Blooker Prize Blog

Three new entries

It seems as though I have exhausted all my cleverness a few posts ago, at least when it comes to the titles of these posts (not that they were really all that clever to begin with). Slow Dirty Education? The Spirit of Home Goes Bad? Yeah, neither of those seem particularly appropriate. Oh well, I guess I'll have to let my imagination recharge. But please don't let my failings alter your perception of today's three Blooker entries.

A Dirty Old Man Goes Bad: John Cowart's 2005 Blog
by John Cowart - www.cowart.info/blog

$16.95 (Blue Fish Books/Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"A Dirty Old Man Goes Bad records the humor and happiness of a frustrated writer. John’s daily blog, Rabid Fun, bears the caption, 'A befuddled ordinary Christian looks for spiritual realities in day to day living.' Sounds like a downer. Yet, over 104,000 readers from 102 countries visited his website in 2005. A Dirty Old Man Goes Bad reveals John’s happy joys as well as his struggles with temptation over bitterness, resentment, pornography, Microsoft, depression, laziness, Google, Blogger, pettiness, sloth, Krispy Kreme Donuts, and anger. All in all, this is a real-time love story told day by day by a man who loves reality."

The Spirit of Education
by jeff white - www.spiritofeducation.com

$20.00 (Dirt Sheep Press/Lulu) - Buy it

Blooker Category: Non-Fiction

"What is education? It's a term we use every day to describe the process of putting 25 or 30 young souls into a cinder block room and filling their heads with what-all over the course of the first quarter of their lives. But is that education? If it's not, what is it? And what are its consequences? Education--true education--is not a process of pouring in from without, but of calling forth what is within. It's not a process of memorization or socialization or instillation, but a process of nurturing, of allowing, of evoking. It's a process of bringing forth the person one is meant to be. The Spirit of Education attempts to begin anew our conversations about education: what it is, and where it might take us."

Slow Road Home: A Blue Ridge Book of Days
by Fred First - fragmentsfromfloyd.com

$15.95 (Goose Creek Press) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Following the sudden realization at fifty-four that his working life had left him unfulfilled in those needs that mattered most, First leaves that world behind. Tracking the quit turns of solitude's seasons, these short essays capture the daily miracles of an extraordinary time in a beautiful place. First finds himself home at last in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia...Why, he wonders, do some places call to us so strongly that we cannot ignore their pull?"

Adversity and Hope

Our next two entries are a pair of emotional memoirs from opposite sides of the world. From South Africa, we have one woman's account of her struggle to overcome infertility, and from Canada comes a father's story of his son's battle with cancer and his family's determination to make the most of the time they all had left together.

So Close: Infertile and Addicted To Hope
by Tertia Albertyn - www.tertia.org

R130.00 (Oshun) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"What happens when you start trying for a family...and trying, and trying some more? How Far do you go to achieve your dream of having children? So Close is the heart wrenching, exhilarating, devastatingly funny story of Tertia Albertyn's battle with infertility...During Tertia's journey everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Until, finally, everything goes just right."

Ya Can't Let Cancer Ruin Your Day: The James Emails
by Syd Birrell (with Forward by Tom Hanks) - www.jamesfund.ca

$16.95 (Green Train Books) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Syd Birrell is a man with a mission. In fact, make that two missions. His goal is to inspire families to cherish each other, living each day as if it were their last together, and while he's at it, he'd like to find a cure for cancer--specifically, for neruoblastoma, the deadly childhood cancer that claimed his son, James, at the age of eight. When James was diagnosed with the disease that killed him, Syd, his wife Pam and their family didn't retreat, withdraw or give up. Instead they set about realizing as many dreams as possible with whatever time they had left with James...the result was an all too short life lived to the fullest and this book, a loving testament to his son and words of encouragement and hope for anyone who ever faced adversity."

The Quill Book Awards

Voting is open for the second annual Quill Books Awards (aka The Quills), and Julie Powell is one of five nominees for Debut Author of the Year. Julie & Julia is also a nominee for the Cooking category, and since all Quill nominees are also in the running for Book of the Year, that's three awards Julie could win!

The Quills are a "consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy," and are backed by a few large media companies such as NBC and Reed Business Information (parent company of Publishers Weekly). Voting for all 20 categories takes place online, and anyone can participate. However, voting closes on September 30, so time is running out if you want to participate.

Go there now and vote for Julie!

By the way, Julie & Julia isn't the only blook up for a Quill. Eisner Award winning Mom's Cancer, by Brian Fies, is one of the nominees in the Graphic Novels category. It hasn't been entered in the Blooker...yet (hint, hint).

Although it is still being developed, we plan to officially announce "The People's Blooker" later this year. Like the Quills, anyone will be able to participate in the voting, but the big difference is that the nomination process will also be open to all. I'll share more details once we have the process worked out a bit more.

Dating by the blook

Just in time for a lonely Friday night, our next two entries delve into the world of dating. First we have a witty and candid memoir of a serial dater, and that is followed up by a collection of relationship advice that spans 20th century.

Dating Amy: 50 True Confessions of a Serial Dater
by Amy DeZellar - www.datingamy.com

$12.95 (5 Spot) - Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Here to give hope to smart single women everywhere is Amy DeZellar, who bravely dedicated two years of her life to debunking common dating myths and documenting 50 of her dates. Each of the 50 chapters in this book is dedicated to a different date, and includes the kinds of tips and sharp observations that only someone on the front lines can offer. Get ready to laugh, cry, and commiserate with Amyand learn, as she did, a few things about finding the perfect man."

Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating, & Marriage: Classic Advice for Contemporary Dilemmas
by Abigail Grotke - www.missabigail.com

$14.95 (Thunder's Mouth Press/Avalon) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Let Miss Abigail Help! Since 1998 her website has provided time-warp words of wisdom to over 500,000 of those in need. Drawing from her collection of more than 1,000 classic advice books, author Abigail Grotke uses your mother's grandmother's, and great-grandmother's advice to solve your modern-day dilemmas!"

Blooks from down the street and across the sea

Man, the entries have really started to pile up since I last did one of these posts! So far, there have been ~50 entries logged through the online form, and 20 of those have already arrived here at Blooker Central. That's a marked improvement from the way things stood after the first month of the 2006 Blooker. Here are the next four submissions, and, once again, I am amazed by the sheer varitey of blooks we are getting in this year.

Suburban Diva: From the Real Side of the Picket Fence
by Tracey Henry - www.backwash.com/content.php?id=274

$13.99 (Ephemera Bound Publishing) - Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Tracey Henry writes about her adventures living family values in today's world. And although it may not always be as glamorous as it sounds, it is always hilarious. Suburban Diva’s stories from the real side of the picket fence are the chick lit postscript: insights for the woman who has already won her romance battles and finds the spoils are as humorous and entertaining as the pursuit."

The Switzer's Guide to Hamlet
by Darran Foxon - www.switzersguide.com

$9.99 (Lulu) - Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"What is it like to be an extra with the world-famous Royal Shakespeare Company? Eight ordinary residents of Stratford found out in the summer of 2004. They played Switzers (Swiss mercenaries) in Mr Michael Boyd's production of Hamlet starring Toby Stephens in the title role. "The Switzer's Guide To Hamlet" is a comic account of their experiences."

Albert The Third
by Slim Palmer - www.althought.com

£9.99/$15.99 (Exposure Publishing) - Buy it: UK /US

Blooker category: Fiction

"Albert The Third sees our hero  encounter Witches, Time Travellers and Gargoyles in the further adventures of Albert 'I am NOT a snail' Aiten. The stories are based upon Albert's meetings, adventures, imagineerings and characters from his website. It is the illustrated follow up to The Albert Tales and Albert Tales Too."

Across The Sea
by Max Vande Vaarst - www.king-of-dragons.com

$8.95 (Lulu) - Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"The quintessential story of a crestfallen young man struggling to capture some semblance of direction in his life. A tale of self-destruction, American style."

Classifying blooks

Although I'm evidently at risk of getting brutally punched in the face for it, I'm going to talk a bit about blooks--specifically, how they are being classified. The Blooker gets awarded in three broad categories (fiction, non-fiction, and webcomics...but you all know that by now, right?), but the line that separates them is often fuzzy at best. For all you blauthors out there (I wonder if I'll get for that? A kick to the neck?) who have memoirs with fictionalized parts, stories based loosely on actual events, or even fiction based on a webcomic, I suggest you use your best judgment as to which Blooker category you submit your blook to. If the review committee feels that a particular blook should be considered for a category other than the one listed in the entry form, it will. (The entry will not be disqualified.)

Obviously, categorization isn't an exact science, and there are always going to be alternative schemes. In an article on the growing phenomenon of blooks, SpokesmanReview.com recently defined four primary categories (with examples) into which most blooks can be can be placed.

1. "High-concept nonfiction derived from quirky, humerus sites" (Julie & Julia by Julie Powell)
2. "Political broadsides" (How Would a Patriot Act? and Bush Agonistes, both by Glenn Greenwald)
3. "Novels inspired by blogs" (Anonymous Lawyer by Jeremy Blachman, Dog Days by Ana Marie Cox--the original Wonkette)
4. "Memoirs based on blogs" (Belle de Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog From Iraq by Riverbend, Abandoned: The True Story of Girl Who Didn't Belong by Anya Peters, New York Hack, and Waiter Rant)

It's good to see two of last year's entries included, as well as two that have been already been entered (but not yet submitted) for this year. Hopefully, we'll see all the rest of the blooks on this list (and a whole lot more) in the contest by January 15!

I know that all of this pigeonholing is merely an academic exercise, but I would also add at least two more major categories to the above list: novels serialized in blogs (Hackoff.com, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Gus Openshaw's Whale-killing Journal--just to name a few), and books based on webcomics. Also, it is not entirely clear to me the difference between categories 1 and 4, but I suppose there's not much I can do but sit back, jaw clenched, and wait for the flurry of punches that are surely racing across the Atlantic at this very moment to deal out righteous judgment.

Dirty Minds?

Direct from Random House UK we have two steamy memoirs of women who took control of their faltering love-lives...and blogged about it!

Straight Up and Dirty
by Stephanie Klein -- www.stephaneiklein.com

£12.99 (Ebury Press/Random House UK) Buy it
$24.95 (Regan Books/HarperCollins) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"A thirty-year old divorcee hits rock bottom then hits the town...Bergdorf Blondes meets Desperate Housewives meets The Sexual Life of Catherine M. in a funny, erotic, razor-sharp story of love, marriage, and sex."

Girl with a One Track Mind
by Abby Lee -- girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com

£7.99 (Ebury Press/Random House UK) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Abby Lee is smart, sassy, and perpetually single. Frustrated with her mediocre love-life, she's now looking for the kind of sex she's always wanted. This is the intimate diary of her extraordinary sexual journey."

Here For Crafty Software

Here are the next three submissions. All have been entered into the same category, yet they cover vastly different material. It looks like this year the judges are again going to have their work cut out for them!

Here For a Good Time: On the Road With Trooper--Canada's Legendary Rock Band
by Ra McGuire -- www.ramcguire.com

$14.95 (Insomniac Press) - Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Famous for his quick wit and sometimes too-candid stage banter, McGuire has always has a knack for keeping audiences on the edge of their seats. In Here For a Good Time, he reveals the peaks and valleys of his life on the road and the joys and challenges of being a fifty-something rock star at large in the country he knows like the back of his hand."

Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box
by Alex Epstein -- complicationsensue.blogspot.com

$15.00 (Owl Books/Henry Holt) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Epstein, a veteran TV writer and show creator himself, provides essential knowledge about the entire process of television writing, both for beginners and for professionals who want to go to the next level...Fresh, funny and informed, Crafty TV Writing is the essential guide to writing for and flourishing in the world of television."

Eric Sink on the Business of Software
by Eric Sink -- software.ericsink.com

$24.99 (Apress) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"For developers who want to be coding entrepreneurs and know more about the business side of things...This book collects and expands on articles from Eric's popular weblog...You will find stories of his successes and failures across eight rich years of managing a self-funded software product company."

Small French Monsters

Today begins a new regular feature here at the Blooker blog--a closer look at the blooks that have already been physically submitted to the contest. All quoted text has been taken directly from the books themselves.

Small Is the New Big: and 183 other riffs, rants, and remarkable business ideas
by Seth Godin -- sethgodin.typepad.com

$25.95 (Portfolio/Penguin) -- Pre-order it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Collected here for the first time are eight years of his very best blog posts, magazine columns, and e-books. On literally every page, Small Is the New Big offers ideas and stories that can change how your work, what you buy, and how you see the world."

Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language From the South of France
by Kristin Espinasse - french-word-a-day.typepad.com

$18.00 (Touchstone/Simon &Schuster) -- Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"A heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."

Monster Island: A Zombie Novel
by David Wellington - www.thirteenbullets.com

$13.95 (Thunder's Mouth Press/Avalon) - Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"In New York City, the dead walk the streets, driven by an insatiable hunger for all things living. From the other side of the planet, a small but heavily armed group of schoolgirls-turned-soldiers comes in search of desperately needed medicine, with a former UN weapons inspector as their local guide. They think they are prepared for anything. On Monster Island they will find that there is something worse even than undeath."

Listing entries

I've just changed the format of this blog slightly by adding a column on the right to list the entries. We did this for the 2006 Blooker, but, to be honest, there was a slight problem--we listed the blooks as they were entered via the website, and many of them were never physically submitted! If you don't send in your blook, it's not eligible for the Blooker that year. It's a simple as that. (That's why Jessica Cutler's Washingtonienne is on the list again--she never sent it in last year, and was therefore able to re-enter it.)

Despite this potential point of confusion, I will still be listing all the blooks entered through the site. (What can I say? It makes an otherwise static blog a bit more dynamic.) However, if any of these entries fail to be submitted by the January 15 postmark deadline, I'm taking them down. Likewise, if it becomes apparent that an entry is ineligible for the Blooker (e.g. it is not based on online content, or it is not printed in English), it will be removed from the list. Make sense?

Something new for the 2007 Blooker will be posts about the legitimate entries as they get physically submitted. Seven have already come in, and I will be blogging about them in a bit more detail very soon.

Voices from BlogHer

As promised, here are two interviews from BlogHer that will appear in the forthcoming installment of the Lulu Radio podcast.

First up, Team BlogHer member Charlotte (who is also my podcasting partner-in-crime) interviewed Susie Bright. Susie (right) is an author, editor, blogger, and "sexpert," and she was one of our favorite people at the event. The interview focuses on writing and publishing, but be warned--it also contains mild cursing, references to illicit drugs, and a healthy dose of Paris Hilton bashing. (Also, please forgive the sounds of San Jose traffic in the background!)
Download SusieBright.mp3 (6016.1K)

Next is my interview with Heather Powazek Champ (left), photographer, blogger, and co-editor of JPG Magazine. We discussed the motivations behind the quarterly photography magazine and how the Internet has helped artists of all kinds successfully self-publish. It was great finally getting to meet Heather, and I really appreciate the time she took out of a busy convention to talk to me.
Download HeatherChamp.mp3 (9003.9K)

BlogHer and Blooker and bears, oh my!

Jason here, and I think I'm finally recovered from my amazing weekend at BlogHer 2006 in cool, breezy, non-humid San Jose, CA. Lulu.com was one of the event sponsors and an exhibitor, and we were there not only to promote Lulu but the Blooker as well. We were a bit overwhelmed by amount of positive response we got from the convention attendees, but I suppose it really shouldn't be that surprising that Lulu appeals to bloggers. After all, they are people who are proactive, tech-savvy, and, most importantly, they have something to say. They embrace alternative media and happily subvert the long-held traditions of publishing and journalism. Plus, many already have a built in audience for their blook, which makes marketing (which is one of the biggest challenges of self-publishing) significantly easier.

 

One of the most frequently asked questions at the Lulu booth (seen here with Charlotte and Katie, the other 2/3 of Team BlogHer) was "How can I turn my blog into a book?"

Well, there is, of course, no single answer. As Karen Rani recently pointed out in the BlogHer blog, there are quite a few options out there. Admittedly, I'm a little biased toward the hands-off Lulu model, but the complete control over blook format and design that Lulu allows does mean that the author has to do most of the work. In upcoming posts, I will examine the features of many of the alternate blog-to-book services to help you make an informed decision of how best to blookify your blog.

So, where was I? Ah yes, BlogHer. We met a lot of really cool people--too many to list them all. We hung out with the incomparable Susie Bright and our friends (and fellow North Carolinians) from Blog ads. I got to interview Heather Powazek Champ, community director at Flickr and co-editor of JPG Magazine, for Lulu Radio, the official podcast of Lulu.com. (I'll post that here once I get a chance to edit it.)

Blooker judge Arianna Huffington was there to give one of the keynote addresses. Unfortunately, since I was in the booth all day, I didn't get a chance to meet her. In fact, this is about a close to her as I was able to get!(She's sitting at the far end of the hall to the left of the screen.)

All in all, it was awesome to be around such a dynamic and creative group of people, and I hope that each and everyone one of them enters the Blooker!

(Special thanks to Maria Benet of the Alembic blog for permission to post this photo!)

 

Blooker 2007 is open for entry!

The Lulu Blooker Prize is back, and it promises to be bigger and better than ever!

The prize for the Overall Winner has been increased to US $10,000, and the two category winners will receive US $2,500 each!

Another exciting change this year is a larger international panel of judges:

• Paul Jones, director of ibiblio.org, returns to the Blooker, and this time as Chair of the Judges.
• Arianna Huffington--author, nationally syndicated columnist, and editor of the HuffingtonPost.com.
• Julie Powell--author of Julie & Julia, Overall Winner of the 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize.
• Rohit Gupta--Bombay-based blogger, journalist, author and "sidewalk philosopher."
• Nick Cohen--London-based author, blogger, and columnist for The Observer and The New Statesman.

The entry deadline for the 2007 Blooker is Monday, January 15, 2007--so you have plenty of time to submit your blook, or to "blookify" your blog or website if you haven't done so.

We have some cool new features planned for the coming months, so check back with us for information on those, as well as all Blooker news and developments.

Business Week recognizes blooks

The current issue of Business Week had a big article on the phenomenon of blooks, and it includes a slide show highlighting all three Blooker winners and other high-profile blooks. To be honest, we're pretty ticked off that it mischaracterizes Lulu.com as a vanity publisher and down-plays the significance of the Blooker Prize. However, it does spot-light what we've known all along, blooks are not a flash-in-the-pan phenomenon. In addition to the Blooker winners, non-fiction short-lister All the President's Spin gets a mention, as wall as entrant Warren Meyer and his blook Coyote Blog: Year One (available at Lulu).

Other blooks mentioned in the article/slide-show:

My War: Killing Time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq by Riverbend - nominated for the Samuel Johnson Prize!
PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren
Straight Up & Dirty by Stephanie Klein

None of these books were entered in the 2006 Blooker Prize, but there's always next year!

Speaking of blooks that were not considered for the Blooker, I wanted to mention Katrina and the Lost City of New Orleans by Rod Amis. Contest judge Robin Miller was one of the original editors of the blook, and for that reason, we had to disqualify it for entry. We did not have an official "honorable mention" list this year, but if we had, Rod's book would have been at the top.

Thanks to all the judges

A big part of the reason the inaugural Lulu Blooker Prize has been such a success is the talented group of people on the judicial committee. They not only did they deftly handle the difficult task of selecting the winners from a pool of excellent entries, but they helped put a sheen of respectability on this little upstart literary contest of ours.

So, once again, here are this year's core judges:

Cory Doctorow - www.craphound.com and www.boingboing.net

Paul Jones - www.ibiblio.org/pjones/wordpress and www.ibiblio.org

Robin "Roblimo" Miller - www.roblimo.com and www.slashdot.org

Our thanks also goes out to all the members of our previously unsung short-list selection committee.

Richard Dansky
Ben Kimmel
Kathryn Nasser
Melinda Thielbar
Barry Wilson

Lastly, for his invaluable assistance with the Comics category, we want to extend special thanks to Andrew Neal and

 

Let us not forget the runners-up

Although they were included in our press release, very few places have reported on the runners-up. Monday's print version of the USA Today article listed them, but, sadly, they were left out of the online article.

Here's what some of the judges had to say about the runners-up:

Non-fiction: Biodiesel Power by Lyle Estill

"Biodiesel Power tells the true story of a blog-enabled community that is a real force for good in the world, using the Internet to coordinate their efforts to generate viable, plausible alternatives to petrochemicals." - Cory Doctorow

"This blook is about obsession and drive and community. It is printed and bound in the most environmentally friendly manner true to the last drop of ink to the higher goals for the writer. This attention to detail, to harmony, inform the writing and the story telling while the self-reflective humor in the stories keep the blook from becoming preachy and sour." - Paul Jones

"Biodiesel preserved its essential "blogness" and was cleverly edited into book form without hiding its online roots."
- Robin Miller

Fiction: hackoff.com by Tom Evslin

"Vividly captures the spirit of online chatter and was well suited to serialization on a blog -- the form combined with the geeky subject  matter and a cracking whodunnit make this book an excellent read for blook-fans." - Cory Doctorow

Comics: Dinosaur Comics: Huge Teeth, Beaks, Intelligence, and Ambition
             by Ryan North

"A single set of illustrations manipulated into dozens of different stories by the words alone. The art, and by that I mean the skill and imagination, dazzles me at every page turn. Everyone I hand this blook to is delighted and laughing." - Paul Jones

"Funny as hell and thrifty in its use of recycled paste-up imagery from strip to strip. There are genius comic moments in this little book of big lizards." - Cory Doctorow

boing...

I suppose it was bound to happen eventually, considering Cory Doctorow was one of this year's judges, but The Blooker has been BoingBoing'ed!

This will not doubt add to the already extensive blog coverage we've been getting, most of which has been quite enthusiastic. Of course there will always be some skeptics out there in both the press and the blogosphere, but we here at the Blooker believe that blooks are here to stay...despite the silly name.

Blooker news circles the globe!

The news of the announcement was broken first in the UK by The Independent, followed closely by The Telegraph and USA Today. Once Reuters picked it up, press all over the world began reporting on the winners of the first annual Lulu Blooker Prize!

Countries that have covered the announcement so far:

• France
• The Netherlands
• Romania
• South Africa
• India
• North Korea
• Indonesia
• Australia
• Canada

Oh, and I nearly forgot, NPR Marketplace, BBC World Service, The New York Times...

And the Winners are...

We are very excited to announce the winners of the first annual Lulu Blooker Prize!

Overall Winner (and Non-Fiction Winner): Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

Fiction Winner: Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

Comics Winner: Totally Boned: A Joe and Monkey Collection by Zach Miller

Congratulations to all the winners!

Date clarification

It has come to our attention that one of our press releases incorrectly stated that the winners of the 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize will be announced on April 6. The actual date, as posted on the on the official Blooker site, and correctly reported in the BBC and elsewhere, is Monday, April 3, 2006.

The incorrect date was picked up by Reuters and subsequently reported in a number of articles worldwide. We apologize for this unfortunate mistake and any confusion it has caused.

Sound + Vision

Russel Davies has posted an mp3 of his recent interview with BBC Radio 5 in his eggbaconchipsandbeans blog. (I particularly like his description of brown sauce -- "the British Empire in a bottle.") In the same entry, he also has some very interesting things to say about the relationship of blogs and books.

In other news, The Blooker gets vlogged! (Courtesy of MobuzzTV)

Sorry, I just had to say it...

blook buzz

The announcement last week of the Lulu Blooker Prize short-list produced a flood of press coverage all over the world both in traditional print media and online. Stories on the short-list have been featured in The Daily Telegraph, The Times of London, The BBC (not only once, but twice), The CBC, and US News and World Report .  Getting picked up by Reuters doesn't hurt either!

The UK press, perhaps not surprisingly, has focused its attention on British entrants Russell Davies and Belle de Jour. Of course, they're not the only Blooker finalists getting attention. Kevin Cornell has been interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Tornotoist loves Ryan North!

We know there are other exciting stories in the works, and we'll post about them here when they happen.

 

The Short-List

Non-fiction (6 finalists)

All The President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media, and the Truth by Bryan Keefer, Ben Fritz, and Brendan Nyhan

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (paperback, $14.00)
• Source blog/site: Spinsanity - www.spinsanity.com

Belle de Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl by Anonymous

• Publisher: Phoenix (paperback, £7.99)
• Source blog/site: Belle de Jour - http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com

Biodiesel Power by Lyle Estill

• Publisher: New Society Publishers (paperback, $16.95)
• Source blog/site: Piedmont Biofuels Energy Blog - www.biofuels.coop/blog

Egg Bacon Chips and Beans: 50 Great Cafes and the Stuff That Makes Them Great by Russell Davies

• Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment (hardback, £9.99)
• Source blog/site: eggbaconchipsandbeans - www.eggbaconchipsandbeans.com

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell

• Publisher: Little, Brown (hardback, $23.95)
• Source blog/site: The Julie/Julia project - http://blogs.salon.com/0001399

Stone Cold Guilty - The People v. Scott Lee Peterson by Loretta Dillon

• Publisher: self-published through Lulu (paperback, $16.50)
• Source blog/site: Observations of a Misfit - www.misfitting.com

Fiction (5 finalists)

Action Poetry: Literary Tribes for the Internet Age edited by Levi Asher, Jamelah Earle, and Caryn Thurman

• Publisher: Authorhouse (paperback, $17.50)
• Source blog/site: Literary Kicks - www.litkicks.com

Africa Fresh! New Voices from the First Continent - edited by Rod Amis

• Publisher: self-published through Lulu (paperback, $15.00)
• Source blog/site: G21: The World's Magazine - www.g21.net

Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

• Publisher: Tor (paperback, $13.95)
• Source blog/site: Heretic Spire, a Damn Lie - http://wicked-wish.livejournal.com

Gus Openshaw's Whale-Killing Journal by Keith Thomson

• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage (hardback, $23.00)
• Source blog/site: Gus Openshaw's Whale-Killing Journal - http://blubberybastard.tripod.com/blog

hackoff.com: an historic murder mystery set in the Internet bubble and rubble by Tom Evslin

• Publisher: dotHill Press (hardback, $24.95)
• Source blog/site: hackoff.com - www.hackoff.com

Comics (5 finalists)

Ambidextrous: Collection 1 by Kevin Cornell

• Publisher: self-published through Lulu (paperback, $11.99)
• Source blog/site: Bearskinrug - www.bearskinrug.co.uk

Comic Strip Volume 1: Scarybear and Friends by Jason Pultz

• Publisher: self-published (paperback, $15.00)
• Source blog/site: Comic Strip - www.scarybear.org

Dinosaur Comics: Huge Eyes, Beaks, Intelligence, and Ambition by Ryan North

• Publisher: self-published through CatPrint (paperback, $8.00)
• Source blog/site: Dinosaur Comics - www.qwantz.com

The Dada Alphabet: An Absurdist's Illustrated Primer by Stephanie Freese, David Milloway, and Matthew Wood

• Publisher: self-published through Lulu (paperback, $15.00)
• Source blog/site: The Dada Detective - www.likelystories.com

Totally Boned: A Joe and Monkey Collection by Zach Miller

• Publisher: self-published through Lulu (paperback, $14.95)
• Source blog/site: Joe and Monkey - www.joeandmonkey.com

The Blooker is closed

Entry to the 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize is now closed.

There was a flood of last-minute entries, and we're still sorting though them all. Blooks that  were entered over a month ago and have still not arrived at our offices have been taken off the list. As we stated in this blog back in October, we have been listing the entries as they were submitted via the website, but physical submissions are still required to be considered for the prize. The list will certainly change again over the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who has submitted your blooks!

Closing in on the deadline

The deadline to enter the Blooker is right around the corner, but it's not too late to send in your blook! The last few weeks have seen a flood of new entries, and there have been so many that I can barely keep the entry list up to date!

Notable new entries include: Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, Cherie Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds, The World According to Mimi Smartypants , Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics, and Nasrin Alavi's We are Iran: The Persian Blogs. And that's just to name a few!

Novelist John Scalzi (author of several blooks including Old Man's War and Agent to the Stars) has declined to enter, citing his good friendship with Blooker Judge Cory Doctorow. However, he did give us a very nice mention over at his blog.

Meanwhile, it seems we've got some competition on the nomenclature front. Is there a difference between a "plog" and a "blook?" I think I'll have leave that one to the folks at the OED; in any case, Kester's book would definitely qualify for the Blooker!

Deadline reminder!

As many have already noticed, the deadline for entering the Blooker Prize is fast approaching. Entries must be received by no later than Monday, January 30, 2006.

As stated in the contest rules, to be considered for the Blooker, you must send in the entry form and three copies of your blook to:

The Lulu Blooker Prize
8311 Brier Creek Pkwy
Suite 105-374
Raleigh, NC 27617
USA

If you've already filled out the entry form online, don't forget to mail your blooks! If you have a blook, but haven't entered it yet, what are you waiting for?

Home and abroad

The past month has seen lots of great coverage for The Blooker, both in the international press and closer to home. Most notably, in October The Times of India featured this really nice write-up. More recently, The Raleigh News & Observer (our local paper) interviewed esteemed Blooker judge Paul Jones. (Will the mystery of the rubber chicken ever be completely solved?) Stephen and I had a chance to rub shoulders with Paul (he blogs about it here) and other local bloggers and podcasters at a recent meet-up, and yes, we talked up The Blooker! We're also getting noticed by academia, although this notoriety may only be short-term...

How to blookify your blog

Following the controversy sparked by the launch of The Blooker Prize over who first invented the word "blook," we would like to suggest another new word, which, as far as we know, we can safely claim to have invented: "blookify", a transitive verb meaning to take the contents of a blog or website and render them into a printed or bound book (i.e. blook).

Blookification can take several forms, as demonstrated by the wide variety of blooks already entered in The Blooker, but sometimes it's as straightforward as converting the contents of a blog directly to a blook. Case in point: small business owner Warren Meyer, who recently turned the first year of his Coyote Blog into a blook (well, two blooks to be specific). In this post he describes the process in detail - a lengthy process to be sure, but one that has become increasingly easier with the advent of self-publishing services like Lulu.com. Mr. Meyer hasn't entered The Blooker yet, but he's blookified his blog, and that's the first step.

Blooks are bloring?

In response to today's very entertaining letters to the editor on The Register UK's recent story on The Blooker I won't bother to cobble together a defense of techno-utopianism, nor will I make any attempt to draw the attention of that estimable paper's indignant readership to any of the outstanding writing making its first appearance on the web these days. I will simply note that from my very American perspective the vigor of debate in good old England remains inspiring. Here, here!

Recent blog coverage of The Blooker Prize has been positive (see also the Technorati feed). The Washingtonienne herself surprised this blogger with a shout-out yesterday, which I will, in the interest of fairness, ignore for the time being. And of course readers should remember that neither I nor Jason, my fellow Blooker blogger, have anything whatsoever to do with judging this contest. As employees of the contest sponsor, we're just  MC'ing this gig. And having a great time so far.

I'm wondering if we should have a special category next year for scandalous memoirs? But while The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl is entered in the nonfiction category, The Washingtonienne is a novel. The Stripper Files, by Amanda Miller, is entered as fiction, too. We'll see what else comes along. 

International blooks

Blooks, like blogs, are not just an English-language phenomenon, but it's an unavoidable fact that the Lulu Blooker Prize can only accept blooks written in English. For this very reason I had to inform the publishers of Italian journalist Pino Scaccia that we could not accept his blook for consideration. However, that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve acknowledgment.  If you read Italian, please check out his blog and corresponding blook.

Of course we've already had a number of legal international entries including, most recently, blooks from Singapore and Japan.

Listing blooks

A few quick notes about our list of entries...

You may wonder how we got so many entries so quickly. Well, the list is comprised of entries submitted on the Blooker website. Physical submissions are still required to be officially entered into the contest, so don't forget to send in those blooks! (Several have already come in, by the way.)

If your blook has been entered but not yet published, and you prefer that it not appear on our list of entries until it is published, please let us know.

The blooks pour in

You may have noticed that Jason has begun to post the entries received so far in the right column of this blog. We'll need to start breaking them out by category soon, but you can already see some interesting and diverse titles, including big name (big marketing) books like John Battelle's The Search, based on work developed through SearchBlog, and Jessica Cutler's scandalous novel The Washingtonienne (Jessica, call me, ok?). And, closer to my heart, there are also some terrific independently published books already submitted to the Blooker contest. The Happy Hacker, by Carolyn Meinel, gets my award for best title so far.

Blooks in the blogosphere

'Blooks' . . .  'Blogosphere' . . . Blimey. It's not pretty witnessing the birth of a new term. But I wouldn't have expected snarkiness from a site called "Blogebrity." Oh yes,  snarkiness is the coin of the realm among blogs. And I love it.

Edward Moyer of CNet wrote a very nice column noting the creation of The Blooker Prize--"Blooker Prize Rewards Books Based on Blogs"-- and he even took the time to peruse a few books on Lulu, as well as to note the controversy that has arisen over the term blook. If you missed it in the post, Tom Evslin of the blog Fractals of Change commented on the controversy, which is really not so much of a controversy as it is a confluence of notions about of a new kind of book. Evslin himself is posting a novel in serialized form on the blog Hackoff.com (I hope he finishes it in time to enter) and so is Pete Townshend, of all people (yes, that Pete Townshend)--see "The Boy Who Heard Music." I'd love to see his book entered in the Blooker Prize contest, too.

Recent questions

During the course of the contest, we'll be using this blog to answer your questions. Many of these will undoubtedly be added to our main FAQ page, but all of them will be archived here.

Q: My book has both fiction and non-fiction chapters, what is your policy on this?

A: Just as in the world of books, assigning strict categories to blooks can be a dubious exercise. The submitter should decide on the category he or she feels best represents the blook. The judges are, of course, free to agree or disagree.

Q: If my book is published on Lulu, do I still have to order three copies only to send them back to you?

A: Yes, you still need to submit three hard copies, even if your blook is published through Lulu. Keep in mind that the contest is being judged independently of Lulu.com, and the sponsor cannot show any favor to books that appear on Lulu. There is also no requirement that the copies you submit be purchased through Lulu.

Controversy erupts over the term blooks!

Just when you think you've been original.

A bit of controversy has arisen over the term 'blook' itself, which turns out to have not one (see today's post on the blog Greg Writes), but at least two prior claimants. One of them has managed to get his version of the etymology listed in the Wikipedia (at least until the editors get to work). But a more credible, and complete, history of the word shows up on the blog Tonypierce.com, who credits the original term to the inimitable Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.

Even so, with a million monkeys blogging someone was bound to invent it over again (even though there are those who object).

The BBC on Blooks

The BBC offers some thoughtful remarks on the creation of a prize for blooks: "Blooker rewards books from blogs."

Some of the blogs turned books keep their epistolary style and retain the episodic format seen online. Others turn the basic information gathered on the web as the starting point for a new work.

BusinessWeek blogger Heather Green, on the other hand, remains skeptical about the longevity of the prize.

Blook collecting

Jason and I plan to blog the blook entries as they come in, adding a title (linked to the book or a description of the book on the web if one can be found), and author (with a link to the originating blog/site). Does anyone anticipate a problem with this approach? Is there any reason you would not want the world to know your book had been entered in the world's first blook competition?

The entries have already started to trickle in, so we should be able to start listing titles on this blog by the end of the week. Have I mentioned how excited we are?

In other book news, you may have noted that Irish writer John Banville has won another prestigious literary prize for his novel, The Sea. The blogs are agog.

Blooks of the Times

The Times Online UK weighs in on the notion of a lit prize for blooks: "From blogs to books, new awards highlight the best of the net." The story makes it sound as if all the books mentioned -- by Wonkette, Salam Pax, et al. -- have been entered in the contest. They haven't -- yet. I hope they will be, but that will of course be up to the authors/publishers.

You can follow expanding blog coverage of the announcement via Technorati, or Google's new blog search engine.    -Stephen

Announcing "The Blooker Prize," the World's First Literary Prize for "Blooks," alias Books Based On Blogs or Web Sites

October 10, 2005 (London, UK and Raleigh, NC) – The world's first literary prize for books based on blogs or web sites - known for short as "blooks" - is announced Monday by its sponsor, Lulu (www.lulu.com), a website that enables anyone to publish and sell their own books.

The Lulu Blooker Prize (www.LuluBlookerPrize.com) will be a global competition honoring the hybrid literary form of blooks, a new form of an old media and one of the hottest new publishing and online trends.

The prize will honor blooks in three categories: fiction, non-fiction, and web-comics. The overall winner will receive $2,000, and winners in the other two categories $1,000 each, in addition to a small piece of literary immortality and something approaching glory in the expanding realm known as the blogosphere.

The contest, which is open to books published by conventional publishing houses as well as independent (self) publishers, will be judged by a panel of figures prominent in both the online and offline publishing worlds, chaired by Cory Doctorow (www.craphound.com), the noted, London-based science-fiction author, blogger co-editor of BoingBoing (www.boingboing.net) the world’s most linked-to blog.

Doctorow, who develops his own books from notes and ideas posted on his weblog, believes that blooks are distinct from traditional books:
"Blogs encourage their authors to publish in small, partially formed chunks," says Doctorow. "Previously, they might have been kept in the author's notebook, but something amazing happens when you post them online: readers help you connect them, flesh them out and grow them into fully-fledged books or blooks."

Other judges include Robin "Roblimo" Miller (www.roblimo.com) of Slashdot (www.slashdot.org) and Paul Jones (www.ibiblio.org/pjones/wordpress/), founder of iBiblio.org. All judging will be independent of the contest sponsor and no favor will be shown to blooks published on Lulu.

The Lulu Blooker Prize, whose title is an affectionate nod to another important literary prize, will take place annually. Winners will be announced April 3, 2006. Details for submitting blooks for consideration appear at www.LuluBlookerPrize.com.

About Lulu (www.lulu.com): Lulu is the world's fastest growing source of print-on-demand book publishing. Founded by Bob Young, who previously co-founded Red Hat, the open source software company, Lulu provides independent publishers with free access to on-demand publishing tools for books, e-books, music, DVDs, images and calendars.

MORE INFORMATION: Stephen Fraser, pr@lulu.com

Blook

blook (bluk), n. A printed and bound book, based on a blog (cf. web log) or web site; a new stage in the life-cycle of content, if not a new category of content and a new dawn for the book itself. cf. The Lulu Blooker Prize (“The Blooker”), a literary prize founded in 2005 for blooks. [der. Eng. book, a bound collection of sheets of paper; blog (abbrev. web log, an internet journal, diary or personal web site)]