Last night I saw the movie Julie and Julia. Have you seen it?
Julie is Julie Powell, who prepared all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s classic French cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in one year.
And of course, Julia is the famous Julia Child herself, played convincingly by Meryl Streep.
Well, when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail, or some such thing.
And when you’re a blogger, you (and in this case, I) keep asking, how did Julie build such a readership over the course of a single year when it appears she put forth no publicity effort whatsoever?
The movie presents Julie as a very busy person, so busy and stressed that her project bordering on obsession, negatively affects her marriage.
She wakes up super early every morning to get to her New York City job, works all day taking emotionally draining calls dealing with the aftermath of 9/11, shops and prepares gourmet dinners every evening, works through the traumas of boiling live lobsters and deboning ducks, serves elegant dinners to friends complete with festive lights strung across her rooftop patio and maintains close friendships with her girlfriends. And occasional sex with hubby if she hasn’t fallen asleep on the couch.
Plus implied tasks of washing every pan she owns every night, along with stacks of dishes and various specialty cooking utensils.
To watch the movie, you’d believe that people started following her blog out of the blue, with numbers exploding geometrically.
When did she approve the flood of comments pouring in daily? How did she land a major feature with photo in the New York Times?
She appears to have no publicist or assistant (virtual or otherwise). She didn’t do any of the typical blog-publicizing routines, such as comments on other blogs, news releases, intentional in-person networking or social networking. (Twitter didn’t even exist back then.)
It’s like Cinderella waltzing with the prince when she has never taken dance lessons.
Or like how no one goes to the bathroom in movies. You assume all people poop, but you don’t see it. Doesn’t make for riveting cinema.
I’m plotzing to know. Any ideas?
Originally posted 9-27-09