Is a book just one really long blog post?
By Richard Jordan
Inspired by recent posts by Christine, Mike, John, Michael, Victoria about the changing world of book publishing, I have been thinking about how I fit in with this world. I have never written a book and have no plans to. I write online articles; I write a company blog. But how does online writing, namely "blogging," differ from offline writing like "book writing?" The difference is not that clear anymore. With the Amazon Kindle and self-publishing, the difference is not simply a technological thing. Can you twist these two forms of writing such that they look the same? Are these two spaces in a spectrum? Or are there unbreakable barriers that divide blogging and book writing such that you can say "this is a blog; that is a book?" I will in this post lay out what I perceive as four common differences and blur them. Please feel free to define what you think is the difference in the comment section below.
Difference 1: Books are published in one chunk; blogs are written piece wise.
Charles Dickens used to write and publish his books piece by piece. Chapters were published periodically, sequentially. And Charles would even modify his storyline depending on how popular the periodicals were. He could tell how many people were following his story. If it was not going as well as he thought, he took the story in a different direction or weaved in a hot topic. Was Dickens blogging?
If a blogger wrote his posts privately, published them all on one day, and then never edited them or added another post, would that blog be a book?
Difference 2: Books are purchased; blogs monetize via supplementary advertising.
What if Amazon's Kindle allocated space for banner ads on the screen? Would a book read in this format be a blog?
If a blog charged a one-time fee like the Wall Street Journal does for readers to access their content, would that revenue model make the blog a book?
Difference 3: Books start at the beginning; blogs start at the end.
Kurt Vonnegut used to say that with a good book you can open any page randomly and start reading. He tried to prove this by mixing up the order of action in his books. Would a book with the chapters in reverse order be a blog?
Some unconventional blogs start with the first post. Any blog could conceptually do so. Are such blogs then books?
Difference 4: Books contain static content; blog content is dynamic.
Books come out in new editions with changes and additions. For instance, the Bible has evolved over the years both via sections getting rewritten with such as King James' version and additional sections being added such as the New Testament. Could we consider the Bible a blog and the various prophets (Moses, Luke, etc.) guest bloggers?
Some bloggers never look back. For instance here on Write on the Water, these posts are never re-edited. Someday Write on the Water may end. At that point no new posts will be added and none of these previous posts will be edited. Will WOW then be a book?
Conclusion
The recent posts here have made me think of self-publishing selected articles from my blog as a book available on Amazon Kindle. I could skim off my best yacht reviews and flash freeze them into a book for publication. Maybe it would be another way to attract readership to my blog. I speculate that some day books and blogs will be indistinguishable. Do people read blogs like books? I have not tried, but maybe I should. I think Charles Dickens and Kurt Vonnegut would be experimenting with blogging if they were young and striving. Maybe we should republish old books in blog form? What do you think is the main difference between a blog and a book? Is there one?
Share on Facebook
