It used to be that blogs were mostly mundane places for writing down what you’ve done that day. But today, many blogs are increasingly smart, interesting places that we turn to for great content. It makes sense, then, for authors to consider collecting their best posts into a book.
Self-publishing services such as Blurb and Lulu have realized this, and have made it simple for indie authors to transform their digital diaries and notes into quality, printed books. Want to see how it’s done?
Check out this handful of great (gorgeous!) indie books that got their start as blogs.
Gluten-Free Goddess by Karina Allrich
Based on the popular blog by the same name, Gluten-Free Goddess is a softcover-bound (and ebook!) collection of recipes featured in the blog. The book of “best-loved recipes” contains 45 of more than 400 recipes available on the site, and allows fans of the site to have recipes on-hand in the kitchen without having to drag in a laptop or print out pages.
Allrich’s book serves as a great example for how the book form can help to augment a blog’s content; the book makes it easy to keep track of some of the blog’s most popular recipes, and is easy to carry around to share recipes with friends and family.
French Word-A-Day by Kristin Espinasse
French Word-A-Day isn’t your typical “learn a new language book.” It’s actually a sort of memoir, featuring short vignettes and stories from the author’s life while teaching French vocabulary. And of course, it’s inspired by a blog of the same name.
The book reads as a relaxed and cute introduction to the French language with its fun and personal stories–readers should enjoy it whether they’re trying to learn French or not. And thanks to the nice photography inside, this blog-turned-book is perfect for the coffee table.
Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds by Scott Berkun
Scott Berkun is quite an influential writer on the web, having written for Harvard Business, BusinessWeek, appearing on CNN and more. The writer and speaker keeps a popular eponymous blog, and has collected the best of his blog in Mindfire. It’s notable that Berkun is a best-selling author with a few releases, and despite traditionally published successful books in the past, Berkun opted to self-publish his blog-turned-book.
Why’d he go the indie route? In a post all about that question, Berkun seems to enjoy the educational experience that comes from self-publishing, noting the importance of learning the process from manuscript to completed book, as well as to test his book promotion abilities. It seems like the perfect answer from someone whose book is about creativity, leadership and how to make a difference.
3 p.m. Breaks by Alynn Teo
This art book shows how photo-based blogs can find a happy fit printed on bound pages. Alynn Teo’s 3 p.m. Breaks contains still lives of small meals expertly crafted and composed. From little snacks to plates filled with sushi rolls, Teo’s blog-turned-book is inspiration for slowing down and practicing wellness.
While the book is images-only, the blog that it’s based on contains small vignettes, notes and musings with each meal. It’d have been great to see the same in the book, but the full-color photos speak for themselves.