From Blogs to Bestsellers!

From NewsWeek

Blogs: Now It's Literature

The Internet is giving a boost to the book business—at least in Japan, where online discussions are currently being published as books. The fad started back in October, with "Train Man": a shy young man asked for online advice on how to ask out a girl he met on the train in Tokyo; after getting online dating tips and encouragement—and two months later, the girl—the sage words were transformed into a book, which has sold 555,000 copies. The beauty of the tome is that it's published as printouts of message boards and blogs, complete with Internet lingo and silly emoticons. Not much editing required.

The "Train Man" phenomenon has inspired other wouldn't-necessarily-be authors. Tokyo-based Ameba Books culled a book from a hilarious blog called "My Devilish Wife Journal: A True Story," in which a young man moans about his selfish and greedy wife. It has sold 70,000 copies since late January. Another hit: "This Week My Wife Is Having an Affair," a reproduction of an online conversation between a businessman whose wife is cheating on him and his sympathetic fellow Netizens, which has sold 43,000 copies in less than two months.