PressEthic

According to a Boston Globe article that was published this weekend, bloggers who publish books are not nearly as successful as they once were.

"They haven’t performed as well as publishers hoped," said Boston-based literary agent Jill Kneerim. "It is still a phenomenon that people are hopeful about, but in many cases, people who are fans of the blog have already read the content. So what’s the point in buying the book?"

Tucker Max, the rare successful blogger turned author of “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” (tucker max.com), is a bit more, um, direct.

"These bloggers aren’t good writers and they really don’t get a lot of traffic if you really look at the numbers," he said. "They had a blog, people liked reading the blog, then they wrote stuff people don’t want to read. Who cares what Jessica Cutler’s novel is about? People liked reading she had sex with senators who paid her (money)."

Gawker weighs in on the different types of books that tend to be written:

There are two types of blog-book (blook?) deals: former or current bloggers who sell work unrelated to their online ramblings, or books purely based on blogs (like Stephanie Klein's Straight Up and Dirty). The former isn't any less likely to succeed than anything else hitting the shelves, but the latter is just a bad idea.

Blogging has become remarkably easy to do, and with the sheer number comes quite a few blogs that are simply platforms for individuals to share viewpoints or experiences with no regard to the fact that they really can't write. The fact that these books aren't selling indicates that readers have at least some discretion over what they are willing to pay money to read. Sure, reading blogs is an easy way to kill time, but a large part of the appeal is that the vast majority of them are free.

(Actual) writers can be encouraged that there is at least some distinction between those who have become well-known simply by their postings on the web and those who have spent a significant amount of time perfecting their craft.

However, for better or worse, media bistro reports that, despite poor sales, publishers continue to pay six figures for books from popular bloggers. It will be interesting to see if (and when) publishers take the hint from readers and become more discretionary regarding the works of bloggers that they choose to publish.