don’t have a vision. You have to have a vision. That’s the most important thing. After that you have to make a good product.
For a more in-depth look at this interview and other similar insight from many other top bloggers, order this must-read book. Here’s Nick Gillespie’s recent blog post on the book.
And as for “the core of the people that have kept us alive both in terms of readership and support,” please consider making a generous, tax-deductible donation to Antiwar.com.