InstaPundit notes that Tony Pierce has turned some of his bloggage into a book. That's one way to make money on blogging. Legacy journalists do it all the time, either collecting columns and slapping them between hard covers unchanged, or using columns to explore a subject that is then written up as a book with a unified argument, or taking slices of a book in progress and publishing them in journals as a foretaste of what is to come.

I wonder which blogger will be next to hard-publish some bloggage. The topic must obviously be something of interest to large number of people, but it should also be something that is not ephemeral and has a well-defined ending point. Those two conditions argue against a book version of Charles Austin's Scourge of Richard Cohen series, now up to Chapter LXII: many of Cohen's columns and Austin's comments on them are tied to the times they were written, and there is no end in sight to the foolishness described, so no specific number of chapters could be defined, as long as Cohen is alive, and writing, and writing foolishly.

Here are three rather disparate possibilities for blog-incubated books or pamphlets:

1. Erin O'Connor of Cant Watch has been posting large-scale and relatively systematic essays on academia for months now. Her most recent post, though now almost a month old, is Part IV of what looks like it could be a whole chapter on summer reading programs at universities. The whole thing is well on its way to being a full-scale book on what's wrong with higher education today -- sort of a down-to-earth Allan Bloom. I don't know if O'Connor has a book contract, but I would be surprised if this is not a book in progress.
2. Greg Hlatky of A Dog's Life has just published Part 23 of his long-running series 'Dog Shows Explained'. There is an index in the left margin of his site, but the whole series looks like it would also make an excellent pamphlet. (When will it be complete? Knowing nothing about dog shows except what I've learned there, I have no idea what topics are still uncovered.) Could such a pamphlet or small book be sold in hard copy at dog shows? I imagine so. Or on the net for money? It seems possible. It could certainly be given away over the net in pamphlet form. That is easy to arrange: just combine the text into one word-processed file, format it nicely, then make a PDF file and invite visitors to print it out. Adobe Acrobat allows the author to make a file printable but not copyable, which would cut down on plagiarism, or at least make it much less efficient.
3. On a yet smaller scale, PejmanPundit a few months ago had some interesting thoughts on law school and exams that would make a very interesting 10- or 20-page pamphlet. (See here, here, and here, and I think there was at least one more part.) A slightly more systematic version would be very handy, and might sell like hotcakes to those who are thinking of going to law school. With more anecdotes and perhaps more contributors, it could also be a full-sized book. In fact, more juicy anecdotes pretty much requires more contributors, so they can give detailed (but disguised) anecdotes about the brutal and ridiculous sides of law school and law practice without being sued.

Does anyone have any more nominations for bloggage that is already at least half way to making a well-organized book or pamphlet, and only requires light editing?

And speaking of blog books, what ever happened to the project to make a book out of post-September 11th bloggage? It's been a few months since I've heard anything about it. Are things chugging along behind the scenes?