The Lulu Blooker Prize

The proprietors of Lulu.com have announced the Lulu Blooker Prize 2006, an awards competition for printed books that originated from web sites or blogs. This is a transparent attempt by Lulu to sell their services. How many bloggers have turned their blogs into books before this contest? Not many, I’d bet. A blog is a plastic medium that encourages continuous emendation and most bloggers don’t write and edit posts with the same eye toward posterity that someone writing for print publication does.

From Lulu’s FAQ:

“Can I submit my e-book?
No, we only accept printed, bound books.”

Now every blogger out there will rush over to Lulu, see that in order to be eligible you need a book of your blog, and-conveniently-Lulu will be happy to print one for you.

“Why the Lulu Blooker Prize?

The Lulu Blooker Prize is the brainchild of the folks at Lulu.com (www.lulu.com), the world's fastest-growing provider of self-publishing technology and services — and the simplest place to turn web content into a blook. They want to raise the visibility of the growing number of talented writers who are using blogs and websites to develop quality content.”

Their last sentence is what Jack Woodford called a bullcon. What Lulu is doing verges on a scam.