A publishing trend that I think is dying is the snarky, single-topic blog being turned into a book. I plan to dance on the grave of this trend. I don’t know how it started, if it actually made any money, or who decided it was a good idea. And I don’t care. I only care that it dies a horrible death.Books with bad photos and no editorial concept beyond a one-note joke … you’re time is over!

Now there is a site mocking these mockeries: Look At This Idea For A Blog-to-Book Deal

Of course, perhaps they hope to actually publish a book of stuff from their Tumblr blog  mocking people trying to turn their Tumblr blog into a book. I’ve decided to ignore that Ouroboros.

If you’re lucky enough to have never been exposed to the phenomenon being mocked, I’ll fill you in. Sites like Look at This F**ing Hipster, This Is Why You’re Fat, and People of Walmart … imagine those in book form. Usually, they’re Tumblr photo blogs or sites that are a part of the LOL Cats/I Can Has Cheezburger empire of silly captioning.

Common themes include: 1) photos of unattractive/unfashionable/otherwise laughable people who do not know that they are unattractive/unfashionable/otherwise laughable (Stupid people, going around being happy when they don’t look cool!) 2) intentionally bad Photoshopping on a particular odd-ball topic (Hey! That walrus shows up at inapproriate places! It is at the Pentagon! Now it is at the Oscars with the actress from “Amelie!” Oh, that crazy walrus.).

Go ahead, keep the joyless Tumblr sites coming! Just don’t turn them into books, please.

Ideas I just came up with that you are welcome to steal:

~ Teenagers Who Think They Are Dressed Fashionably But Have Comically Missed the Mark

~ Elderly People Wearing Outdated Clothes, Possibly Because They Are Poor

~ WTF, Jaleel White! (The actor who played TV’s Urkel photoshopped into situations incongruous with our expectations)

~ Fan Fiction Story Titles Illustrated In the Style of Family Circus

~ Pants Fail! (People surreptitiously photographed in private without their pants on)