Please Don’t Blog Your Book: 4 Reasons Why

blog to book

It’s been a trend ever since I worked full-time as a book acquisitions editor: Blog-to-book deals. I acquired or oversaw the publication of more than a dozen bloggers-turned-book-authors. Sometimes it translated into book sales, sometimes not.

Point is: I know that blogs can lead to book deals.

However, I want you to think twice before you decide this is your path. Here are 4 reasons why.

1. Blog writing is not the same as book writing.

Blog posts, to live up to their form, should be optimized for online reading. That means being aware of keywords/SEO, current events/discussions, popular online bloggers in your area, plus—most importantly—including visual and interactive content (comments, images, multimedia, links).

It seems almost silly to have to state it, but blogging (as a form of writing) holds tremendous merit on its own. Writers who ask, “Can I blog to get a book deal?” probably think of the blog as a lesser form of writing, merely a vehicle to something “better.” No. A blog has its own reasons for being, and blogs do not aspire to become books if they are truly written as blogs.

Never use a blog as a dumping ground for material that’s already been written for the print medium—or for book publication—without any consideration for the art of the blog.

2. Blogs can make for very bad books.

If you dump your blog content into a book without any further development or editing, I’m willing to bet it will be a bad book (unless, of course, you wrote the book first and divided it into blog posts!).

It’s true that many bloggers offer a compendium of their best writings as an e-book, for the convenience of their readers, or repurpose their blog content in a useful or creative way. That’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about lack of vision for how the content ought to appear in print, or how it ought to complement, extend, or differ from the online version. How can the content benefit from a print presentation? How does it get enhanced or become more special or valuable?

To give a couple examples:

  • Kawaii Not (a book that I oversaw publication for): This is an online cartoon that was adapted into a spiral, stand-up book, with perforations at the top of every page. The book was tremendously functional: Cartoons could be easily torn off and given to someone. We also included stickers.
  • Soul Pancake: This is a colorful activity-like book, based on the many questions and discussions that happen at a site of the same name. If you were to compare the site and the book, you would definitely find the same themes, styles, and sensibilities. However, the experience of the book and the experience of the site are two very different things!

I must admit, though, much depends on the genre/category of what’s being written/published. For instance, when it comes to a book that’s illustration-driven, there may be little difference between what’s posted online and what goes into the book. But that’s a book that sells based on its visuals, not its writing!

3. It’s more difficult for narrative works to get picked up as book deals.

This is a generalization, but most authors who ask me about this blog-to-book phenomenon are either memoirists or novelists. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to score a book deal with such a work. The blogs most likely to score book deals are in the information-driven categories (e.g., business and self-help) or humor/parody category (e.g., Stuff White People Like).

Furthermore, I only know of memoirists who’ve scored blog-to-book deals, not novelists (remember, we’re talking about BLOG form, not community sites like Authonomy). A couple examples of memoirish blogs that made the leap: Julie & Julia and Waiter Rant.

4. I love books that delve deeply into a topic and make no sense as blogs.

I read hundreds of blogs each week. Much of my reading is done online, in fact. So nothing makes me more irritated than when I sit down to read a book—expecting something meaty, in-depth, and worthy of my full attention—than to find it reads more like a series of blog posts. Unfortunately, due to the blog-to-book deal (in part), this is becoming more common. (Also, some books now mimic the online world by chunking the content so the book reads “faster.”)

In my mind, a book is a great medium for delving into those topics where the simplified, keyword-driven, ADHD world of blogging has no place. If I read a book and think, “I could’ve gotten this from a series of blog posts,” then I consider it a failure.

What are some indicators that a blog-to-book deal might work for you?

  • You’re blogging in a nonfiction category, especially if your blog focuses on how to do something or solves a problem for people.
  • You’re focused on your blog for the joy of blogging, and you have the patience, determination, and drive to keep blogging for years. You won’t get recognition overnight, and it takes time to develop a following. Ultimately, it’s the buzz you generate, and the audience you develop (your platform created by the blog), that attracts a publisher to you—not the writing itself (though of course that’s important too!).
  • You agree that the book deal isn’t the end of the road, but another way to expand your audience for your blog (or services/community connected to your blog).

If a blog-to-book deal path is appealing to you, then I highly recommend checking out Chris Guillebeau’s 279 Days to Overnight Success. He landed a book deal in about 1 year based on his blog. But he was laser-focused in his strategy and single-minded in marketing and promoting his blog to all the right people in the blogging community (not the publishing community). In other words, he has the mind and heart of an entrepreneur. Do you?

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Theresa Milstein

I agree with you that most blogs would not make very good books.  Stuff White People Like is an exception to the rule and Julia and Julia must’ve had a pretty big transformation from its original blog form.  I’ve thought of writing a humorous book based on old posts from when I used to sub, but that would be more about borrowing material.  I’d have a lot of work ahead of me.  Right now I’m focusing on fiction, which is nothing like my blog posts.  

Jane Friedman

Excellent points! Yes, I do think there’s more transformation than people realize.

Dawn Groves

Smart, practical, useful, honest. As usual. 🙂  I’ll tweet it as will every other writer. 
best, dawnwww.dawngroves.com

Jane Friedman

🙂

Jan Morrill

I agree completely. I read blogs and books for completely different reasons. I like hamburgers and prime rib, too, but one certainly cannot substitute for the other. Thanks for another great post!

Jane Friedman

Thanks for reading!

Danezeller

Excellent reason number one!  A book is for reading. A blog is for communicating. 

Jane Friedman

It may depend on how/where you’re reading the book due to the rise of social platforms tied to books! May want to check out this new tool/platform: http://subtext.com/

Jill Kemerer

I’m nodding my head at #4. Believe it or not, The Emperor of Maladies (the huge book about the history of cancer) is exactly the type of meaty book I love. The author took the time to delve into every aspect of cancer and I walked away with a better understanding of the disease. I can’t even imagine that book as a compilation of blog posts! Obviously, the topic warranted the material.

When I’ve read informational or memoir-ish books that read like a series of blogs, I’ve been disappointed. Yes, it’s a personal preference, but I love books that explore a topic to its fullest.

Jane Friedman

One of my favorite “meaty” reads is WHAT TECHNOLOGY WANTS by Kevin Kelly. I can’t imagine reading it online or via blog posts.

ClaudiaC

My serial fictions do really well in blog form. We have a large active, international audience at Denver Cereal and at the Queen of Cool. The books have done really well and have their own audience. It’s always surprising how well the story lines fit together into novels, but 5 books so far – it’s going just fine.

But true traditional serial fiction is a little different than what you’re talking about. 

Jane Friedman

Good to point out this exception! I agree that true serial fiction makes a lot of sense when compiled and marketed in book form.

Nina Amir

 I’d love to know why serial fiction is different than blogging a book. Isn’t the principle basically the same–put up pieces of your novel a bit at a time? If you were blogging a novel, you might just not put up the whole chapter at a time.

Jane Friedman

True serial fiction has no ending, and develops partly in collaboration with readers. It is written on deadline rather than as a preconceived “let me cut and paste this as a series of blog posts.”

ClaudiaC

I think, like a lot of people, you’re confusing serializing a novel with true serial fiction. That’s understandable because there’s a lot of confusion out there. 

Serializing is simply hacking up your novel and posting it to the Internet via blog or Kindle. Serializing a novel is a distribution trick, nothing more. 

As Jane said, true serial fiction has no ending. The story lines unfold week to week. In it’s most basic form, serial fiction is published as it’s written. That sounds minor but for the author that means that each post must stand on it’s own; there’s no going back to fix this or that. The story unfolds in front of the author and the reader at the same time. (For example, this week, we’re having a baby on Denver Cereal.) 

Serial fiction is a powerful social tool. Take a look, for example, Amstead Maupin’s Tales of the City. We would not have a way to converse about AIDS or people who have this disease without his on the ground descriptions of the plague hitting San Francisco and his wonderful characters. 

If you doubt the power of this writing form, check out the celebrations this week for Charles Dickens. He wrote 2 novels. Everything else was published as it was written – one chapter at a time. And it continues to speak today for social justice, class awareness, and the link between poverty and crime.

Jonathan Pinnock

Interesting post. I did blog my first novel, Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens, in order to (a) prove that there was a market for it (there was) and (b) force myself to stick to a writing schedule (6-700 words, twice a week, and I did). I got a publishing deal about 10 months in, at which point I continued to the end and shortly afterwards took the serialisation down. It worked because the style of the book (humorous with plenty of punchlines or cliffhangers to end episodes on) suited being serialised. I agree that this approach wouldn’t work for everyone, but it turned out very nicely as far as I was concerned. (Loads more information here if you’re interested: http://www.mrsdarcyvsthealiens.com/)

Jane Friedman

Appreciate the example of when it does work! Thank you. 

I agree with you about the benefits of the blog aside from the book deal — discipline and deadlines!

Nina Amir

 Congrats on blogging a novel! I’d love to hear more about that! As Jane mentioned, below, one of the great advantages of blogging any book is the discipline and deadlines. And once you have readers you have some accountability partners to keep you going!

Jonathan Pinnock

The fact that I had readers and that they were constantly commenting on what I’d written was a massive encouragement to keep going. I probably wouldn’t have finished the book without that.

Jonathan Pinnock

Oh, and thanks, Nina!

Rachel E. Nichols (@RachelENichols1)

A good place to “blog” your novel is wattpad. Unlike blogger or wordpress, wattpad is made for fiction and draws people looking for fiction to read and share.
No, I’m not spamming–just sharing information. Wattpad doesn’t know I’m promoting them. In fact I haven’t used it yet. But if I share my novel for free online I would look into something geared for fiction in particular. That way the audience knows what they’re getting.
Does anyone know if authonomy works the same way? Any other sites?

Rob Hoover

I’m planning to do pretty much what you did and for the same reasons. I don’t think I’ll be able to finish this story any other way, A chapter a week is my target… wish me luck!.

Robert Bruce

This is great info, Jane. I’ve thought about taking this step with some of my blog posts–those more along the lines of a Stuff White People like post.

Definitely some stuff to consider here.

Jane Friedman

Thank you!

Shannon Steffen

Absolutely brilliant, Jane! I own/write 4 blogs and have been doing so for many years. Each has it’s own niche or topic but each has to keep in mind all that you mentioned above.

I’m also in the process of writing a book on “Human SEO”. Some people have told me to just use my blog for the content and then translate it over to a book. That always made absolutely no sense to me – especially being a SEO consultant.

There is a huge difference between writing a blog and writing a book. I’ve been busy learning the former and, although a blog can create momentum for a book, it does not translate (word for word) into a best-selling book. If you are serious about writing a book, study the craft offline and bring the real you to the table.

Thank you for the great insight!

Jane Friedman

So happy to see an SEO consultant chime in! Thank you!

Phil Simon

Great post. I’m not a huge fan of blog-to-book type of things. They tend to suck. I do believe, though, that conversations launched in books can be valuably extended on blogs. That’s the rationale behind The Age of the Platform and its companion site – www.theageoftheplatform.com.

Jane Friedman

Yes!!! Absolutely. Great point.