I know of one exception: James Lilek’s “Gallery of Regrettable Food.” He wrote it for his Web site, and sold the book on the basis of those pages.
Of course, he had also published two collections of newspaper columns before that, so he had a track record and a long list of credits already.
David B, the world is filled with people who have written 900 page books on their favorite subject, the role of the Zeppelin in undersea theatricals, and are more than eager to share same with a panting, waiting world.
More realistically, there are a lot of people who haven’t bothered to ask questions like you have and just assume that you have to write the book first.
Which Lileks didn’t really do, pesch. I mean what he did wasn’t really a book, in that it wasn’t a whole bunch of, you know, words. More like funny captions to funny pictures. I’ve long been a fan of his web site, but as an example of selling a book, this has to fall firmly into the exception category.
And then there are people who write humorous newspaper columns, turn them into books, and then follow up with a website. Some even have message boards! 