All posts by trav

At the heart of it all, I’m a fan. A fan of books and bookstores. A fan of fiction and non-fiction. A fan of authors and publishers. And most of all I’m a fan of great conversations sparked by books. All that to say - I really need more bookshelves.

Do blog-books bomb?

Gawker has compiled a pretty exaustive list of blogger book deals. It’s pretty interesting. Even with “less than stellar sales”, it’s amazing how many publishers keep coming back to the trough. They must just have money to burn.

I’m a huge fan of blogs and books. But I tend to think that blogs fill a niche need for readers and that these readers are satisfied with that, so they don’t buy the book. Plus, I think publishers let their eyes glaze over when their marketing people tell them how many hits a blog gets and they think that number translates directly into potential sales. So they do a sub-par job with the book “to get it out while it’s still relevant” and put a less than stellar book on the market.

Just my two cents.

Oh yeah, happy Banned Book Week! And here’s Google’s Banned Book initiative.