Thread: Making a Blog a Book

I've been blogging my new experience and am really thinking about turning it into a book. Anyone have ideas on where to go to find out more about it? I'm looking for articles on or examples of regular people who have blogged or kept journals and were successful in putting it in a book.

Here's my deal: I'm a suburban raised kid who taught in a large all black "Persistently Dangerous" Philadelphia Public middle school for four years after college. This summer, I moved to the most isolated region of Alaska to teach in a tiny Eskimo village (no roads, toilets or places to eat) and have been blogging everything I find fascinating about the experience ever since.

This is my first time on this message board. Any knowledge would help!

Thank you.

my best advice is to not write it like a blog!

use the material you've blogged, but write a real book... either a non-fiction account of your experiences or a novel based on same...

i really don't think you'll be able to interest a traditional publisher [non-vanity variety] in a book-length blog... unless, of course, you're such a brilliant writer even when blogging, that it will hook the readers and make them unaware of its blog origins...

sounds like you've got material for more than one book there, so beware of cramming too much into one and not doing the material justice...

if you need any help with this, i'll be glad to lend a hand... just let me know...

love and hugs, maia
maia3maia@hotmail.com

You could write this as a diary. I like reading diary-style novels.

Do books need to be finished before an idea is pitched to a publisher? Are ideas even pitched to publishers? What is the process? I should probably take a class. Thanks for responding!

if you're an as-yet-unpublished newbie with no track record in any kind of writing, it's best to have a finished book in your hot little hands before you approach agents or publishers... that said, many non-fiction books are picked up on the strength of a good proposal... but i don't see how a book-length blog could manage that, unless the content is so unusual and well-written, that a mere sample would set off an editor's salivary glands...

for fiction, you have to have the book finished and polished, to have any chance of selling it... only exceptions are big-name writers whose grocery lists would attain ny times best-seller status...

for more details on 'the process' i'd need to know what it is you intend to try and market and what shape it's in at present... feel free to email me if you want help, more info, or questions answered...

love and hugs, maia
maia3maia@hotmail.com

Read memoirs. Find out how other people have turned their life experiences into books. "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggaring Genius" is a good example, but find authors who match your writing style and read what they've done, then go from there. I don't think the fact that you've blogged your experience as opposed to keeping a diary or writing letters about it should have much of a difference.

good point from jake... what you've got in that blog is raw material... you have to transform it into what will make a marketable book... his advice is the key to how you can go about doing that...

Thanks, I really appreciate this. Haven't read Staggering Genius yet, but I have it and will read it. I was part of a journal project and have had other commentary published in a big paper, though I don't know if that means I can call myself a published writer. I know my blog is bare bones as it is and would take some work... I also understand that have a lot of homework to do...

Does anyone have examples of published journals/memoirs that include photographs?
Can you suggest links to helpful websites for nonfiction writers?

Again... much thanks.

there are many such books, on just about every subject you can imagine... sailors, mountain climbers, spelunkers, teachers, tailors, tinkers, and spies all write their memoirs and most of the books will have some photos...

your best bet is to use amazon.com's amazing search engine and check what's already out there in whatever field best fits what you're intending to write about...

as for websites, do you mean like this one?... you're in the non-fiction section here, so i'm not sure what else you're looking for... 'the writer' magazine has the 'writer community' forum that's much like this one... also having a non-fiction section...

as i think i've mentioned above, i mentor a lot of non-fiction writers, so if you want any help, just drop me a line...

hugs, maia
maia3maia@hotmail.com