It’s never been easier and less expensive to turn your blog into a “book.” Here’s how. But just because you can doesn’t mean that you should. And just because Seth Godin did it doesn’t mean that you should either. He’s not always right.

Good Blog Posts <> Good Books

Short-form writing certainly has its place. I read hundreds of blog posts every month, probably the equivalent of several books. Only once, however, have I ever read a proper book of regurgitated posts all the way through. (Here’s the book. I was new to social media and figured that it would be important.) And let’s not forget the elephant in the room: plenty of people won’t buy a book because all of its content is online for free.

I’ve seen a few books on Amazon as of late that take the blog-to-book trend to the extreme: very short “books” with verbatim blog posts and, remarkably, unedited, error-laden comments included. If comments constitute valuable content, then why not clean them up? Your book is a reflection of you.

This is just lazy. There’s no other word for it.

Brass tacks: It’s never been more difficult to get people to notice your work. Yes, attention is a form of currency these days. Do you want your reader to be impressed or disappointed? I prefer the former, not the latter.