From Blogs To Books?

With blogs beginning to be viewed as a legitimate means of publishing news, views, or whatever an individual blogger elects to post - the concept of e-publishing may be getting ready to take another significant stride toward enabling previously unpublished writers access to a much larger universe of potential readers.

As pointed out by the New York Times here, the concept of e-book publishing is beginning to take hold and gaining the attention of the traditional book publishing industry.

When Amy Fisher finished writing her memoir about shooting her lover's wife, she told her agent not to send the manuscript to New York publishers. Instead, Fisher, who made headlines in 1992 as the 17-year-old ''Long Island Lolita,'' turned to iUniverse in Lincoln, Neb. The company charges authors several hundred dollars to convert a manuscript into a book and make it available for sale online.

So-called vanity publishing is nothing new - and the publishing industry's poor second cousin has been known to be rife with dubious publishers whose real aim has been the bilking of unsuspecting would-be first-time authors and even their family and friends. That appears to be changing.

As Susan Driscoll, CEO of iUniverse, states in the Times:

With all this democratic activity, self-published authors have essentially become the bloggers of the publishing world, with approximately the same anarchic range in quality that you find on the Web. Indeed, companies like AuthorHouse and iUniverse say they will accept pretty much anything for publication. ''That's the big problem with self-publishing and the stigma associated with it,'' Driscoll admits.

The five page Times article provides a great deal of information on this emerging field and is a must read for the writing individual, and or blogger with dreams of producing a marketable product in book form.

With technology changing the macro-economics of book publishing, including the cost of publishing and marketing of both mass and niche market books, the continued shift in consumer's book buying habits toward the Internet, and a wealth of new writers honing their skills through blogging, it appears as though the time for a revolution within the book publishing industry could be coming soon to an Amazon.com near you.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Comments

[dean]

This is a great piece of information. Even before I started blogging, I toyed with the idea of writing a book, I even started a couple. This adds quite a bit of context and oppotunity.

Thanks
Dean

[jeff]

Publishers used to scorn self-published books, but are now using them as a sort of farm league. The publishing industry is run by a bunch of ruthless MBAs who can show you the statistics on why new authors are a bad business investment. So they look to see which self-published books are generating buzz. However, it can be expensive, & I don't think people will ever take e-books seriously

[Dan]

Jeff, you old fart!! ; p