Interview With Duncan Birmingham

I recently did a Q&A with Duncan Birmingham, author of the awesomely funny blog Pets Who Want To Kill Themselves.  I thought everyone would like to hear what he had to say about blogging.  He's as funny over IM as he is in the blog, make sure to vote for his blog here for a South by Southwest Web Award:

me:  hi

i guess first of all, what gave you the idea for the blog?

 duncan:  lets play hardball

me:  ha ha exactly

 duncan:  the only holiday cards i keep on my fridge all year around are ones with pets on them. it got me looking for similar photos on the net. i came up with a funny title and just starting compiling them with captions. it seemed like the kind of thing that would go viral and luckily it did.

by pets, i mean dressed up pets in santa suits and reindeer antlers.

me: so you had a feeling it would go viral?

 duncan:  i did. i'm not a huge internet guy, but i have taken a few stabs at tossing something out there in hopes that it will go viral (see my Mr. Pickles sketch on my web page for example of not going viral). The title was really the key. It just sums up exactly what's funny about the phenom of dressed-up pets. Within 10 days the website was in New York magazine.

 me:  10 days?  wow, that's insane.

then the book deal came soon after?

duncan:  it did. i think because it's on tumblr where a lot of media-types are so it was very easy for them to spot it. you're familiar with tumblr?

 me:  ya somewhat.  i've used it a little bit.

 duncan:  yes, then i got calls about a book within a few weeks, founds a great agent and we did the deal pretty quickly.

the sad irony is that i worked on a serious novel for two years that i couldn't get published and then this silly thing fell in my lap

 me:  wow.  that's interesting.

did you track your site hits at all?

 duncan:  weirder still is that i don't have any pets (yet) and terrible with computers (as you can tell)

 duncan:  i use google analytics. i don't check often, but i probably get 20,000 on a great day when the site is in the press and on average 7000 viewers. i got 50,000 when the site was on the front page of the NYT in March

but 7,000 is the usual.

me:  wow.  that's a huge amount of traffic.  no wonder the book deal came through so quick

do you think being a writer helped at all?  i mean, the captions below are amazing and concise

 duncan:  i hope being a writer helped a little bit. i mean the captions usually make me laugh. it's not easy to look at your 50th photo of a dog wearing a backwards baseball cap and think of something funny to write. i like to think of it as a one-panel comic strip like The Far Side. but with more poop jokes.

i write screenplays in L.A. if i could think of a plotline, i'd love to do Pets Who Want To Kill Themselves the movie

 me:  if you could think of a plot, i think it could definitely be funny

has the blog helped your screenplay writing get noticed more?

 duncan:  i don't think so. i've been having a good year with screenwriting regardless. it is a fun icebreaker if a producer has seen the book at Borders and recognizes my name. then they think i "do it all"

duncan:  but it has been really fun. i've corresponded with people all over the world, made some dough and next month am going to southbysouthwest where PWWTK is nominated for best blog!

 me:  wow, that's awesome.  i bet you're fired up about that

the thing is hilarious.  i read it and crack up.  once i had my computer in class and was looking at it and just started dying

do you plan on trying to start other blogs with the blot-to-book idea in mind?

 duncan:  thanks buddy

 duncan:  i've tried to think of ways to do another novel but start it as a blog to gain a following first---but i just haven't come up with what i think is a great way to do that. i think it's hard to launch a fiction book from a blog. i have been thinking about doing a screenwriting blog that includes screenwriting tips with hollywood stories and so that's an idea that would have book potential. we'll see

 me:  that could definitely be cool.

i'd read something like that.

but i hear you about the novel thing.  you might as well try to figure something out though.

if nothing else, your website probably gets enough traffic that if you linked out, quite a few people would see it and maybe it'd get some buzz

 duncan:  i would hope so

 me:  that's pretty much all the questions i have

actually one more. what do you think are the main things that helped your blog take off?

you mentioned the title helped

 duncan: 1. the title that prompted people to want to at least click on the site.

 duncan:  2. the format.humorous photo/caption formst is a well-worn blog format that's easy to read and a fun escape from work

3. the fact that it has to do with pets which are second only to porn on the internet.

4. the fact that it took a fresh, twisted view on pets. instead of another "cute" blog

thats it, really