A blook is a printed book that contains or is based on content from a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

. The first printed blook was User Interface Design for Programmers, by

Joel Spolsky Avram Joel Spolsky (born 1965) is a software engineer and writer. He is the author of ''Joel on Software'', a blog on software development, and the creator of the project management software Trello. He was a Program Manager on the Microsoft Exce ...

, published by Apress on June 26, 2001, based on his blog Joel on Software. An early blook was written by Tony Pierce in 2002 when he compiled selected posts from his one-year-old blog and turned the collection into a book called "Blook". The name came about when Pierce held a contest, asking his readers to suggest a title for the book.

Jeff Jarvis Jeff Jarvis (born July 15, 1954) is an American journalist, associate professor, public speaker and former television critic. He advocates the Open Web and argues that there are many social and personal benefits to living a more public life on t ...

of BuzzMachine won the contest and subsequently invented the term. Pierce went on to publish two other blooks, How To Blog and Stiff.

Print-on-demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

publisher

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...

inaugurated the

Lulu Blooker Prize Lulu Press, Inc., doing business under trade name Lulu, is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing, and distribution platform. By 2014, it had issued approximately two million titles. The company's founder is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young. Lu ...

for blooks, which was first awarded in 2006. The printed blook phenomenon is not limited to self-publishing. Several popular bloggers have signed book deals with major publishers to write books based on their blogs. However, some publishers are starting to realize that blog popularity does not translate to sales. Blog to book conversions via traditional publishing houses still happen, but the focus has shifted from blog popularity to content quality. "Blook" was short-listed in 2006 for inclusion in the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

and was a runner-up for Word of the Year.

References

Blogging Books by type Documents Paper products Web fiction {{publishing-stub

See also

References