Publishing a Blog As a Book

rodaniel · 02-13-2009, 04:55 PM

Anyone have any experience with any services that can publish a blog as a book? We've capped off our blog that we used to document our adoption and would like to turn it into a book. We've dabbled around with Blurb, but it's maddeningly difficult to do some tasks that you'd thing to be fairly simple.

starshard0 · 02-13-2009, 06:05 PM

That sounds like a pretty neat idea. I suppose if you ever "finish" a blog, that would be a good way to bring everything together. For blogs that go on forever, not as much of a concern.

hermione · 02-13-2009, 06:56 PM

It had never crossed my mind that one could a blog into a book, but I did a quick search and found a service from Asprise which looks pretty cool.

http://www.asprise.com/product/blogcollector/

starshard0 · 02-13-2009, 09:31 PM

Are you looking to have it published as an actual book or as an e-book?

rodaniel · 02-14-2009, 02:27 PM

We're hoping to have our blog published as an actual, glossy, printed book.

I messed around with Blurb's BookSmart application again today and walked away in disgust after over an hour's worth of aggravation. It does an admirable job of scraping in the blog, but won't offer you options for formatting the titles, etc. until after the import is done, then it's a manual, page-by-page task that's teeth-pullingly frustrating.

starshard0 · 02-14-2009, 09:09 PM

Ah okay, that makes more sense. Are you trying to make lots of copies or just one?

rodaniel · 02-15-2009, 05:08 AM

Probably just 2 or 3 copies. Mostly this is for us.

The Asprise BlogCollector service might do the trick, but wow, it's pricey!

I've got the blog exported to an Atom XML file, but dunno how to handle the massive amount of XML tags that're peppered throughout. In theory, you could probably run some kind of transform on it to automatically format, do page breaks, etc. but I don't have a clue how to do so.

gt0163c · 02-16-2009, 10:55 AM

From what I understand, LuLu is a good service. I've never used it but read a number of bloggers/podcasters who have (Wil Wheaton, Mur Lafferty).
LuLu is print on demand, so you set up the book and then you (or someone else) can buy it. They only print copies that are bought and ship them straight to the buyer.

02-13-2009, 04:55 PM	#1
rodaniel Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Odessa, Texas Posts: 48 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Reputation: (10)	Publishing a Blog As a Book Anyone have any experience with any services that can publish a blog as a book? We've capped off our blog that we used to document our adoption and would like to turn it into a book. We've dabbled around with Blurb, but it's maddeningly difficult to do some tasks that you'd thing to be fairly simple. __________________ Life's a beach! \| http://www.2Dolphins.com/ Liam is finally home! \| Rob & Dede's Russian Adoption Journal

02-13-2009, 06:05 PM	#2
starshard0 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 608 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Reputation: (13)	That sounds like a pretty neat idea. I suppose if you ever "finish" a blog, that would be a good way to bring everything together. For blogs that go on forever, not as much of a concern. __________________ Why should you read my blog? Because I'm awesome, that's why. من جون جالت؟

02-13-2009, 06:56 PM	#3
hermione Super Moderator Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: California Posts: 761 Thanks: 0 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts Reputation: (300)	It had never crossed my mind that one could a blog into a book, but I did a quick search and found a service from Asprise which looks pretty cool. http://www.asprise.com/product/blogcollector/ __________________ My business: Franga Designs ~ My blog: Pecuniarities ~ My CafePress Shop: Mozartini ~ Follow me on Twitter!

02-13-2009, 09:31 PM	#4
starshard0 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 608 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Reputation: (13)	Are you looking to have it published as an actual book or as an e-book? __________________ Why should you read my blog? Because I'm awesome, that's why. من جون جالت؟

02-14-2009, 02:27 PM	#5
rodaniel Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Odessa, Texas Posts: 48 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Reputation: (10)	We're hoping to have our blog published as an actual, glossy, printed book. I messed around with Blurb's BookSmart application again today and walked away in disgust after over an hour's worth of aggravation. It does an admirable job of scraping in the blog, but won't offer you options for formatting the titles, etc. until after the import is done, then it's a manual, page-by-page task that's teeth-pullingly frustrating. __________________ Life's a beach! \| http://www.2Dolphins.com/ Liam is finally home! \| Rob & Dede's Russian Adoption Journal

02-14-2009, 09:09 PM	#6
starshard0 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 608 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Reputation: (13)	Ah okay, that makes more sense. Are you trying to make lots of copies or just one? __________________ Why should you read my blog? Because I'm awesome, that's why. من جون جالت؟

02-15-2009, 05:08 AM	#7
rodaniel Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Odessa, Texas Posts: 48 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Reputation: (10)	Probably just 2 or 3 copies. Mostly this is for us. The Asprise BlogCollector service might do the trick, but wow, it's pricey! I've got the blog exported to an Atom XML file, but dunno how to handle the massive amount of XML tags that're peppered throughout. In theory, you could probably run some kind of transform on it to automatically format, do page breaks, etc. but I don't have a clue how to do so. __________________ Life's a beach! \| http://www.2Dolphins.com/ Liam is finally home! \| Rob & Dede's Russian Adoption Journal

02-16-2009, 10:55 AM	#8
gt0163c Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Texas Posts: 340 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Reputation: (60)	From what I understand, LuLu is a good service. I've never used it but read a number of bloggers/podcasters who have (Wil Wheaton, Mur Lafferty). LuLu is print on demand, so you set up the book and then you (or someone else) can buy it. They only print copies that are bought and ship them straight to the buyer.

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