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:

Here’s a sample of people who I consider to be bloggers first who have written books:

Steve Pavlina
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
Guy Kawasaki
Geoff Livingston with Brian Solis
Jen Lancaster
Kim Dushinski
Wendy Boswell
Elizabeth Bear
Caitlin Kiernan
Sara Monette
Emma Bull
Meghan Wier
Pam Livingston
Penelope Trunk
Mark Earls (Herd)
Sarah Lacy
Leo Babauta

And dozens that I’ve omitted through ignorance, I’m sure…

[thanks to @dataangel, @ambertides, @jazzypom, @gadgetvirtuoso, and others for names and information]

Book writers who also blog regularly:

Timothy Ferriss (I don’t know if the book came before the blog or not…)
Seth Godin
Tom Peters
The Freaknomics guys

Bloggers with a book deal/waiting for the book to come out:

Chris Brogan/Julien Smith
Tara Hunt
Steve Spalding
Hugh Macleod
Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby
Jonathan Fields
Mitch Joel

And probably dozens under the radar at the moment (one of which I’m aware of, but I’m keeping it on the DL)

Differing opinions on the value of publishing a book

What’s really interesting, though, is some of the thoughts out there about the value of publishing a book. For example, Brazen Careerist author Penelope Trunk wrote 5 Reasons Why You Don’t Need To Write a Book (Penelope has her own book, so I suspect she can write this from some level of authority).

By contrast, Suw Charman-Anderson wrote her own analysis called Writing a book – is it really worth the effort? in which she publishes her own thoughts on the topic of writing your own book. I think that Suw makes some really excellent points in her post.

For interest’s sake, here’s Penelope’s five reasons why you don’t need to write a book (and my thoughts below):

1. People who have a lot of ideas need a blog, not a book. Agreed: blogs are much more effective due to speed and low cost of publishing and distribution.

2. A book is an outdated way to gain authority. Depends on the audience, doesn’t it? It’s still working for the top tier of writers… but over time, I would agree that it will have less relevance than it does today. However, a lot of people still put a lot of stock on the printed word. Gen Y and beyond may change that, but it will take time.

3. Books lead to speaking careers, but speaking careers often lead nowhere. Can’t really comment on this, I really don’t know. However, it’s worth noting that plenty of professionals go on the rubber biscuit circuit (?) without publishing a book.

4. You’ll make more money per hour flipping burgers than writing a book. Yes, but books give you bigger income potential than minimum wage jobs (unless you experience some really interesting stuff on the job, in which case you should either write a book, screenplay, or make a TV show.)

5. When you’re feeling lost, a book won’t save you. I have to agree with Penelope’s logic on this one. Even a successful book probably isn’t a magic bullet that will transform your life into something much better. It sure didn’t help Stephen King, who has gone through some nasty stuff after becoming a successful author.

So where do I stand on this?

I’m romantic and impractical enough to want to be published on paper and distributed to a wide audience. Yeah, maybe it’s just the adult equivalent of the Boy Scout Merit Badge or something better reserved for childhood, but still… it’s like a little piece of immortality, you know?

I also note that there’s a lot of smart people who are still writing/publishing books. Archaic or not, there’s still a lot of juice in book publishing these days.

My point of view may be naive and simplistic, but it still looks pretty appealing to me. HOWEVER, I’ve done enough research over the past two years to know that one book is just a step or a short stage on a much longer journey. And, no, almost no one is getting rich by being a published author. In face, this article is pretty telling: it talks about the practical limits on possible sales for most books due to the mechanics of the publishing industry.

But so what? After all, people don’t go around yelling “Hey, I made $1000 for getting published!”

They go around yelling “I got published!”

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