Should I, or Should I Not. . . ?

I recently read an article in my newest Writer's Digest called Blog Your Way to a Book Deal.  The author, Nina Amir, means this literally.  She says that many book deals are made from popular and successful blogs.  Did you know that Julie & Julia started as a blog?


I had always thought that there were publishing rights issues when it came to blogging and submitting because the blog content would be considered "previously published."  Apparently it's quite the opposite.  Popular blogs are seen as "proven success," and much less risky when it comes to publication.  


Amir also points out that, while it certainly can be done, fiction is a little harder to blog than non-fiction.  It's harder to break it down into smaller sections appropriate in length for a blog post, for one.  Creating SEO--search engine optimization--is also more difficult because a non-fiction topic will have many words repeat, whereas fiction may not.  You can, however, download SEO blog plug-ins to help boost the blogs search-ability.


This leads me to the question:  Should I blog my book?  My book is far from finished, and that is the curse of many writers.  If I try this "blog my book" idea, however, I would be obligated to get to the end.  I would also be obliged to keep to my blog schedule.  (Although, just writing a blog should, in theory, obligate me to stick to the schedule.)


So, should I blog my book?  If I do, how long should each post be?  300 words?  500?  Right now the manuscript is about 17,000 words, so maybe 500-word posts would be alright.  At that rate it would take me 34 entries to post what I have written already.  If I post twice each week, it would take me 17 weeks to get it all posted, and in that time I could write so much more.  Looking ahead, it would take me 70 weeks to post a 70,000-word book.  That's a long time.  Longer than I want to take to finish the book, but maybe more reasonable than my current goal of the end of this year.


I would also be counting on my readers to spread the word, and get their friends to start reading.  A domino effect is what I'd be looking for.  Friends of friends of friends, etcetera.  Would you, as my readers, be willing to point your friends to my book blog?  Without that kind of support, I might as well, just keep going as I am.  


I should point out that I've already posted the beginning of my book here.