Blogs into Books: How Long Will the Trend Last?

Bloggers with a strong following and Internet presence, two advantages that can save publishers money in marketing costs while still guaranteeing sales, are sometimes scoring six-figure book deals. This trend of major publishing houses offering book deals to popular bloggers has been going strong since 2005 with the success of Julie Powell's blog-turned-book, Julie and Julia.

Powell's 2002 blog, The Julie/Julia Project, which recorded her year-long attempt to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, attracted a book deal in 2003. Her blog became the bestselling memoir Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously and was so successful that it was turned into a 2009 film starring Amy Adams and Maryl Streep.

Riding on this success are blogs like I Can Has Cheezburger, the LOLcat (and dog and celebrity, etc.) extravaganza, which has produced three books to date with a fourth coming in October 2010. Another multi-book deal started with PostSecret, the "ongoing community art project" begun by Frank Warren in November 2004 and still going strong. The latest book to come from this blog, PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God was a #1 New York Times Bestseller.

The trend is still going strong. Newcomers that turned their blogs into book deals are Jen Yates, who collects photos of hilarious professional baking disasters at her blog Cake Wrecks; Jessica Amason, who posts photos of dangerously delicious foods at This Is Why Your Fat; and "object-maker" Terry Border's Bent Objects, which...you just have to see for yourself. Most recently, April Winchell's collection of weirdly wonderful craft projects, Regretsy, will see print in April 2010 for the first time.

Turning blogs into books is a good way for publishers to bring fun, timely books to readers. However, while readers may enjoy these blogs-turned-books for their novelty value, these cheaply and quickly produced books may end up in the bargain bin once that novelty wears thin. Most of these books are quirky or humorous photo books, valued for a quick laugh or pop culture reference, not lasting literary merit.

To continue attracting readers to print material in a world where readers increasingly prefer online content (evident by the popularity of blogs to begin with, as well as the growing sales of ebooks and ereaders), bloggers who hope to turn their blogs into book deals must offer more content to the potential book buyer than what that buyer can obtain for free online.