Blooks - books based on blogs
May 14th, 2007Over the weekend I tied into the story of TwentyMajor’s two book deal with Hodder Headline. The multiple Blog Award winner, had this to say:
“What is the first book about? Well, plot details are vague at this moment in time but it will contain many words put together in sequence to form sentences and paragraphs which will combine to tell a story in chronological order (although I’m not ruling out flashbacks). The press release says:
His two-book deal will see a major expansion in the escapades of Twenty and his pals Jimmy the Bollix, Stinking Pete, Ron the Barman, Splodge, Lucky Luciano and Dirty Dave, as they wind their way around Dublin’s backstreets as they try to find out who killed their friend Jim of Vinyl Records. Music, films, television and books will all be parodied and nothing is sacred in this irreverent look at modern Dublin.”
This morning (May 14) winners of The 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize, the first literary prize for blooks were announced. Not bad prize money, folks — $10,000 First Prize, $15,000 Total Prize Fund, $2,500 Category Prizes.
- Overall Winner and Non-Fiction Winner
My War: Killing Time In Iraq by Colby Buzzell - Non-Fiction Runner-Up
My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren - Fiction Winner
The Doorbells of Florence by Andrew Losowsky - Fiction Runner-Up
Monster Island: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington - Comics Winner
Mom’s Cancer by Brian Fies
The Chicago Writers Association can lay claim to a blooker of their own: Dorien Grey. His “A World Ago” blog attracted the attention of Zumaya Publications and is scheduled for publication in September, 2008.
For more information on blooks, Lulu has a collection of links and comments.
Business Week also has an article, “Blooks” Are In Bloom (April 2006). They said, “Just about any blog writer — there are 36 million blogs out there, with 75,000 new online diaries added daily, according to search engine Technorati — is a candidate.” Just stop and think for a moment that 395 or so days have passed since the article! (How much is 395 * 75,000? and that’s if the rate of new blogs has stayed the same!)
BW also reported that “Blurb.com has raised $2 million so far and is expected to announce another round of venture funding shortly. It’s working on software it calls Slurper, designed to make converting blogs into books a snap. Due out this summer, Slurper will help writers strip blog entries of hyperlinks, comments, or pingbacks, saving hours in manual editing. Blurb.com will then invite bloggers to place their blooks into one of a half-dozen professionally designed templates, such as for a cookbook or a book of poetry. More than 500 people have already signed up for a test version of Slurper, says Gittins, a serial Web entrepreneur.” I think that’s worth an OMG.
One last thing there’s a blook online (sounds like an oxymoron) - it’s a murder mystery called Hackoff.com by Tom Evslin.
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Who knew? The simple blog can become a book. Maybe I should pay more attention to my simple blog. Maybe, someday, I too will have a bookl
Comment by Annie ? May 14, 2007 @ 7:51 pm