Contributors to the book, edited by the former Valleywag editor and Gawker blogger (pictured), received a "congratulations" email today (below) from a HarperCollins marketer, which suggested they "flood Twitter with so many tweets about the book that no self-respecting Twitter addict will be able to resist buying a copy." Attached was a link to an "online buzz kit" consisting of various graphical badges (see image at left).

Bizarrely, this seems to be working (see image below), even though contributors get no royalties from the book, just a free copy. Flattery might have something to do with, as might ambition: Remember that Facebook status update that might turn into a movie? Surely the Twitter crowd is smart enough to draw some deals like that. Writes Douglas,

If even one [contributor] gets noticed enough to get their own book deal, I'll feel supremely lucky... Some of the people in the book are working on TV pilots, movies, books... mostly independently of their tweets. But the user @arjunbasu, who writes all these self-contained stories on Twitter, is looking to do that in particular in a book.

There you go: HarperCollins' campaign is about empowerment, not exploitation. Remember that as you gratefully flood Twitter with promotional messages. Also: It's always been this way.

(Top pic: Douglas, by Cameron Walters)

Sara Nelson (herself a victim of the collapsing book publishing industry) got the scoop for the Wall Street Journal, and judging by her description of the deal, apparently not.

Vaynerchuk doesn't even read books, let alone show any sign of being able to write them. He's a 33-year-old Belarusian immigrant who pals around with members of San Francisco's Web elite like Digg founder Kevin Rose, but hasn't made much of a splash in the New York media world. But he has 145,000 followers on Twitter, a popular videoblog about wine, and a burgeoning career dispensing advice to wantrepreneurs.

Here's a current sampling of the sort of twattle that will fuel his next ten books:

Is there one book in Vaynerchuk, let alone ten? That hardly seems like the point. Recycled 140-character aphorisms from Twitter, pretty pictures of wine, and a built-in audience are what one needs to succeed in the publishing world. Books don't make people famous. Famous people make books.

Because it sounds somehow even lazier than making a book out of your mom's email messages, a scheme hatched up, perhaps not coincidentally, by another Gawker writer.

Douglas insists the work is backbreaking — "reading a thousand jokes is like watching five hours of porn" — but he's already automated the process of collecting submissions and permissions. Those who make it into the book get no royalties, but a free copy of the work ensures they at least won't have to pay to see their own content in printed format.

So we've seen blog books, internet cat-picture books, a family email book and now the first book collection of tweets. Remember when the internet was the desperate medium, and had to steal its content from the incumbent players, rather than everything working the other way around? Those sure were the days.