Biting Into Apple’s Steve Jobs

The blog had a following among the Silicon Valley set and in tech circles. Are you concerned that it's too insiderish or niche to work as a book?
I was. And then the [New York Times] did this review over the weekend and seemed to like it. Then this woman at the [Boston] Globe liked it. So maybe people will get it. It's kind of more about celebrity or pop culture. So I'm starting to think maybe it has some appeal beyond techies.

Maybe it's because I'm not a Forbes guy, but it's interesting to me that you say the options scandal gave it some urgency. Is that the sexiest thing to build a narrative around?
[Laughs.] Is that your way of saying "That's not a very sexy topic?" So you think the idea sucks.

[Laughs] The book is hilarious. But maybe I don't really understand how options work.
Well, a blog can kind of drift, day to day. I originally thought I could do a book that was a collection of blog items. Make it a calendar. But I remember when the options thing happened I thought, "This is going to get big. The options thing is going to hit the Valley. Jobs is a very high-profile guy and they're going to want his scalp." I still think they do. I meant urgency in the sense that's more like journalism. You have to put your character at risk at the beginning of the story and then show how they get out of trouble. At least the options scandal gave it something of an arc.

And the Valley gave you something to laugh at?
The Valley is just so twisted. You go to a dinner party at someone's house and they just talk about tech all day long and what Google's gonna do. It's so weird to me and so ripe for parody. I want to do another book after this that goes after some other stuff out there.

Your Web traffic peaked around the time of your outing. You're still blogging. Have you seen a dip in traffic?
I did see a dip in September, but I'm not sure it was because of the outing. June and July were really big. I suddenly had 1.3 million page views both those months. August, because of the outing, I did 1.8. September it was down to 1 million. I don't know if that's because people are saying, "Well, now we know who it is." But there are lots of people who had never heard of it before that just started reading.

Have you heard from the real Steve Jobs yet?
No. I don't think I ever will.