How Does a Blog, Podcast, or Article Become a Book?

That’s a great question. It begins with understanding who your audience is, where to find them and how to get them interested in your repurposed materials. The process itself is not something that happens overnight, but with the proper guidance, you can bring your story or message to a broader audience.

When I speak to groups about the benefit of writing a book for your business or as a means of personal catharsis, I often get the deer in the headlight stares. I now realize that many people don’t see how they can re-imagine their work, whether it begins life as an article, blog, separate stories, or something else. Once they understand that a story is a story, those barriers are broken down and they can begin to see the possibilities.

4 Steps to Transferring Your Existing Materials into a Book

1. Create a concept for the book. What message do you want to get out to others? How will you bring them the information? Will it be through Q&A or relatable vignettes? A common interest? For example, I’ve worked with one writer who took years of journals and created a memoir from them, and another who wrote an historical blog, recreated into a book.
2. Once you have your concept, review your existing materials and highlight which passages or ideas fit best into this new structure. Is it in audio form—a podcast or TedX talk? You can easily transcribe it with Word and other programs.
3. With that in mind, draw up an outline. It doesn’t matter how you do it. You can do mind-mapping, storyboarding, or even a traditional outline, like the kind you were taught in school. Many people don’t like to use outlines and prefer to see where the story takes them. That works too. However, I’ve found that having an outline keeps you on track and reminds you of the materials you want to include. The best part is outlines are not carved in stone and are therefore flexible if your story were to take a sharp right turn.
4. Decide on a working title to inspire your creativity down the road. Here are some free headline generators that can help.
   

https://www.weshare.net/headline-generator/

Headline Generator (title-generator.com)

https://boostone.io/headline-generator/

Title Generator - Tweak Your Biz

Kickass Headline Generator for Increasing Conversions (sumome.com)

Blog Title Generator | BlogAbout by IMPACT (impactplus.com)

Write Better Headlines: Headline Analyzer From CoSchedule

Blog Ideas Generator - Free Themes and Titles by HubSpot

Headline Generator | Content Row

The Making of a Book

If you were avoiding writing a book because you thought it meant starting from scratch, think again. If you’ve written or produced materials with solid information, you can repurpose these for a book. However, it may not be structured the way you’d like it to be.

1. For starters, determine if you are marketing your book to the same audience for which you were writing blogs or articles, or directing podcasts. You’ll likely have to redirect your writing if the audience has changed. If you’re unsure what to include or disregard, ask people who know you well and those you may not know. The latter could involve creating a survey on Facebook or LinkedIn.
2. Gather what you’ve written in the past and start organizing it into categories. Then, cross-reference it with your outline.
3. Keep your why in mind--why you are writing the book and what is the message you want your readers to get from it.
4. Start writing. I suggest doing a brain dump. Don’t worry about grammar or rewrites initially. Just get the words out on paper.

Most importantly, keep it fun, keep it exciting and keep your passion alive!

Robin Kellogg is a copywriter, book coach and the creator of the Author Your Book course, in which she helps aspiring writers and others hone-in on their audience and their story. Contact Robin today.