Derek Dahlsad is a technical wizard and sharp designer. Self taught in most respects, he pulls a formal theatrical design education and part-time computer science courses into a skill-set that is neither purely artistic nor limited by technicality.

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Blookers: Awards for Blogs-Turned-Books
11 Oct 2005, 4:53:58 pm

A new type of book award has been announced: The Blooker Prize. Behind this venture is Lulu, the big online POD house that lets bloggers turn themselves into bloogers through the magic of self-publishing. Any book that originated as blog content is eligible; only physically-printed books are accepted.

Now, I'm pleased with this award: bloggers really have returned value to the written word, and should be rewarded as such. In the olden days, you had a couple options...be publish, or publish yourself. Both required significant effort, devotion, and financial independence to get started towards success. Magazines often purchased works, but it was still work to get an editor to like your work enough. Today, anyone with something to say can set themselves up with a blog, and eventually move to print, without any financial investment whatsoever. 15-20 years ago, I read an article commending email for returning value to the art of letter-writing in the era of telephones; blogging returns value of the art of writing in the era of television.

On the other hand, I'm also raising my eyebrow at the Blooker awards: are there really that many good blogger-written books to pick from? If there are that many, the award will definitely raise the profile of such books. Most bloggers out there aren't particularly relevant or fun to read; simply composing their blog to type won't make their writing more appealing. I suppose that's why the deadline is January '06...writers have plenty of time to get their books to LuLu and have them ready for submission.

While LuLu stands to benefit from it, the printed word benefits as a whole. This award is different from other book awards, in that the books considered were created in a far different manner than regular publishing. Look at it as a sign of where the publishing industry is changing, and not some antiquated industry that's going to be killed by the online world. Print still has value, and we're seeing the first expansion of its next-generation evolution.

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