The Blooker Prize, World’s First Literary Prize for Blooks (Books Based on Blogs or Web Sites) Announced

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

The Lulu Blooker Prize (www.lulublookerprize.com) is the first contest to honor blooks, a hybrid literary form that has evolved in recent years from web sites, particularly the web sites known as blogs. “Blooks are the hottest new publishing trend,” says Bob Young, CEO of Lulu. “So, the newest thing in publishing is… the oldest thing: the printed book, reinvented as the blook.”

The prize will reward the best blooks in three categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Comic-Blooks (based on web-comics), but with one overall winner. It is open to blooks published anywhere by anyone, provided they are in English. The prize money totals $4,000 - $1,000 for each of the category winners and $2,000 for the overall winner.

“But the winner of the first prize also receives a little piece of literary immortality,” points out Doctorow.

“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” according to FAQ on the Blooker Prize site.

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

The core differentiators of a blook from a book, as defined by the press release, are:

• More collaborative
• Faster
• More likely to take a serial form

I think a blook is often an afterthought, an alternative revenue stream and distribution means for bloggers, not to mention the ego gratification part.