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From Blog to Bookshelf

by Annie Lowrey
Spring 2007

A Harvard blogger landing a book deal? First Jeremy Blachman turned his “Anonymous Lawyer” blog into a novel that debuted last July. Now “Sex and the Ivy,” a witty and X-rated blog written by Lena X. Chen, may secure a similar deal.

The blog, which receives upwards of 14,000 hits per week, earned Chen a nomination for an international sex-blogger award and a column for CollegeHumor.com. She is currently working on two book proposals, a how-to guide, and a fictionalization of her site. “It’s like my blog in print, but in a more narrative format,” Chen says — á la Chloe Does Yale or Belle du Jour.

“Had a weekend affair with Sam,” Chen’s sassy alter-ego Elle wrote in a recent post typical of the site’s content. “[I tried] to convince him to have sex in public after the alcohol took its toll, passing out with little recollection of my whereabouts.” Like Elle, Chen’s confident about her prospects. “If you put Harvard in anything, it’s a pretty easy sell,” she said. “And if you add sex to it, I could write like a third-grader and it would sell.”