Depends on what you mean by 'rose to prominence', but Andy Weir's The Martian (being one of the most fun science-y novels I've read in recent years) started lif

Depends on what you mean by 'rose to prominence', but Andy Weir's The Martian (being one of the most fun science-y novels I've read in recent years) started life as a number of blog entries before being self-published (only to be picked up by a 'real' publisher once the buzz had started)