One side effect of the media democratization SMITH celebrates is the blurring of lines between professional and amateur storytellers. Are bloggers journalists? Are Flickr members photographers? Are self-published memoirists book authors? Julia Fox Garrison would offer an unequivocal yes to the last question. Her new book, DON’T LEAVE ME THIS WAY: Or When I Get Back on My Feet You’ll Be Sorry, is just out from HarperCollins (read an excerpt here). Her book was originally P.S. Julia, a self-published memoir that hit the Boston Globe bestseller list and caught the eye of major publishers. Now she’s told her story in People Magazine and on Good Morning America. It doesn’t get much more mainstream than that…

For more fun with self-publishing, check out POD-DY MOUTH. It’s a very clever anonymous blog that has taken on the unenviable task of slogging through available “Publishing on Demand” titles to find diamonds in the rough, needles in the haystack, the wheat from the chaff, and all the rest of it. For a much better explanation, start here.

-Rachel