So many people dream of being a published author. Far more than I ever realized! However, I notice so many people that have this dream, simply keep it as such, a dream. Why is this?
What holds most would-be authors back from publishing? It’s not a lack of writing talent. It’s definitely not a lack of knowledge. And for sure it’s not a lack of desire.
If you asked most people why they have not finished their book, the answer is simple: time.
Entrepreneurs are busy people. You have clients to serve, a business to run, a family to care for. Not only that, but you’re spending time creating new training courses, marketing on social media, managing your team…the list is nearly endless.
When would you have time to write an entire book?
No time to read the full blog post? Listen to it on the podcast here:
How to Blog Your Way to A Book
You’ve Probably Already Written It
It’s true. If you have a blog and you’ve been maintaining it for more than a few months, then you very likely have already written all the content your book needs. The next step is to organize the content and give it a light edit.
If you don’t have a blog (why not?), or your blog is young, blogging your book is even easier, since you can plan your content around your book topic.
Here’s how it works. Think of your blog categories as sections, and each blog post as a chapter. You can loosely organize your book by sorting all your blog posts by category, then listing them in logical order. Your book may only contain a single category, or it might contain several. The choice is yours.
Keep in mind, a blog post will have additional elements that shouldn’t show up in a book. For example, you will want to remove self-serving, time sensitive, curated, or other content that doesn’t fit into a book. You will also want to remove the calls to action. you might include a CTA promoting an affiliate offer in a blog post. However, it won’t make sense to promote affiliate offers within a book.
Now, what you’re left with is a rough draft of a book!
Next, Get A Professional Edit
All that remains is a few passes with your editor engaged.
- For flow: Books should follow a logical path from one chapter to the next, so you’ll likely have to add or edit the beginnings and endings of your posts.
- For spelling, grammar and punctuation: Don’t skip this part. In fact, get someone else to do it. It’s too difficult to spot our own mistakes and book readers are less forgiving than blog readers.
- For content: Enlist the help of a few friends or colleagues who you trust to share their honest opinion with you. Ask them to read through and note any content that is confusing or that could be explained in greater detail.
Let’s be very clear here: your book needs a professional editor. No matter how great of a writer you think you are, a fresh pair of eyes on your work will do wonders for the final product. Publishing a poorly edited book severely diminishes the impact, and people will talk about your work. If you haven’t seen the Amazon reviews for poorly edited books, consider yourself lucky. Readers can be brutal, and rightfully so. It’s hard to read a book with typos, poor word choices and/or grammatical errors. And glowing reviews on a poorly edited book are unlikely. So take the time and pay for professional editing.
That’s it! Revise and you’re ready to publish.
Will this method work?
Do you think no one will read a book that’s repurposed from your blog? Think again. Bloggers have used this method to write books for years and some of them are spectacularly successful. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net fame wrote and published his wildly popular blogging guide based entirely on content he’d already published on his blog. He found that even thought the content was freely available, people bought the book because they wanted the convenience of having it organized for them in one document.
Even fiction writers have discovered the power of blogging a book. Andy Weir, the author of “The Martian,” first published his book one chapter at a time on a blog.
Bottom Line: You Do Not Have To Start From Scratch
Don’t continue to let excuses hold you back from publishing your book. Use the content you’ve already written, or strategically plan your blog to turn it into a book, but either way, get publishing!
Ciao,
Miss Kemya
