murder.booklocker.com

I want to pick up where I left off in my first post on blooks. I mentioned a novel, Hackoff.com: an historic murder mystery set in the Internet Bubble and rubble. Author Tom Evslin notes several things of interest in a post about his blook.

Presentation

It seems he’s thought of everything.

• * “The salesy description of the story which would be on the inside front flap of a physical book” but this is a blook so he gives you a link to the blurb.
• * There’s a faux website for the company that the protagonist leads.
• * Evslin even taunts the reader to, “Check the FAQs if you want to know more about the company and Careers to see if you would have applied there.”

Logistics

A different article covers the logistics of having the novel, Hackoff, online as a blog. Blogs are generally in reverse chronological order which means that you would read the newest first. Evslin solved this (so you didn’t read the end first!) by employing Blookmarks.

Blookmarks

“After you read an episode, click Set Blookmark at the bottom of the episode just as you would put a physical bookmark wherever you left off reading in a traditional book. When you come back to the blook site, just click go to blookmark and you’ll be positioned right before the next episode.”

Feed readers also order posts from newest to oldest by default. But Evslin says, “Fortunately, many feed readers do allow you to reorder individual feeds so that the oldest is first - that’s the order you want for hackoff.com.”

In my first post on blooks (blogs-into-books) I cited an article which referred to the coming of Slurper. Evidently the company (blurb.com) changed their mind about the name of the software. The only surviving hints are in the current heading on their site, “Blog Slurper converts your blog into a book … automatically” and the first paragraph, “Slurp your blog into Blurb’s BookSmart™ software to create a bookstore-quality book, and end up with a permanent and portable archive to share with others.” You can download the software and slurp tonight for free — you only pay when you publish your book.

Yep, I can hear some of you thinking about slurping and producing your own book sans Blurb.

From another company called LAB Aprise! comes something called BlogCollector® with allows you to backup your blog. As an inducement they say, “Guess what, many people do not feel comfortable to read blogs! They prefer classic elegant books. To reach these audience, you can publish your blog into a book with BlogCollector.” Are we amused, bemused, musing? Like BookSmart™, BlogCollector® is free.

Although a lot of the blooks that are in print have been self-published, “There is even a British publisher called The Friday Project, which focuses specifically on turning internet sites, including blogs, into books.”

“Founded in 2005, The Friday Project focuses on developing brilliant books from the most exciting and innovative web sites, properties and content.” “Sales and distribution is handled by Pan Macmillan, giving [TFP] huge national and international reach. [They]’ve formed creative partnerships across the globe, building relationships with overseas publishers, TV, film and radio production companies and merchandising groups.”

I think it worth noting that TFP won the UK Young Publisher of the Year award in 2007 from the British Book Industry.

More on Publishing Blooks

From Media Life Online comes a list of blooks, complete with the names of the publishers and the URLs of the blogs. For instance, Belle de Jour’s book, “The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl,” (Source blog/site) and a blook which is described as “the cholesterol-busting quest of a man who aims to find a café serving the ultimate full English breakfast,” Egg Bacon Chips and Beans by Russell Davies.

Tag: Blook