“Blooks” Are in Bloom: Author Helps Writers Go from Blog to Book

Seattle, WA, October 21, 2007 --(PR.com)-- New writers increasingly see the blogosphere as a path to publishing and Tom Masters has developed a unique process to simplify the process.

Many new authors have difficulty landing a publishing deal because they can’t convince an agent or publisher their work will sell. But publishing a book based on a blog – known as a “blook” – offers a new approach. Cheryl Hagedorn of Blooking Central has tracked 200 blooks on her site. In an interview on Future Perfect Publishing, she estimated that a third of these had resulted in publishing deals; the others were self published. Mr. Masters, who teaches blogging for writers at several instructional venues in the Seattle area, observed: “Blogs allow writers to establish an audience while they write, measure the size and engagement of their readership, and collect valuable feedback that can improve their work. This is the kind of information that gets the attention of publishers and agents.”

In his classes he demonstrates that blogs share many structural similarities with books: title, subtitle, table of contents (categories) and topic-focused content (posts). As a writer adds entries to a blog, he or she is essentially creating the raw material for a book, one post at a time.

But the problem for most individuals, he has found, is sustaining the writing discipline and momentum that building a readership for a blog requires. In his new book, Blogging Quick & Easy, published by Orion Wellspring, Inc., Masters assembles a comprehensive catalog of simple blogging practices that help bloggers beat writers’ block, manage their blogging time commitment and build an audience quickly.

Tom Masters is 56 years old with other 30 years experience in technology management and web marketing. He is a publisher and president of Book Publishers Northwest, a regional affiliate of Publishers Marketing Association. He lives with his wife in Seattle and is a frequent speaker and lecturer on new trends in book publishing.

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