Markets I will bet against

Blurb.com, a self-publishing startup, will invite 600 bloggers this week to test out its new service by creating a free bound copy of their blog.  It’s a fresh shot across the bow to traditional publishers in an industry already facing disruptive changes from digital giants Google and Amazon.

Here is the story.  Not every blogger book has been a big hit, in part because the two media are so different.  Blogs are sequential, rely on daily freshness, an ability to send around links, and they are best consumed in small bits.  A snarky bit which is excellent in a daily blog cannot be repeated verbatim in a book, especially not every fourteen pages.  Translating good blog ideas into book format is best done by people who…have experience writing books, or who have journalistic experience, not by people who have large staplers.