Lulu,a well known self publishing website,is sponsoring a brand new literary award called the Blooker Prize,which is for published books based on blogs. The Blooker has three catagories,Fiction,Non Fiction and Comics. You can see the short list of nominees and get more info about who's involved thru the title link above.
I've only read one of the books up for this;Julie and Julia by Julie Powell(a book that I enjoyed and was of the inspirations for me to follow the way of the blogger)so it's hard for me to have a major rooting interest in the winner. However,if someone is willing to set up an award for blog to book success,it seems like a good sign that the blogosphere must be doing something right here.
Sounds naive,I know but I'm not the only one out there who hopes that their blog has some meaning and purpose,other than to set up your own personal soapbox to shout from. Some folks think that blogs distract writers from doing their "real" work and to me,that's a matter of opinion. If a writer truly feels that the blog they've been working on is stalling that novel or series of poems that need to be done,that's one thing. Others may find it a useful stimuli-after all,you could argue that the diaries,journals and longtime correspondence of many classic authors could be just as distracting as any blog and that didn't slow down the likes of Virginia Woolf,Henry James or G.B. Shaw!
You could even point to such works as Pepys' diary or the Life of Johnson as great-great-great granddaddies of the blogger realm. I'm not saying that every single blog out there is the stuff of literary genuis(and yes,that includes me,too)but the potential is there and like any fertile planting ground,could use a little tending to encourage the smaller seeds to grow. Hopefully,the Blooker becomes a welcome provider to the cultural crop garden and not another useless lawn ornament.
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