Turning your blog into a book

Many blog writers turn their posts into a full-fledged book. Chris Anderson posted much of the content for his business bestseller The Long Tail on his blog by the same name.

There's even a word for it, blook, which means a bound book originally published serially on a blog, such as Julia Powell's Julie & Julia.

Since blogs became popular a few years ago, there have been several tools for converting your blog into a book, Blurb being perhaps the most well known.

Now another blog-to-book tool is entering the market, Blog2Print. It's billed as a "one-click" solution for turning your blog into a book. Then you simply upload a cover photo and confirm which posts should appear in what order. So far it works only with Google's Blogger platform.

Anyone who's actually written a book is probably skeptical of these blog-to-book services. Sure, a blog is great for generating and refining ideas. But pouring unedited blog posts into a book is a little like throwing table scraps into a blender and calling it a gourmet shake. Your dog might eat it, but you're not going to fool anyone else.

But just for the sake of argument, let's imagine someone does manage to compile a wonderful book from a blog. The pricing of these services is a show-stopper. Pricing at Blog2Print starts at $19.95 for a 20-page four-color book. It's about a dollar less at Blurb. A paperback with 300 pages costs $59.95!

These services might attract a small number of people who want to print a vanity coffee table book. But anyone who's got material for a commercial book will see too many downsides.