Turning a blog into a book
When I started out blogging some eighteen months ago it was just a bit of fun. I just wanted a web presence and to be able to share my love of birds (see my birding blog here).
After some time I realised, with heaps of encouragement from my son, that blogging can be a serious writing activity, not to mention income generating. Since that realisation dawned on me, I have treated blogging far more seriously. The income is still modest, but the trend is encouraging and the potential enormous.
In the early days I did not associate blogging with traditional book publication. I could see the potential of selling an e-book as an offshoot from one’s blog, but not a printed book. More recently, however, there have been enough examples of this happening with other writers that it becomes yet another potential income generating avenue.
At this stage this process is not for me but may well be sometime down the track. I am more interested in producing an e-book at some stage. There may be some of my readers who are interested in taking this road. If so, someone has already successfully gone down that track.
Gina Trapani on her blog Lifehacker has explained the process she went through to write, develop and convert her blog into a printed book through a traditional print publisher. Read how she did it: part 1 and part 2.
Thanks to Darren on ProBlogger for drawing these articles to his readers’ attention.
The importance of books
I was listening to local radio last week.
A guest speaker boldly announced, “I’ve just finished my seventeenth book.” He paused for the oohs and ahhs and congratulations to fade away before adding: “I enjoyed the experience so much I think I read another book sometime.”
Writers write – that’s a given principle.
I would like add that writers also read – voraciously.
Last year I read very few books. In fact, it was the fewest books I have read for four decades. (Yes – it’s a problem I have – I’ve kept a list of all the books I have read for over 40 years!) I try to finish two books a week; I’ve averaged over 92 per year for those 40 years. Last year I read only 25 books. (I did do an enormous amount of reading on the internet, however.) This year I plan to correct that and I’m already off to a flying start, on target to read over 100 books this year.
From time to time I’ll write about what I am reading.
In the meantime, what are you, my readers, reading? Leave your comments and insights below.
UPDATE: For a follow up article on this topic go to this new article: The importance of books – more comments.
Taking time to think
Rick on his blog Shards of Consciousness writes that we should take more time to think about what we read. With the masses of information available at the click of the mouse, there is so much to read that is so interesting. Rick, however, is suggesting that we are reading far more but digesting far less of what we read. We are forgetting to think about what we are reading.
Ouch – guilty as charged.
In fact, since starting blogging seriously in March of this year my reading of printed materials has plummeted to an all time low. I subscribe to about a dozen magazines which largely go unread and have a huge pile of “books I am going to read when I retire.” Well, since “retiring” from teaching 2 years ago the pile has probably doubled. As for thinking about what I read…. mmmm… time for a few changes me thinks.
To read Rick’s article click here. (Sorry – the link to Rick’s site not longer works.)
Updated November 2013.