Blog networkshave been around for awhile and represent a new form of online publishing - functioning as online magazines or newspapers.  In earlier posts, I have talked in general terms about how blog networks might serve as the foundation for a more open model of book publishing.  Now it’s time to talk specifics.

First, the rationale.  Publishing is risky business.  The biggest risk, and the progenitor of most other risks in publishing, is title selection.  Publishers have experiemented with different modelsin an effort to address this risk.  In the past, publishers have relied on the judgment and experience of editors or agents to act as gatekeepers to the publishing kingdom.  Sometimes celebrity status or previous publishing success serve as good rpoxies for judgment and experience.  And sometimes the title acquisition process is more subjective and opaque.  More often that not the results are less than satisfactory.

Another approach is to substitute voting for gate keeping.  How would this work?  Enter the blook network.  It starts with the premise that anyone might be a successful author; we just don’t know which ones.  So provide anyone who has a story, an idea or a manuscript the opportunity to try and find an audience big enough to be book-worthy.  The tool for this is a blog.  The publisher rents the writer space in a blog network with a style guide for blogging in a manner that makes it relatively easy to go from blog to book.  The rental also includes an appropriate set of metrics to track how the writer’s audience building efforts are doing.

Blogs on related topics are linked.  In this way, stronger established blogs help direct traffic to newer blogs.  Blog statistics are tracked by the publisher to determine which blooks are developing an audience.  When pre-established audience targets are met, the publisher is alerted and may decide to publish the writer’s work.  The publisher correlates audience statistics with sales data for books in the category (e.g. from Book Scan) to make the final publishing determination.  In this way, analytics guide the decision to make the publishing investment.  Since the blog has been structured to be easily converted to a book, time to market is faster.  Editors use metrics to identify the best content in the final manuscript, thus helping to ensure a more marketable product.

The blook network helps the publisher find authors who can build an audience sufficient to warrant publication.  And the discovery engine pays for itself (or even earns a profit).  Even writers who are not successful in terms of getting published will have useful information (in the form of metrics, reader comments, etc.) that they can use to refine or retarget their efforts.

The process can be summarized as:

• Replace manuscripts with blogs
• Replace the slush pile with a publisher’s blog network
• Structure network blogs so their content can be readily converted into books
• Combine blog metrics and book sales data to determine when and who to publish
• Reinforce traffic to new writer blogs with links from high traffic network blogs

The benefits to publishers of using this approach are that it:

• Creates added capacity for publishers to take on new writers without expense
• Generates service revenue while the writer is developing an audience
• Provides detailed knowledge of the market before the book is published
• Provides a speedier path to market

The blook network is a potentially powerful tool for helping publishers better manage the risk of title acquisition and provide a firmer rationalization of their investments in editing, production and marketing.

Related Posts

• Non-Fiction Blook Mechanics Part 2: Organizing Posts into Manuscripts
• Non-fiction Blook Mechanics Part 1: Blook by Design
• Emerging Blook Motifs
• Finding Book Gold in Blog Post Archives
• Blog Network ScorecardsBookmark this Post

In an earlier post (”Non-fiction Blook Mechanics Part 1: Blook by Design“), we discussed several ways to structure a blog to resemble the structure of a book.  For example, using category labels that could double as a table of contents.  Taking content from blog posts and turning it into a readable manuscript can be a challenging task.  Especially when you have a large inventory of blog posts from which to draw.  In this post, I want to propose two tools - the post outline and post sequencing - that can help you organize your posts into a manuscript in a logical manner, without massive rewriting.

Post Outline

First, use your manuscript outline as a tool for cataloging your posts.  An outline is good writing practice.  But it can also help you organize your blog posts.  Here’s one approach.  Use a numbering scheme for each levvel of your outline.  (Most word processor or other outlining software does this for you automatically.  The top most level correspond to chapters.  Lower levels correspond to sections of chapters and content within sections.  The outline forms the basis for a numbering schema to identify the part of the outline to which your posts will be associated. 

Let’s say you are writing a bog about raising dogs.  Part of your outline might look like:

1.  Dog breeds
1.1  Hounds
1.2  Terriers
1.3  Herding dogs
etc.

2.  Dog grooming
2.1  Coat
2.2  Teeth
2.3  Musculoskeletal
etc.

3.  Dog nutrition
3.1  Diets for puppies
3.2  Diets for adult dogs
3.3  Diets for older dogs
3.4  Organic dogfood
etc.

Post Sequencing

Next, use tags to indicate the specific intended location of a post within the manuscript outline.  One approach to doing this is to use the sequence numbers from the outline.  For example, using the outline above, if you had a post about talking about the different types of organic dogfood, it would appear in the category “Dog Nutrition” and might be tagged as “organic-dogfood-3-3-4.”  Sequence numbers would be as long as the number of levels in the outline.  Blogging platforms accomplish tagging differently, but it is a fairly universal feature.  Such sequence tagging allows you to later use the post search tools of your blog to find and organize posts corresponding to each part of your outline. 

Of course, outlines are subject to change.  Chapters can be added, inserted or deleted and this can cause problems with post sequencing based on outline numbering.  An alternative approach might be to code tags with names that correspond to the outline labels.  Then, if the outline changes, the tags are still valid.  Again, using our dog manuscript oultine above, let’s say your organic dogfood post was about feeding your hound chicken flavored tofu .  Using this scheme, you might code the post as ”nutrition, organic, tofu chicken” where the tags are arranged in the descending order of the outline.  If you had multiple tags about chicken flavored tofu for your dog, you could assign a sequence number as the final tag, or find a label that distinguishes them further. 

The advantage of this approach to tagging is that should you decide to move dog nutrition to some other part of the outline, your post sequences remain valid.  If you make dog nutrition part of a chapter on dog health, you can simply add a tag “dog health” to the head of all your tag lists for dog nutrition. 

Creating an outline and using one of the post sequencing techniques above can greatly simplify the task of organizing your blog content into a manuscript.  Good organization is only the first step.  There are other editorial processes that must be applied to get a manuscript that doesn’t feel chopped up, but we shall save those for later posts. 

• Non-fiction Blook Mechanics Part 1: Blook by Design
• Why Every Author Should Blog
• Emerging Blook Motifs
• When is a Blog a Book?

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First consider the size and structure of the blogosphere.  The popularity of blogs has soared in the last few years.  There are now over 100 million blogs tracked by Technorati, which doesn’t even include the more than 70 million Chinese blogs.  According to recent demographic surveys by the Pew Internet Study and the New York Times / CBS News, blogs have become mainstream and represent virtually every audience and topic area. 

Blogs focused on a given topic tend to link to similar blogs.  What this means is you can use blogs to:

• Develop an audience for your work while you write
• Promote your book effectively and at low cost once it is written

A blog bears many resemblances to a book. Both have a title and subtitle that reflect the content of a book. Blog posts can be organized into categories which serve as a kind of table of contents to classify and group related material. Blog posts, typically 300-500 words in length, represent the raw content of a book. Links within posts or on the blog roll serve as a bibliography, showing references to source material.

How do you attract people to your blog? Initially, through searches individuals make on popular search engine sites like Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN. By using popular keywords in your blog title, subtitle, categories and posts, your blog will begin to turn up in these searches. You can discover these keywords using keyword discovery tools or simply checking out popular blogs in your topic area. The more you blog, the more others discover and link to your blog content, the higher will be the ranking of your blog site in search results, and the greater the traffic you will receive.

Blog software usually provides a basic set of statistics that allow you to track important information such as number of visitors, page views, referring sites and average time spent by each visitor. Page views and comments left by visitors for specific blog posts provide an indicator of popular content. This makes blogs an excellent way for you to field test and select material to be included in your book.

Once you have cultivated an audience, you can transform your blog into a great marketing platform. For example, you can:

• Feature your book on a special blog page, with your bio, a book description, excerpts, press releases and testimonials; thus your blog can double as a book website.
• Promote your book to a wider audience by arranging a blog tour.  A blog tour is a series of scheduled guest appearances on related blogs, where you have the opportunity to talk about your book. This is a low cost, high impact method to discover new readers for your work. 

The blogosphere is not the only place to market your work, but it can one of the best. 

Whether you are publishing independently or trying to sign on with a traditional publisher, blogging can be key to your success. More publishers are now starting to view the blogosphere as a fertile ground to find promising writers. Why? As an author who blogs, you can quantify your audience and this is attractive to risk averse publishers.  This is, in essence, the new author book pitch.

Blogging is a low risk, low cost way to build your audience while you are developing your work, and then promote your finished book to that same audience. Give it a try!

Related Posts

• Blog Touring 101: Around the Blogosphere in 80 Days
• Virtual Book Tours: An Interview with Steve Weber
• Emerging Blook Motifs
• Vive le Permalink! - the Humble Source of Readership 
• Finding a Few of Your Favorite Keywords
• The New Author Book Pitch

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Blog to book stories are becoming more commonplace.  We have chronicled a number of such examples, and you can find a virtual library of blog to book stories on Blooking Central.  Some of these were serendipitous, but more and more writers, especially new authors, are being more intentional about converting their blogs into a printed title.   There is more than one way to execute a blog to book strategy.  Here is my attempt at a blook typology:

• indie blook - This is the type of blook where an author independently publishes and markets a title based on their blog.  Low cost self publishing and inexpensive Internet marketing techniques are making this an attractive option for new authors who are not shy about self promotion.
• traditional blook - This is the form of blook that you read about in the newspapers.  A publisher discovers a high traffic blog and offers the blog owner a book deal.  Tjhe rationale is that the blog has an established audience and a topic in line with the publisher’s market focus.
• podiobook - This is more of an audio blook.  Here the author serialize his or her book into podcasts and uses a blog for audience feedback and book marketing.  It is especially effective for fiction writers.  Two of the best know podiobook authors are Scott Sigler and JC Hutchins. 
• crowdsourced blook - This is a rare blook, but every author’s dream come true.  Here, the blog is so popular that a community emerges and contributes content which eventually winds up being part of the publishing or marketing strategy for a title.  In other words - build a community that helps you generates content and then publish it.  The best known example is Frank Warren’s Post Secret.
• reverse blook - In this scenario, an author blogs the content from an existing book to build an audience for the current or a new edition.  This may be a good way to revitalize a book whose sales are fading.

We believe that these - and other - blog to book strategies will replace the traditional (and mostly ineffective) approach to getting a book published which involves submitting a manuscript to agents or publishers in hopes of getting it read and eventually published.  Publishing is a risky business.  Of the many risks, the first and biggest is signing an unkown author who may or may not be able to attract an audience for their title.  An author who has a blog with an established audience is an attractive proposition.  Publishers can assess the quality and appeal of the writing.  The popularity of blog posts can be measured and ranked.  We can see how the audience reacts to the content long before it is edited into book form.   In the case of a popular blog, the audience can be larger than the circulation of many magazines or newspapers 

Blooks are not just a publishing sideshow - interesting examples of pluck and luck.  They represent the future of publishing in a world of consumer generated media.

Related Posts

• Belle de Jour - Sex, Lies and Book Deals
• Public Secrets and Publishing Magic 
• An Interview with Podcast Novel Superstar Scott Sigler
• The Case for the Inverted Blook
• The New Author Book Pitch
• Finding Book Gold in Blog Post Archives
• The Joy of Blogging - An Interview with Gluten Free Girl’s Shauna James-Ahern

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Social networks are the fastest growing social media sites according to recent figures from eMarketer.  As a recent article in Publishers’ Weeklypointed out, many authors and publishers are beginning to experiment with these sites as a way to add to their book sales.  Below are some simple tips for creating an effective book marketing presence on a social network.  (For a good introduction on how to get started with a social network, check out Karen Post’s article The Social Networking Guide for Newbieson FastCompany.com.) 

• Write a compelling profile
• Point to your blog, book website or book video
• Join and be active in networks that are in the topic space of your book
• Establish yourself and your book as a resource
• Solicit Amazon reviews from your “friends”

In addition to the large social network sites like MySpace and Facebook, don’t overlook LibraryThing and Shelfari.  While these two sites have smaller user populations, they are geared toward bibliophiles. 

Authors have attempted to devise many different kinds of networking techniques to get more exposure for their books.  For example, one writer describes using a “fake” event to promote his workon Facebook.   However, overt attempts at marketing can backfire - e.g. consider Sam Jordison’s account of his experience on Facebook in the Guardian.)  Key things to be aware of:

• Make sure you can accurately target your audience on these sites
• Don’t underestimate the time commitment
• Be careful about violating the terms of service for these sites
• It may be difficult to track your sales results back to specific social networking activities, unless someone (a friend)orders directly from your book website
• Don’t expect big results - social networking should be just one component of your overall Internet marketing strategy

Probably the most important thing to remember is that this is a new online space, whose rules and etiquette are still being worked out.  It’s easy to make mistakes.  So take your time, build your network and let your book sales develop at word of mouth speeds.

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• The Categorical Imperative
• Tips for Marketing your Title on Social Networking Sites

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Blook Looks

by Cheryl Hagedorn

Cheryl Hagedorn authors Blooking Central, which examines
published books to discover what makes for a blookable blog.

I’m working with a friend of mine, Dave Wildman, on a project that brings blogging, and videoblogging together with his forthcoming novel, The Book of Enemy.

We’re looking for volunteers to participate in a social media art experiment. The Book of Enemy is a groundbreaking blog-novel that is happening in real time throughout the month of September. The project will culminate in a reading/performance piece at Axiom Galleryin Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA on September 28. A number of Boston artists, photographers and filmmakers are providing illustrations for the show, and we’d like to open the project up to the vlogosphere.

The concept is similar to that of The Germaine Truth in that multiple individuals could simultaneously collaborate on a story.  The difference was that The Book of Enemy imposed a time limit of only 30 days.  Judging by the three blogs referenced at The Book of Enemy website, participation was light.  One of the blogs has only a single post!  On another, I struggled to see any connection to the story at all.  This leaves one blog that appears to have been written by a character in the novel, but it’s hard to tell.

The inclusion of video was supposed to differentiate The Book of the Enemyfrom most other online works of fiction.  However, there is only one video clip.  The Book of the Enemywas supposed to include photographs but none are posted; yet the announcement says “A number of Boston artists, photographers and filmmakers are providing illustrations for the show.”  What’s up?  The scarcity of blogs and posts, as well as the dearth of visuals raises two questions.  First, was there an adequate audience from which to recruit participants?  And second, how was the marketing of the project handled?

I assume that Wildman’s novel must have been written and distributed to at least a handful of friends before being posted on the internet.  Attracting participants to a collaborative online novel is too difficult otherwise (unless you already have access to a large and motivated readership to begin with!)  It turns out that Mr. Wildman is the Arts Editor and chief film critic for Boston’s Weekly Dig. He had this to say about his reason for posting his novel on the web:

It’s tough getting attention for literary works. I actually got a rave review from Chuck Palahniuk, but I’ve had trouble getting agents to bite. So I’m making a spectacle out of it.

As a “social media art experiment” I’m not sure that it succeeded.  As an indicator of what the future might hold, I think it’s right on the money.

Another multimedia novel which made a splash — assisted by some healthy advertising – was Edge of Paradise by Roc Hatfield.  It includes a soundtrack as well as photographs and a slide show. I don’t know if the color photographs made it into print. I’m sure the music didn’t!  On the other hand, the music CD is available.

On the non-fiction side of things Carbondale After Blog by David More was based on the Carbondaley Dispatch blog.  More describes his blook this way:

Only the first two pages of each chapter will be printed in the paper edition, including one photograph. Also included inside the paperbound cover, a compact disc containing the complete text of every chapter, plus hundreds of color images, audio and video files and web-based content. Software needed to read Carbondale After Blog (TK3 Reader) will be included on the CD.

Both Carbondale After Blog and Edge of Paradise were solo efforts (as far as I know).  The Book of Enemy and Carbondale After Blog both include video. But it is the social, collaborative aspect of The Book of Enemy that could have made the project outstanding.

Related Posts

• The State of the Blook - An Interview with Blooking Central’s Cheryl Hagedorn
• Blooks - Between Angst and Opportunity
• Collaborative Fiction - Still in the Laboratory
• Podiobook Communities
• The Great American Blog Novel

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Years ago, I remember reading a delightful book by Henry Petroski entitled The Evolution of Useful Things.  The book considered the labored genesis of inventions like the paper clip, zipper and fork - items so commonplace that today we take them for granted.  They become almost invisible to us.

One such Internet innovation is the permalink, a tool that is at the heart of a blog’s ability to build traffic .  The permalink, is a unique identifier (typically human readable) that ensures Internet users will always be able to link to your posts, even those in the archives.  When  someone links to one of your archived posts, they use a permalink.  This humble innovation means that the content you generate in your posts is forever available (unless you choose to delete it).  The thing that makes permalinks so useful is that linkages made with them become small traffic feeders to your blog.  In this sense, every post is a magnet with the potential to attract a steady stream of visitors over time.  As content accumulates, your traffic naturally increases in tandem.

You can amplify this potential by adding a “related posts” section to the end of each post.  The related posts are simply links to other content that is relevant to your current post.  Why do this?  This exposes more of content to readers.  Every time you publish a new post, it pushes older posts further down the list.  At some point, readers will have to page back to older posts and it is unlikely they will.  The related posts area keeps older, relevant content within easy reach.  It also makes it more likely that someone will create a link to one of those older posts.

Another tool to expose archived content is a “Featured Posts” area on your sidebar.  This is just a set of permalinks to posts you think might be of interest.  You can use other variants such as “Popular Posts.”  The idea is to use these links to get visitors, especially new visitors, to explore your content. 

Social bookmarking sites have become very popular in the last couple of years.  Millions of individuals use sites like del.icio.us, StumpleUpon, Digg and others every day to share URLs to content they like.  Adding a bookmarking widget to the end of each post makes it easy for them to do this and potentially drive more traffic to your site.  I would recommend a single widget that contains access to many bookmarking sites rather than cluttering yours posts with multiple widgets.  For example, I use AddThis, which lets you choose a bookmark from a list of 36 sites.

Perhaps some day, Petroski might decide to compose a history of useful Internet technology.  Surely the venerable permalink would be near the top of his list to write about.  It is so simple, useful and ubiquitous that it has become invisible.  Today, Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving, a time when we consider our blessings after enjoying an impossibly large meal.  Writers contemplating the power of the blog to create a readership for their work, should give thanks for the humble permalink.

Related Posts

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• Blog Science 101
• The Importance of Being Authoritative

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We have often speculated that blog networks will play a key role in the future of publishing.  We decided to get an expert’s opinion and talk with Jeremy Wright, the CEO of b5 media.  ZDNet defines a blog network as “An organization that hires people to write blogs. It sells advertising and owns the blogs.”  With more than 290 blogs, 15 vertical channels and over 10 million unique visitors a month, b5mediais clearly one of the largest blog networks in operation today. 

Jeremy Wright is a serial entrepreneur, some have even said a “blogpreneur” for his focus on communications-oriented ventures.  He is also the author of Blog Marketing, designed to help businesses figure out blogs, and use them to get into the conversation with their customers.  In addition to running b5media, he also writes the blog Ensight, a popular business and technology blog, and consults on blogging, communication, IT and time management.   

In our interview, Jeremy provided insights about the inner workings of blog networks and what he sees for the future of this nascent publishing medium.

FPP:  Technorati has indexed over 100 million blogs. Why do you think blogs have become such a powerful publishing medium?

Jeremy:  There are really 2 kinds of blogs (as far as I’m concerned): personal/family blogs and “professional” blogs. Personal blogs are really all about you telling your family how you’re doing, what you’re up to, etc.  In some ways, social networks like Facebook are starting to take the place of this kind of blog. But personal blogs are about expression, connecting with people you know and love, etc. For these kinds of blogs, this is the first time in history that we’ve been able to basically pen pal with everyone we care about, which is incredibly powerful. The second kind is “professional” blogs, which is really 2 camps: those who are blogging what they love and are good at (at least in part) so they can improve their career, establish new connections, network, establish themselves as thought leaders, etc. And the second kind are commercial properties which range from one guy writing about something to make money all the way to true blog-based content companies like b5media, Gawker Media and Know More Media.

FPP:  What is a blog network? Are blog networks like online newspapers or magazines, or do they represent a new type of media?

Jeremy:  In a lot of ways a blog network is like a magazine, just without the paper. Some networks, like Gawker Media, treat each blog as their own magazine (complete with editors, researchers, correspondents, etc). Others group blogs together and treat the whole as a magazine (this is how my company, b5media, does it). At the same time, they definitely represent a new form of media, as they really bridge the gap between mainstream media’s “we talk, you listen” metaphor and blogging’s “we talk, we listen” metaphor. It’s still commercial, but the best of these blogs (or magazines) are the ones that serve both metaphors: quality content, interactive conversation, by/for/with passionate people.

FPP:  Do blogs in a network intentionally reinforce each other with shared readership? Or do they operate as standalone media properties?

Jeremy:  The ability for a network to grow and establish a community of bloggers who are all passionate about similar topics (be it technology, business, entertainment or fashion) is really where the magic happens. Sharing strategies, linking to relevant stories across multiple blogs, drawing energy from the community… These are what make blogging at a healthy network so much more enjoyable than blogging on your own (which can often feel quite lonely). At the same time, the individual blog still has its audience to serve. So bloggers in a network are able to write for their audience, while drawing strength, inspiration and energy from the community.

FPP:  What do you believe are the key success factors for a blog network? Are there particular metrics you use to measure the effective of blog networks?

Jeremy:  The best metrics for any online company are the hard and fast ones: traffic, revenue and growth. But those don’t really speak to what it takes to achieve those key metrics. Each network motivates writers, chooses content areas and builds out the network differently. For us, we’ve always believed that if we keep writers happy, they’ll produce great content. And great content will mean more traffic. And with enough traffic it’s hard notto make money. So we focus a lot of energy on community and blogger happiness. We also regularly conduct surveys of our bloggers, our readers and our partners to see how we’re doing on the “soft” elements of success.

End of the day, a strong network has a strong editorial side with committed and energized writers, a solid business behind it, and talented folk to run technology, ad sales, marketing and admin areas.

FPP:  Many authors have successfully gone from blog to book. Do you think it is feasible for book publishers to set up blog networks to enhance and scale this process?

Jeremy:  That’s an interesting question. It’s not something I’ve seen yet, primarily because book publishers tend to exist to promote a book at launch, and then sit back and wait. The exception to this rule would probably be O’Reilly, which publishes a lot of information online, and encourages its authors to publish a lot of information online both pre and post-publication of the book. The idea of publishers getting into daily publishing is interesting, but it’s probably outside the DNA of all but the most technically-oriented publishers (where daily content is the norm). After all, if a publisher can’t do a weekly newsletter, can they really run 10-20 blogs, all with daily content?

FPP:  What services do blog networks typically provide the writers who work for them? What type of compensation models are currently used by blog networks?

Jeremy:  In terms of compensation, there are typically 3 types: revenue share (where the writer gets a percentage of the revenue the network earns), payment per post (often with a traffic bonus) and flat-fee (ie: like a contract writer would make). All 3 models work, though revenue share tends to put all the risk on the writer so is often used by networks when they’re starting out (to keep costs down). But, all 3 models can work. At b5media, we use a combination of flat-fee for meeting the writing requirements (which is kind of payment per post) along with a traffic bonus, though we’re currently evaluating new pay models. In terms of services, most networks really just ask writers to write and try and get them and their blogs exposure. I know at b5 we try and do as much as we can for our writers, ranging from free hosting for their personal blogs to training and from attempting to arrange press access for events to promoting the individual blogger in every way we can. It’s certainly one of the things writers should ask about before joining a network.

FPP:   What traits does a writer need to have to be effective in a blog network?

Jeremy:  I’ll defer to some of our most prolific writers on this, but in a recent training session, Leora Zellman and Mary Jo Manzanares said the most important things to have or develop were fantastic time management, to find your source of motivation daily and to both have your own quiet space and to reach out to other network writers so that you aren’t alone.

FPP:   Blog valuations and acquisitions have become hot topics recently. What factors does b5media take into consideration when evaluating a blog purchase?

Jeremy:  At b5media we have an internal engine we use to value a blog’s worth. We typically stay within range of that valuation when we acquire blogs, but sometimes there’s something that’s intrinsically more valuable than our model takes into account, so we don’t mind deviating. For us, traffic, revenue, unique visitors and subscribers are the key metrics. We’re able to gauge pretty successfully how well a blog will do over the long term with these metrics, so tend to stay pretty close to them. If it’s more of a strategic buy (we recently purchased a video platform company, for example, and are currently negotiating for a podcast network), then other factors may come into play that can bring the valuation up or down. As with any acquisition, you set your initial boundaries and then either go up or down based on strategic or external factors (such as a trend towards or away from text links, in the case of our most recent acquisition).

FPP:   Where would you like to see b5media in the next 3 years? Do you think book publishing is part of its future?

Jeremy:  While we might do a few e-books or encourage our authors to do books, I don’t think we’ll get into the book industry in a big way. I do see e-books as being a potential growth area, though. Beyond that, I’d like to see b5media move beyond the “blog network” box. We’ve started to do that a bit already by licensing our platform to Know More Media, doing ad repping, syndicating our content, etc. But we need to do more. I don’t want to get into specifics, largely because I believe talking before you have something to show is bad luck ;-).

FPP:  How do you see blog networks evolving in the future?

Jeremy:  Well you’ll definitely see more consolidation and more partnerships. The last year has already seen a dozen or so of these (we’ve led 3-4 of them), but the pace will continue to quicken as the larger networks are able to grow traffic and revenue more quickly than the smaller ones, the larger ones will simply pick up small to medium sized networks because it’s cheaper than building blogs themselves. Beyond that, you’ll continue to see a meshing of blog networks with social networks (9rules and Instablogs have started to do this, and our gateway release at www.spekked.com will continue this trend over the next few months), and you’ll see more partnerships between blog networks and mainstream media networks (online and off).

Related Posts

• The Huffington Post - Seeds of a New Journalism?
• Newspapers’ Perilous Crossing to the Online World
• New Rules!
• Blog Network Scorecards
• The Value of Your Blog
• Using Blog Networks to Net Book Profits
• Blog to Book Networks: The New Book Publishers?

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Blook Looks

by Cheryl Hagedorn

Cheryl Hagedorn authors Blooking Central, which examines
published books to discover what makes for a blookable blog.

• Seth Godin’s Small Is The New Big
• Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
• Eric Sink’s On the Business of Software
• Robert Scoble and Shel Isreal’s Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

Now, others are catching the vision.  Authors such as Avinash Kaushik (Web Analytics: An Hour a Day) and Michael Lopp (Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering) compiled their selected essays and posts into book form.  Even Harold Feld of The Sausage Factory is considering capturing his blog’s content in dead tree form.

On the other hand, Tammy Lenski’s approach (Making Mediation Your Day Job) was deliberate from the outset - she intended a book - and invited comments, criticisms, and suggestions as she posted. This seems to be becoming the norm. A case in point is a blook called We Have Always Done It That Way: 101 Things About Associations We Must Change by Five Independent Thinkers.

A quote from a post called Beta Publishing really lays out the argument for blooks:

The software industry has been able to grow and be more effective by actually releasing “beta” versions of programs. Users recognize that these products are not finished (thus not perfect), but in exchange for the ough edges, they get to provide feedback to the designers and actually have an impact on the final product. This concept has now been extended to the book publishing field as well, particularly by Pragmatic Programmers Press.

Blogging your strategies, concepts and wisdom - as a “beta” form of pubishing - seems to capture the idea, doesn’t it?

Related Posts

• The Blook Journey - Interview with Lori Smith
• Deconstructing Lawrence Velvel’s Blook
• The State of the Blook - An Interview with Blooking Central’s Cheryl Hagedorn

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Lori Smith has explored her passion for the life and work of Jane Austen, both literally and figuratively.  In July of 2005, she set off on a month long trip to England to follow the life of Jane Austen.  She describes the experience as “searching for a connection with the writer whose books (and the movies based on them) had become like literary comfort food to me.”  Lori is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly , Washingtonian and Today’s Christian Woman.  She is also author of The Single Truth and creator of the popular literary blogs Following Austen and Jane Austen Quote of the Day.  She has now turned her blog musings have now turned into a book,  A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love and Faith.   She recently shared another journey she has taken - this one from blog to book.

FPP - What interested you most about Jane Austen?

Lori - I had been reading her books since college, and felt very close to her (which many of her readers do, I’ve found, and which I can’t entirely explain). I had read the books over and over — they’re like literary comfort food to me — and when I felt like I had nowhere left to go, started reading biographies and her letters. I wanted to see the places she lived, the countryside she loved. The book grew out of a month-long journey following her life.

FPP - What do you think attracts modern readers to Jane Austen’s life and work?

Lori - She wrote very intelligent romances. The falling-in-love journey is an awful lot of fun on its own, but there’s so much more to Austen than that. We still recognize her characters today; the dialog is pitch-perfect. She had a wonderful wit and energy for life which comes through in the stories. But I also think the solid foundation of her stories is that character was so important to her — moral character. I think the real triumph for Austen — possibly more important than the romantic conclusions of her novels — is when her heroes and heroines are willing to recognize their faults and change. I think we’re drawn to their character, too, perhaps without realizing it.

FPP- What was the most unusual thing you learned about Jane Austen during your research into her life?

Lori - The fact that she had an opportunity to marry and chose not to. Harris Bigg-Wither, a dear friend of the family and heir to a great estate, proposed one night when Jane was visiting. She accepted the offer, apparently stayed up most of the night reconsidering, withdrew her acceptance in the morning, and left the house in disgrace. It would have been a nearly perfect match — except that there wasn’t love, and for Jane that would never do.

FPP- What inspired you to start your blogs?

Lori - I started Following Austen to begin to connect with readers, and start to build an audience for the book. The Jane Austen Quote of the Day I really started as a marketing tool. Of course, I love the quotes, and there were so many I wanted to share anyway, but I thought it would be a great way to reach the Austen fan base.

FPP- How would you characterize your blog readership?

Lori- I’m afraid I don’t know much about them, other than the fact that I assume they are die-hard Austen fans. I know that about half the daily syndication for the quote of the day is on LiveJournal, where it’s reproduced on people’s friends pages for others to read. I think that’s great.

FPP- How much of a role did your blogs play in the development of your book?

Lori- I really enjoyed getting initial pieces of the book out there and getting good feedback from readers. In the beginning stages, writing is such a lonely process that hearing from readers who loved it meant so much to me. It didn’t really affect the development of the book though, in terms of structure or how I wrote it, except perhaps that I learned to think of it in bite-sized pieces that would work on the blog. We ended up working it back into longer chapters, but I think that helped me tackle it initially.

FPP- Have you found your blog to be an effective marketing platform for your book?

Lori- Definitely. I’ve connected with a whole world of Austen bloggers, who’ve been enthusiastic about the book and in turn have blogged about it. It’s also given me a place to send people for excerpts and more information, and a kind of legitimacy. There are so many opportunities for online promotion now that are completely free, and a blog is central to that. I would recommend it to every writer.

FPP - What other things would you still like to know about Jane Austen?

Lori - Much of her life is hazy. She didn’t keep a journal, and her sister burned most of her letters. If I could talk to her, I’d ask her about writing — and about her faith, which she was hesitant to discuss. (She felt it was more important to live it than talk about it.)

FPP- Do you think if she were alive today, that Jane Austen would have a blog?

Lori - I don’t think so!  She was very private.  I think she would find the trend - and our celebrity-obsessed culture - full of fictional possibilities.

FPP - What is next for Lori Smith?

Lori- I’m not sure yet, but I’m guessing there will be another book — and another blog!

Related Posts

• The State of the Blook - An Interview with Blooking Central’s Cheryl Hagedorn
• Blooks - Between Angst and Opportunity
• Things are “blooking” up for Blog to Book Authors
• The Great American Blog Novel
• Blog to Book

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