There are a lot of great sites out there now that will let you self-publish your own book, www.lulu.com, www.blurb.com, and www.createspace.com, just to name a few.
Imagine taking pictures from your Flickr or Picasa account and putting together a photo album of your daughter through the years for her wedding day, gathering all the family vacation photos to give to your son when he graduates, or a company yearbook from all the office parties and outings.
Some sites, like www.blurb.com, make it really easy for you to import your blogs. How great would it be to have a nice compliation of Cringely’s latest platitudes or Scoble’s latest discoveries or year-in-review? Copyrights notwithstanding, of course.
There are a lot of great sites out there for recipes that are in easy-to-read blog format. Imagine putting How to Eat a Cupcake or Smitten Kitchen’s Cookie Recipes in a cookbook? Let’s not forget, the wonderful Traveler’s Lunchbox. Are you hearing me out there, Authors? Pick your best, publish, sell your books, and make a couple extra bucks. You’re welcome. Donations are gladly accepted for my consulting services.
The book is not dead. Trust. I’ve bought or tried most of the eReaders since they started coming out. Including the Rocket, Cybook, and all the other early ones. I’m not even counting the Newton (and no, the Palm doesn’t count either). I love my Sony PRS-505 and I use it almost every day (sorry, PRS-700, and, Kindle, you’ve got a lot of growing up to do). But nothing beats the feel of a good book in your hands. So go ahead, throw one of your creations on your coffee table. People won’t be able to resist picking it up and thumbing through it.