Blog Books

December 17th, 2004

In an article titled, A New Forum (Blogging) Inspires the Old (Books), from the New York Times:

“Not everyone, though, is convinced that bloggers’ skills translate to longer-form books. “The style of blog writing is more oriented towards short form one page, set in the moment,” said Scott Rettberg, an assistant professor of new media studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona. “The sense of immediacy is quite important in blogs.”

“Even bloggers who have sold books agree that there is one topic they would not focus on in the longer-form novel: blogging. “I don’t know how interesting a book just about the blogosphere would be,” Ms. Cox said. “It’d just be people sitting in front of their computers.”

I had a conversation with a colleague a few days ago about translating blogs into book format. We both agreed that this was probably not a good idea for librarians. Librarians blog so that they don’t have to deal with editors and publishers and can just get their thoughts across to readers. They also like the immediacy of it all. That said, books about blogs can work, if done right. First, they need to be published within 6 months of final manuscript. Second, they can’t be about “How to Blog.” There needs to be some sort of niche that can be utilized by librarians in the long run.

So, if you’re contemplating a book about blogs, think about it in a relatively narrow domain. Not just a tutorial. Focus on something specific.

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