Book sites and blogs couldn’t be a more natural fit.

Avid readers love to discover a new author whose work they can mine for many titles. So the opportunities for connections between reviewers, readers and booksellers abound.

Allibris Book Blog

Allibris is a network of booksellers, so buyers can log on and seamlessly search many, many booksellers for new and used books. Their blog is an attractive effort called Cuppa Joad - a reference to coffee and Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

The Cuppa Joad blog is clean and attractive.

Loaded with book reviews, the blog is the collaborative effort of several reviewers.

It has all the elements of a successful engagement agent (Technorati ranks it at 148,000), yet falls short in one critical area.

There’s no engagement.

Start the Conversation

Despite the quality of its content, the Cuppa Joad blog doesn’t attempt to engage readers. The the ability to leave a comment is hidden from readers (the blog’s home page doesn’t mention comments or offer a “leave a comment” link).

It’s a serious omission. I’m not not sure if it’s by design or just a flaw in the blog’s construction, but the lack of visible commenting controls pretty much dooms the blog to a read-only affair.

Thus, while the content is worthy of engagement, there simply won’t be any.

No comments. No community. It’s that simple.

Still, I like the Cuppa Joad, and suspect it’s meeting what is like its primary goal as a sales tool. But like any interactive, community-building media channel, the owners are wasting much of its potential by treating it as a one-way channel instead of an engagement agent.

Technorati Tags: cuppa joad, bookseller, allibris, engagement, social media, online community