By show of hands…

Who among you would purchase a compilation book of the posts from a favorite blog?

I’m one of many who thinks LawDog should put all his stuff in a book. I for one would buy it, even though I’ve read it all before. The same goes for Crystal. Rocky Mountain Medic has some good stories. All of them have plenty of material that would translate well in book form.

I came to this blogging thing from the opposite direction, I suppose. My book came first, and the blog afterwards. I’ve repeated a few stories from The Book here and there, interspersed with my random musings and new stories. I try to avoid doing it too much, partly because it feels somewhat redundant to me, and partly because of the biggest reservation of my publisher and friends who have read the book, specifically:

“Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?”

I write my blog as a source of inspiration and as a stress outlet. Some of the stories here have already appeared in one book, others are trial runs that will appear in a future book (albeit longer and more fleshed out), and still others will not make the cut at all.

I’d like to know what you guys think. I’m closing in on 20k hits in the short life of this blog, and should hit it within the week. That just astounds me, and quite frankly, humbles me. Roughly 350 of you visit daily, and my question to you is this:

Would you buy a book comprised of stories you’ve already read in the blog? Would you read the blog if you already had the book?

So please, give me your thoughts. My publisher has reservations about my blog here, but my sense of it is that he understands the denizens of the blogosphere even less than I do. I’d like to show him 500 comments consisting of “Hey, I can’t get enough of AD on-line, in print or in person. Keep it coming and we’ll buy it!”…

…but I know that isn’t realistic. But I would dearly like to know what YOU think. You’re my readers. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be writing.

So please leave a comment. Gimme some feedback. As an additional carrot, I promise to post The Retaliation in the next couple of days…