Blogging is a big deal for some people, especially those who use it to make their income. Also big in the market is the ability to publish for platforms like the iPad and Kindle. E-books could be a large focus for bloggers who want to consolidate their thoughts into a new medium. The announced release of an e-book publishing service through Borders and powered by BookBrewer could be the bridge for this niche,

“We know many book lovers are also writers or aspiring authors who want to share their stories but do not want to invest the time and money to self publish in print,” said Mike Edwards, CEO of Borders, Inc. “BORDERS – GET PUBLISHED™ Powered by BookBrewer offers the perfect solution — authors can quickly and easily load, format and publish content, which will then be available for sale within a few days on Borders.com and other major eBook outlets. We’re excited to give new writers and bloggers an opportunity to reach an expanded audience as they make their foray into digital.”

Users can develop and edit content regardless of length, set their own suggested price within bounds set by retailers, and publish via BookBrewer in the Borders’ eBook store. Customers are provided with the option to purchase, download, and instantly read blogger and independent author content on several leading devices, including the iPhone®, iPadTM, Android™-powered tablets as well as a variety of eReaders, notably the Kobo™ Wireless eReader, Kobo™ eReader, Aluratek Libre Pro and Velocity® Micro Cruz™ Reader.

The BookBrewer service promises to transform a blog into an e-book in minutes and certainly appears capable of delivering on that promise. E-books don’t operate quite the same way as blogs do, however, and as I haven’t explored the service as deeply as I could thus I cannot comment on the layout services. Still, being able to publish in new formats extends the reach and readers.

Publishing packages start at $89.99 for the most basic—which includes the assignment of an IBSN for online publication. There is also an advanced publishing package, $199.99, which seems to include a full ePub manuscript released to the blogger for family and friends.

From the looks of it BookBrewer is still a little bit immature and will need to grow a bit more before it’s got its bearings for a full-on service, however, for what it does (produce e-books from blogs) it will be a good turnkey solution for bloggers who don’t want to format their own books and run them through other services. For example, like Smashwords, which doesn’t charge users anything for publishing e-books in a multitude of formats and even has premium content channels through Amazon.com and Borders—however, customers must format and prepare their own work for publication (no turnkey here.)