The Blog Herald contributor Chris Garrett has teamed up with Darren Rowse and written a book. Yes, one of those analog things with dead trees in them. The book is titled ProBlogger Book - Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, and that’s of course an enticing promise for sure, right?

Besides the fact that everyone wants to make thousands of dollars, this book is by far the most interesting blog spinoff product I’ve seen so far. Both Chris and Darren are, besides being great guys, also true probloggers, and they know what they’re talking about. This could very well be one of those required books, and a must have for anyone that wants to make it in blogging, much as Stephen King’s On Writing is for anyone who wants to write good fiction.

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Grand Text Auto, a group blog about computer narrative, games, poetry and art, has recently launched an interesting blogging experiment that may take blogging and publishing to the next level. Noah Wardrip-Fruin is putting the manuscript of his upcoming book Expressive Processing, about digital fictions and computer games, online so that the Grand Text Auto community may participate in an open, blog-based peer review. The community is invited to give feedback on the work in the form of comments and/or trackbacks which in its turn may be picked up by the author.

It is the beginning of a more social and networked book.

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As you know SplashPress and The Blog Herald are running the Independent Blogger Book Quest in which I’m reviewing a book published independently — without the backing of a major publisher. In keeping with our mission at the Blog Herald, the books will be about blogging, business, and the work of online professionals. Read this post for guidelines to submit your book for review.

Blogger Book Quest: Roger’s Book, Ferdinand, the Word Guy, and Me

Title: Maps for Modern Magellans: Charts for Captains of Commerce
Blogger/Author: Roger Anderson
URL: Modern Magellans
http://www.modernmagellans.com/
Get this Book: Maps for Modern Magellans: Charts for Captains of Commerce

A Business Book for Folks Crossing Uncharted Waters
Are you feeling that your blog or your business is lost at sea? You might pick up Roger Anderson’s book, Maps for Modern Magellans: Charts for Captains of Commerce. It’s a map for uncharted waters. read more

As you know SplashPress and The Blog Herald are running the Independent Blogger Book Quest in which I’m reviewing a book published independently — without the backing of a major publisher. In keeping with our mission at the Blog Herald, the books will be about blogging, business, and the work of online professionals. Read this post for guidelines to submit your book for review.

Blogger Book Quest: 10 Ways to Make It Great!

Title: 10 Ways to Make It Great!
Blogger/Author: Phil Gerbyshak
URL: 10 Ways to Make It Great!
http://makeitgreat.typepad.com/
Get this Book: 10 Ways to Make It Great! Product Info

Can an Information Geek Survive a Relationship Geek’s Book?

One of the most memorable moments of SOBCon07 was Jeff Brown’s statement about Kum-ba-ya-ers and business bloggers. No matter who hears me talk about that moment, if they were there, they remember it with a grin of “ain’t it the truth?” That’s because the famous BawldGuy, Jeff, was talking about the preferences folks have toward relationships or information as their personal strong suit.

So, when the time came to talk about the book by the consummate Relationship Geek, Phil Gerbyshak, I thought, perhaps, I was not the best choice. I found the right guy up in Edmonton. He’s Greg Balanko-Dickson, and he’s a self-professed Information Geek, as you can tell by his newest blog, the Remote Control CEO.

Hi Greg! How did go when you, an Information Geek, first met Phil, THE Relationship Geek, in person and in his book?

Phil is an extrovert, friendly, and passionate guy and it shows, as an introvert nothing gets my goat more than meaningless hype and hyperbole. When I first ran across Phil’s site the Make It Great! my guard went up, my concerns were never realized as I realized that Phil was the real deal and lived what he wrote. The same is true of his book, Phil works hard to live 1o Ways to Make It Great!

And when you got to reading Phil’s book did you go right through to the end? read more

Independent Blogger Book Quest

As you know SplashPress and The Blog Herald are running the Independent Blogger Book Quest in which I’m reviewing a book about blogging, business, or the work of online professionals. Read this post for guidelines to submit your book for review.

Title and link: Pursue the Passion: Timeless Advice for the Aspiring Individual pdf
Blogger/Author: Brett Farmiloe
URL: http://www.pursuethepassion.com/

When you read the marvelous quotes the team of Pursue the Passion gathered on their trip across the US last summer you’ll understand why it’s worth taking the time to download this little gem. Brett Farmiloe did a beautiful job of choosing and editing them.

Brett chose to organize the quotes into these ideas. read more

As you know SplashPress and The Blog Herald are running the Independent Blogger Book Quest in which I’m reviewing a book published independently — without the backing of a major publisher. In keeping with our mission at the Blog Herald, the books will be about blogging, business, and the work of online professionals. Read this post for guidelines to submit your book for review.

The books are arriving and one book has already been reviewed. I’ll bring another with me next week. Meanwhile, I’ve also worked with two new authors — helping one get his concept in line with his purpose, and and another getting permission to connect her with a small publisher.

The folks in question had a sense of how a book is made and what to expect from their investment. If you want to be a book author, you should know what they do.

Perception versus Reality

It seems everywhere we look another blogger is becoming an author. In the world of the Internet, this literate population of authors here are soon to be the norm that car drivers are in the 3-D world. Or at least, that is a large enough aspiration to give that perception. People want to write a book because they believe
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Because not all books are created equal. We present a book by a blogger on the subject of blogging, writing, or business that is self-published or published by a small, independent publisher.

Title: GUST: The “Tale” Wind of Office Politics
Blogger/Author: Timothy L. Johnson
URL: Carpe Factum: Products
Get this Book: Gust Product Info at Amazon

Before I read the business fable, GUST, I knew that office politics existed. I had determined I couldn’t avoid or resist being part of the “body politic.” What I didn’t have was a clue about how it worked, nor had I really tried to make sense of it.

This book did both for me. Inside this book, you’ll find

• Three key things people manipulate and fight over in organizations — Resouces, People, and Information
• Three kinds of politicians, and how to handle each one
• Six core motivations of political behavior
• Uses (and misuses) of influence in an organization
• Hows and whys of strategizing an appropriate response to a political situation
• Considerations of timing, passion, and support into your political actions
• Executives’ roles in influencing (and correcting) office politics
• Assessments for determining how political your organization really is.

At times the story bends to fit the content. It needs to — no company is quite that dysfunctional all at once – AND that’s what gives this volume a place in my top drawer. Every office politician I’ve ever met is in it and Tim Johnson offers a way to handle each individual . . . um er . . . colleague’s needs with finesse. GUST is worth picking up. just for that.

Read this post for guidelines to submit your book for review.

UPDATE: Please forgive my misuse of the term “Indie Bloggers.” I was caught in book world thinking, using the short form for Indepemdent . . . Please accept my corrections. Independent Blog Book Authors from India and all over the world are welcome to participate.

It’s no secret that I’m from publishing or that I have a feeling for writing and books. I don’t hide the fact that I spent my early career, teaching kids how to get meaning by decoding words in type. Books combine so much I care about teaching, learning, thinking, communicating ideas. The best ones have photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams too.

It’s enough to make me swoon. When you’re stuck somewhere, a good book can take you anywhere.

And so, with great enthusiasm and, in celebration of the book, Blogging Tips That Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging by Lorelle VanFossen, I’m pleased to announce the SplashPress IndieIndependent Blogger Book Quest here at the Blog Herald.

Because Not All Books Are Created Equal

We all know that not all books are created equal. Some have big-name authors. Some have big-name publishers. Some have big-dollar marketing plans. Other books are written after work, after dark, after the kids are put to bed. Those last books are slightly harder to bring to market. They often have a harder time reaching their audience.

So many of them are great books. A great book without an audience still doesn’t get read. That’s worse than sad. read more

We’re proud to announce that one of our own Blog Herald columnists, Lorelle VanFossen, has recently written her own book about blogs and blogging, Blogging Tips - What bloggers won’t tell you about blogging. You can check out the details and place an order here.

The book, published by the Blog Herald, was launched during the recently held SOBCon. Blogging Tips highlights useful and wonderful tips, tutorials, how tos and techniques on blogging that Lorelle has discussed here on the Blog Herald and on her Lorelle on WordPress blog over the past few years. read more