The answer is of course – when it’s also a book. We’ve all heard stories of writers who’ve had their blogs turned into books in one of those rare incidences when some savvy publisher realised its potential and decided to grab the proverbial by the thingumajigs. And before you can say The New Harry Potter, it’s hitting the literary headlines as the Next Big Thing.
But no, I’m not talking about those. Neither am I rabbiting about the many We’ll-print-your-blog-as-a-book-for-only-$$$ schemes. No, what I’m referring to that magic moment when an author realises that bookifying his or her blog might be an easy way to add another title to their bibliography without spending a year writing a new book.
The lovely Jane Friedman doesn’t entirely agree. In her post Please Don’t Blog Your Book, she cites several reasons why you definitely shouldn’t do this, including the habit some writers have of just piling the whole thing into book form without so much as an edit, proof or a how’s-your-father. And, as with all Jane’s advice, it’s good, because naturally, not every blog is going to be a great read in book form. Some, clearly, will be dire, turgid, unnecessary and boring.
So, taking Jane’s advice on board (or rather, ignoring it with my usual yes-but-that-doesn’t-apply-to-me attitude), I nevertheless wanted to try something out. And that’s all it is – just a try-out. To see what happens.
‘The Watson Letters’ which 
has been on the go for several years. The first book The Watson Letters: Something Wicker This Way Comes So the blog I’m talking about is my Sherlock Holmes/Doctor Watson spoof series is a 23,000 word introduction to my other world, featuring real, imaginary and literary characters in a not quite Post-Victorian, steampunk parallel universe, where the intrepid is that I do the usual ‘buy my damn book’ ranting and find nothing happens for weeks on end. This duo continue their fight against crime, along with a generous spoonful of adult humour, fart jokes and dodgy trousers.
The book has only been out a few days and the way these things usually go for metime however, something changed. In little over 24 hours, I’d sold four books. Okay, okay, I know that’s pretty pathetic, but for me, it’s a sign. A sign from that great consulting detective in the sky that what I’ve done is alright.
So we’ll see.
Colin Garrow 