You’re a savvy person. I don’t need to explain blogs to you because you’re reading a blog right now! You probably also know what books are since you’re reading a library blog. But what about blogs turned into books? Here’s a guide to some popular blogs that were turned into even more popular books!

Blogging is a free and accessible way to gain readership and have your creative work seen. The luckiest, or perhaps hardest working, bloggers have been able to use their blog as an avenue to having a published book, allowing them an even larger readership. Just like blogs come in all different shapes and sizes, so do their corresponding books. The use of illustrations, lists, personal commentary, cartoons, etc. in blogs make for interesting and diverse books.

The Bloggess, Jenny Lawson, has awarded her loyal followers with two hardcover, paper-flipping, books. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy contain uproariously funny stories about Jenny’s childhood, current life, and the way her mind works.

PostSecret was one of the trailblazers in 2007, relying on interaction with their readers and artistic mixed media presentation. Their books have the same format of people anonymously revealing their secrets.

Celebrity gossiper Perez Hilton was also in on the ground floor in 2005 and rose to celebrity heights himself with four books in our collection.

Webcomics are as old as the Internet itself and many have published anthologies of their work.

The Oatmeal has “instructional guides” like How To Tell If Your Cat is Plotting To Kill You, Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants, and 5 Very Good Reasons To Punch A Dolphin in the Mouth.

Hyberbole and a Half is Allie Brosh’s insane self-portrait pulled from her blog.

Sh*t My Dad Says was just a twinkle in Twitter’s (and Justin Halpern’s) eyes in 2009 but grew to a national sensation in mere months.

For pure eye candy The Sartorialist brings us fashion from streets all over the world. Hopefully, these two books will not be the last ones we see.

Humans of New York has beautiful portrait photography but also human interest stories. Check out Brandon Stanton's work in book form. (He sometimes snaps us too!)

One of the great things about starting as a blog is that you can have direct communication with your readers through the comments section. They will tell you what they like, what they don’t like, and it can be used to edit your style as a focus group of sorts which will only make the final product more informed and successful. Sharing our own hard-earned knowledge is another reason we write.

Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik is a thoroughly researched biography on Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was first a Tumblr that celebrated all things Ginsburg.

The Happiness Project allowed us to follow Gretchen Rubin on her journey to bring more light to her life in real time through her blog and then after the fact, all tied together in her book.

Matt Holloway and Michelle Davis brought us Thug Kitchen and their book of the same name comes with lots of delicious recipes and at least 2 Cups of cursing.

Finally, we have Julie and Julia. Julie Powell began her intrepid year of cooking everything in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 2002. When she completed the daunting task she compiled what she learned into a book titled Julie and Julia. Things did not stop there. In 2009 the book was converted into a blockbuster film of the same name and it all started with putting her words out there on the Internet.

These are only a small sampling of blog success stories. Are you inspired to one day have your blog turned into a book or even a movie? Get started right now!

• How to Blog
• How to Get Published