More thoughts on “Blog to Book”
August 14, 2007
Turning a blog into a book is a complex question, and as such, several Wiley editors are helping me out by weighing in on the concept. The next to post his thoughts is Chris Webb, and he makes some good points. He’s quite thoughtful on the whole “should a blog even be a book issue.” This is something to carefully consider, especially when you think about whether you can get word about your blog/book outside of your blog’s “echochamber.” I hope to get a couple of other Wiley editors blogging about this topic in the near future. Thanks Chris!
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ConfessionsOfAnITGirl.com 
I know, I know. I am late, late late in doing this. I’m having a hard time making my thoughts about this seem something other than random…but I am getting there.
Did i mention you by name? Did I out you? No. I know you’re busy! This isn’t a homework assignment that should bring up fear and dread.
I deserve to be outed 🙂 It’s a hard topic to tackle…
I just read Chris Webb’ls post, and as I commented at his blog (implied, actually), I don’t see a blog readership as a built-in market for a book. Aside from the fact that not every blog reader is a book buyer, I know that some blog readers will look at the idea and say, “Do I really need to buy this book? How do I know that it’s not made up of what I’m already getting here, for free?”
Huge numbers can’t be ignored, of course. It’s likely that a whole bunch of people buying Mark Frauenfelder’s new book are BoingBoing readers. Ditto people who bought Naked Conversations.
Another thought: How did the novelty factor affect the initial sales momentum for Naked Conversations and The Long Tail? Or, to put it another way, when “everyone” is writing a book via a blog, will people still flock to buy it because they watched it grow and/or were a part of it?
–Mike (not a Wiley editor, but definitely a wily Scrabble player)