I’ll quote the entire review below. As promised, I won’t argue with it. I will note that, if the perception is that the books consist of nothing more than “samples pulled off the blogs”…well, then I failed as a writer or as a marketer. Which is quite possible. (If the person read the book and came up with that conclusion–that, essentially, there’s no value-add at all–then I really failed and should basically give up this sort of project. Which is also quite possible.)

Here’s the review:

“Book format isn’t right for this type of info — already out of date, and just samples pulled off the blogs. Best to go to an online listing for current efforts.”

First, I’m already subscribed to plenty of blogs. I really don’t go out looking for more. In fact, I’m not a huge fan of some of the ones I’m subscribed to and don’t even read those frequently. They’re just blogs that tend to be read by others so I have them there in case someone else mentions something. I’m not actively looking for more. I imagine there’s probably more than a few people like me.

Second, even though I’m sure you’ve avoided this, it brings back memories of books that seem to crop up every few years with titles like “100 websites on gardening” or “10001 places to get free stuff on the web”. It seemed like half the time the links are dead or gone by time the book came out. It might have been better to go with a title like “Creating a Public Library blog” and including observations gleaned from the other blogs. Then include a review as an appendix or a second half of the book. After all, if it’s just a list of websites, these days I don’t see much reason in getting a book that’s essentially just a directory. I’ll just use yahoo, google and then start following links from one blog to another.

Third is more of a personal reason. Right now I’m trying to budget just how many books I buy. A book on blogs is probably going to fall lower than others, even if it’s written by you . The prices for the books are really reasonable, but it would still feel a bit like an impulse buy rather than any need. (And I’m thrifty and try to avoid impulse buys.)

Anyhow, don’t know if that’s of any help but I need to get back to work .

Bex: The summaries are all available at Lulu; I’ll send you email with copies of them.

With your permission, we would like to include the summaries of any or all of your books at http://www.bookjive.com. It would be great if you can can send us a short summary of each of your books.

Regards,

Bex