WebProNews

According to an article in The New York Times, prospective authors are justifying the potential markets for their book proposals by including positive reader comments off their blogs.

In addition, book publishers are scanning blogs for future bestselling authors. Joshua Kurlantzick writes...

"During the last year many Web logs, or blogs, have focused on the war in Iraq and the presidential campaign, and as these blogs gained a wider audience some publishers started paying attention to them. Sometimes publishers are interested in publishing elements of the blogs in book form; mostly they simply enjoy the blogger's writing and want to publish a novel or nonfiction book by the blogger, usually on a topic unrelated to the blog."

On a related note, the Virtual Book Tour is starting up again. During these tours, authors "stop" by one or more blogs, just as they would do at bookstores during a real world tour. During each these stops, the author might be interviewed, take over blogging for a day, answer questions from readers and more.

Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.