Is there a market for 'blookworms'?

We, like many out there, are struggling with the term "blook," to denote books based on blogs. But unfortunately, we don't get to vote, or else we wouldn't be using terms like "" and "blogosphere," either.

The issue of semantics, however, is only part of the online debate triggered by a BusinessWeek news analysis about publishers' newfound interest in "blooks", a term coined by BuzzMachine.com creator and journalist Jeff Jarvis.

The analysis tracks the evolution of the "blook" industry, noting, among other things, one of the first "blook" success stories, Lulu.com's , and a new software tool that allows bloggers to easily convert their journals into a book. The story also poses a question we're still trying to answer: Do all good blogs make good books?

Blog community response:

"Am I being a dinosaur for feeling that this will mean even more stratification? 75,000 new online journals every day implies, to me, the old needle-in-a-haystack dilemma: many are called (or at least are hopeful) but damned few will be found. There are a few fascinating jewels that have come out of blogs, of course--though they seem mostly to deal with war and sex. Is there a market? Would the rest of you go in search of a blook?"
--Louise Marley

"These so called 75,000 new online diaries are not, by any stretch of the imagination mostly diaries. They are everything from diaries, to marketing channels, to sales channels, to small business models, to PR venues and more...Now, this extremely ridiculous label called 'blook' is trying to stick to the blogosphere (another outdated name) and keep the whole concept of mass communication via this platform in the realm of 'tiddly-winks, thing-a-mabobs and watch-ya-macall-its'. Listen, not every new idea or process that results from this platform needs to start with 'bl'. I don't have a solution to this naming convention catastrophe, but, I do know that it's not pretty."
--IntelliLife

"To be honest, we're pretty ticked off that (the Business Week article) mischaracterizes Lulu.com as a vanity publisher and down-plays the significance of the Blooker Prize. However, it does spot-light what we've known all along, blooks are not a flash-in-the-pan phenomenon."
--Lulu Blooker Blog