Meteor Blades has taken the first shot at implementing dmsilev’s meta-diary on Community and Collaboration by publishing his widely heralded Eco-Diary Rescue. But, he only considered diaries from the preceding week. What if someone went through all the environmental diaries and picked out the best of the best and published a book of them? And that’s just the environmental diaries. What about all the other tags? In case you haven't noticed, this site is a content goldmine!
When kos announced The Class of 2007 he threw in this tantalizing tidbit:
Finally, about those . . . three who will be regular bloggers alongside me . . . All three will be working on books as part of their fellowships. (emphasis added)
Oh yes, books! Surely it is apparent to anyone with half a brain that the blogosphere is a farm system for developing the talents of writers and artists just as the minor leagues develop the talents of ball players. The list of Kos Alumni on the lower right of the Home Page represents some of this site’s contribution to the next level of public scriveners.
But, there are other things besides punditry to aspire to, (except of course for Bob Johnson). My wife and I have a writer friend named Sue Cerulean who edited a book of environmental pieces about northwest Florida where we live called Between Two Rivers. The book contains essays by nationally known writers like Wendell Berry, Bailey White, and Janisse Ray, along with some by lesser known local writers.
To put this book together Sue first had to solicit suggestions from friends about candidates, cull the list down to the ones she wanted, and then go around getting all the contributor permissions. How much easier would it be to simply peruse articles right there on your computer screen and then present a list to a publisher associated with kos who then prints it under The Daily Kos brand name ("Building Democracy One Thread At a Time")?
Now I’m just speculating about possibilities here and have no knowledge about anybody doing this. But it certainly seems like something to think about it. Of course, if kos is going to publish an actual book he’s going to select the person doing the picking.
Hey, what about an e-book? Guess what, kos has already been suckered into subsidizing our efforts on the Net. That’s what this site is all about! All we have to do is take advantage of it. But, the problem is, you can write it, but you can’t always get people to read it.
If Carnacki (Who is BAD for dKos) picked out a list of the best of the best environmental diaries no one would even look at it, much less read it. But, if Jerome a Paris put it together, that’s a Top Of The Rec List certainty. There’s no way around it--it’s hard to build that brand name!
Don't give up yet, though. Look, there are so many topics and so many possibilities, maybe it’s worth a try of putting something like this together. There are obvious ideas like dKos Looks at the 2006 Elections, and then more obscure opportunities like Kossacks Remember Vietnam. Maybe you can actually make a name for yourself and build a brand by doing a good job with a series of compilation diaries.
You couldn’t do better for a model than Meteor Blades's diary referenced above. It’s beautiful to look at and a pleasure to read. A work like this is more than just a list of links. There’s a real art in the presentation and the prose that connects all the links and provides an overall vision for the piece.
And then there’s always the option of piggy-backing on someone else’s brand. Who is going to be the first to publish a diary called The Best of Hunter! (Along with its snark version, an empty diary with only n/t in it.)
Or, possibly someone like TeacherKen might take all of his pieces and publish his own book with kos’ blessing, or maybe even under The Daily Kos brand. It’s good to remember that Robert Fulgum’s mega best seller All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten started out as his musings printed in the church bulletin where he was the pastor.
Hey, come on people, we’ve definitely got more mojo then some stinking church bulletin! Where’s our best seller?
And then there’s the art work. Wouldn’t you love to have a printed collection of dood abide’s masterpieces to share with your friends? Now I’m getting even farther outside my knowledge base here. I have no idea what the copyright issues are with Photoshopped images. But maybe the dood can Kinko up some bootlegged copies of his collected works and sell them at YearlyKos [No doubt some lawyer is going to make me edit out the previous sentence. So, if there's an update, you know what it is.]
Wait a minute, I've got it! Screen printed t-shirts with the dood's images produced and sold under The Daily Kos brand. (Let kos's lawyer worry about the copyright and licensing issues.) Dood, you've got two years to sell as many units of Another fine mess . . . as you can!
I can see it now, dood abides is going to change his sig to Buy My Shirt with a link to the Daily Kos Store. How post-modern -- self-referential advertising. Instead of pimping diaries, we can start pimping products! Maybe dmsilev needs to do a piece on The Netroots Entrepeneur. But I think I'm off my topic.
I’m sure by now you’re getting the general idea. There’s a lot here to work with and a lot of ways to work it. Yes, this site’s a goldmine!