One of the themes running around this year's BookExpo was the whole "books from blogs" concept. In addition to Chris Anderson's Long Tail presentation, there was also a Friday morning panel on "the effects of blogging, new media and the blogging culture on book industry relationships and practice" where, as it happens, our very own mediabistro.com publisher, Kyle Crafton, was one of the featured speakers—and, as Sarah mentioned, she gave a talk on "syndicating litblog reviews," which gave bloggers and publicists an opportunity to become more familiar with each other. Later that day, I was pleasantly surprised while wandering through the aisles to stumble upon a booth for Ogman Press, the publishers of David Lorenzo's Career Intensity.

Since I'm a fan of the Career Intensity blog, I introduced myself to Lorenzo (left) and asked him about how it came together. The blog was originally created, he explained, as a way to provide some guidance to companies and individuals who were too small to include his traditional consulting services into their budgets. He actually renamed the blog when the book plan came together, so as to create a better branding opportunity, and when the galleys were ready, he told readers he'd send them a copy if they'd write about it on their own blogs. "I ended up giving away more than 500 copies," he said, and while he hasn't quite gotten 500 reviews, he says he's very happy with the publicity he's gotten. At Free Money Finance, for example, they're giving away a copy every day from now until the end of June.