Since yesterday's entry, I've become even more enthusiastic about this idea of publishing an anthology of masterfully written blog entries. I really hope there is enough interest out there to make this happen. So far, Will and Bakerina have responded, saying they're in. With me, that makes three contributors. I'm hoping for at least twenty. If each person contributes two or three entries, we could then have a book containing fifty blogging masterpieces!
I'd like to emphasize once again that this is open to any blogger who wants to contribute. The links I supplied yesterday were merely examples off the top of my head of excellent posts that I happened to remember. I reserve absolutely no right whatsoever to have any final say on what gets contributed or who can participate. (I am however, prepared to do a great deal of begging on behalf of entries that I feel are such incredible masterpieces that leaving them out would be a crime against humanity.)
What I hope is that most of the entries that end up being submitted are the result of bloggers recommending the work of fellow bloggers. It seems to be really hard for people to judge their own work. Most of the truly great posts contain at least one apology from the author for the low quality of the writing. Orionoir, who may very well be the greatest writer in all of blogdom, recently deleted all his previous entries (representing over a year of work), because he was unhappy with what he had written. I personally have no idea what to submit, so I hope people can suggest entries from my own work.
Bren suggested that I go with lulu.com rather than CafePress, and I'm convinced. Lulu.com would allow us to sell our book at an even cheaper price (less than $10 for a 200 page paperback), yet with all the same advantages of CafePress. Additionally, for $150 we can be assigned an ISBN number, which would allow our book to be sold on Amazon.com. (I'm willing to pay this out of pocket.) That way, we can actually link from our blogs to the Amazon page for our book. How cool is that?
I'm hoping that we can get the book published in January of 2005 and then follow it up with a new book every January. We can have "2005" and "Volume I" printed on the spine, and in a decade we'll be able to line up a full ten volumes on our bookshelves.
As to how it should be organized, I see the book as being a compilation of fifty masterpieces from about twenty contributors. They would be in fairly random order with no two entries from the same author running consecutively. Each entry would include its title and the name or pseudonym of the writer. It would be one of those books like "Chicken Soup for the Soul" that can be read bit-by-bit. The book would start with an introduction, explaining the format and describing what a blog is. At the end would be an "About the Authors" section with a paragraph on each writer including the URL of their blog and the date that each entry was published. The cover would have various images relating to the posts and blogs featured, such as Will's drawing of the angry sugar bowl and the photo of Chunderpuss. Does anyone have a suggestion for a title?
So, who else wants to contribute?
