'Blooker Prize' rewards books based on blogs

Online self-publishing house Lulu has announced the Blooker Prize--what it calls the first-ever literary award for "blooks," books based on blogs or Web sites.

"A blook is a book with content that was developed in a significant way from material originally presented on a blog, Web-comic or other Web site. This material includes the Web site's characters, themes, ideas or outline that ends up getting published as a printed book," reads a FAQ on the Blooker Prize site. (Others claim a blook is an online book distributed on a blog.)

Cash awards will be handed out in three categories--fiction, nonfiction and comics--with winners in each group nabbing $1,000, and an overall winner taking home an additional grand. (Famous self-publisher Walt Whitman would no doubt be saddened by the absence of a poetry category.)

The panel of judges is made up of Cory Doctorow, co-editor of the popular blog Boing Boing; Slashdot contributor Robin Miller and Ibiblio director Paul Jones.

And no, the blooks don't have to be published through Lulu in order to be eligible. It seems the only requirement is that the work be self-published and that it be bound, i.e., no e-books.

"Scores of blooks have already been published, both by traditional publishers and self-publishers. Indeed, traditional publishing houses, ever in search of the next big-name author, have begun to mine blogs and Web sites for new talent," the FAQ continues.

A quick perusal of Lulu's site reveals that the company itself has attracted a variety of scribblers, writing on a mix of topics. Titles range from "The Authoritative Encyclopedia of Scientific Wrestling" to "Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere" to "How To Cook A Peacock: Le Viandier--Medieval Recipes by Taillevent." On the fiction side there's "Cyberchild" ("In a war-torn country in Eastern Europe, the life of a young girl is radically changed when she encounters a lab animal freed from a medical experiment gone awry").

If those selections are any indication of the sort of thing the Blooker judges will be encountering, they should be in for a good time.

The deadline for entering the race for the Blooker--the name, of course, is a takeoff on the famous U.K. literary award--is Jan. 30, 2006.

Blooker link courtesy Design Observer.