Books, eBooks, white papers, you name it: bloggers and other social media practitioners are spreading their wings and going for long form content creation. It is starting to seem like writing and publishing long form content is one of those merit badges or resume bullet points that people are starting to collect like MBAs, internships, volunteer work, and choice job postings.

(Disclosure: it’s a goal of mine to get a book published – someday.)

I don’t have the perspective that’s large or detailed enough to validate this, but I get the feeling that more and more bloggers are getting published in print in addition to their electronic homes. Of course, it’s not just bloggers who are making the printing presses hum and clank: just about anyone who could be considered knowledgeable or authoritative in some vocation (or avocation) could be getting their name embossed on a book spine sometime soon. Or at a minimum they’re thinking about it.

What’s interesting to me is that more and more bloggers whom I encounter online are dipping their toes in the print publishing pool. After all, this is the digital age: paper shouldn’t matter much anymore. Right?

Actually, it sure seems to matter, just as much as it always did.

Let’s take a quick overview of who’s doing what in the publishing world: (more…)