Don’t Judge a Blook by Its ... er... Cover
Where many writers -- yours truly included -- keep personal blogs in part to let readers of their books sneak a peek inside the author’s skull, increasingly things are working the other way around: where the ramblings inside a human skull are given air on a blog that eventually -- and one way or another -- ends up being available in book form.
Author Cory Doctorow even thinks that writing that begins in blog form can alter the creative process. “Previously, such jottings might have been kept in the author’s notebook,” Doctorow told the BBC, “but something amazing happens when you post them online: readers help you connect them, flesh them out and grow them into fully fledged books or blooks.”
When you have a trend that flows towards being something like movement, after a while you end up with an awards program. Enter the Lulu Blooker, “the world’s first literary prize devoted to ‘blooks’ -- books based on blogs or other websites, including webcomics.”
The $15,000 Blooker Prize is sponsored by Lulu, a POD company. Though, when you think about it, it’s likely not that much of a reach. After all, since Technorati estimates that 175,000 new blogs are fired up each day, it stands to reason that not every single book-destined blog will find publisher support. It might make sense for self-styled self-publishing experts, Lulu, to stay in the center of the books-to-blogs soup. Although, according to the BBC, last year’s Blooker winner blook, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, “has now sold over 100,000 copies and is being made into a film.”
Here’s the shortlist for the 2007 Lulu Blooker Awards.
Non-Fiction:
Author Cory Doctorow even thinks that writing that begins in blog form can alter the creative process. “Previously, such jottings might have been kept in the author’s notebook,” Doctorow told the BBC, “but something amazing happens when you post them online: readers help you connect them, flesh them out and grow them into fully fledged books or blooks.”
When you have a trend that flows towards being something like movement, after a while you end up with an awards program. Enter the Lulu Blooker, “the world’s first literary prize devoted to ‘blooks’ -- books based on blogs or other websites, including webcomics.”
The $15,000 Blooker Prize is sponsored by Lulu, a POD company. Though, when you think about it, it’s likely not that much of a reach. After all, since Technorati estimates that 175,000 new blogs are fired up each day, it stands to reason that not every single book-destined blog will find publisher support. It might make sense for self-styled self-publishing experts, Lulu, to stay in the center of the books-to-blogs soup. Although, according to the BBC, last year’s Blooker winner blook, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, “has now sold over 100,000 copies and is being made into a film.”
Here’s the shortlist for the 2007 Lulu Blooker Awards.
Non-Fiction:
- Crashing The Gate by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas (Chelsea Green)
- My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren (Regan/HarperCollins)
- My War: Killing Time In Iraq by Colby Buzzell (Berkeley/Penguin)
- Small Is the New Big: and 183 other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin (Portfolio/Penguin) by Kristin Espinasse (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster)
- So Close: Infertile and Addicted To Hope by Tertia Albertyn (Oshun)
- Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language From the South of France by Kristin Espinasse (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster)
- Albert the Third by Slim Palmer (Exposure Publishing)
- BreakupBabe: A Novel by Rebecca Agiewich (Ballantine)
- The Doorbells of Florence by Andrew Losowsky (Prandial Publishing/Lulu)
- Messages from the Lost Continent conceived and edited by Horst Prillinger (Books on Demand GmbH)
- Methuselah’s Daughter by J. A. Eddy and Dean Esmay (Lulu)
- Monster Island: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington (Thunder's Mouth Press/Avalon)
- Born of Nifty: Sluggy Freelance Megatome 01 by Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance)
- The Definition of Awesome: Another Joe and Monkey Collection by Zach Miller (Boxcar Comics/Lulu)
- Mom’s Cancer by Brian Fies (Abrams Image)
Labels: awards
posted by Linda L. Richards at 3:52 PM
1 Comments:
Sadly, my own attempt at writing a blook was completely overlooked by the judges. It may well be the case that I was never nominated in the first place, as I had no idea the competition even existed until I saw the short list. Roll on the next competition then I guess...
J McC
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