A few people seem to be able to make a living on book sales. I would guess that a book would have to sell in the hundreds of thousands or even millions for that to occur. Maybe it’s a little like sales in the music industry where the artists typically make more from touring and other revenue sources than on actual sales and streaming.
That being said, there are a number of ways to benefit from publishing a book other than money from sales numbers.
In the business world, you may write a book as a way to introduce yourself and brand to new customers. You may use the book as a way to build awareness that can lead to paid speaking opportunities. There are countless ways for you benefit. It’s not a guarantee, but it can be worth trying.
There are also a number of ways to write a book.
I heard a great line about songwriting the other day. It went something like, There are 500 ways to write a song. Pick one. That’s a good line that applies to just about any form of content creation, including writing books.
One such way that can work is by creating a book from a series of blog posts. Here is how that might work…
1. Look for a Book Concept
You might have a concept in mind for a book. It may or may not be what your audience wants to read. That’s typically where book publishers come in. They have a finger on the pulse of the reading audience. They also have a finger on what makes a potential author unique. They seem to act, again, like the A&R folks in the music industry. They find the artists and help nurture them to create music that will hit with the audience.
It might be beneficial to talk with someone in the book world about your industry and yourself. See if there is a concept that you can tackle that will have a good chance of hitting. And maybe it’s not a book editor. Maybe it’s someone else in your industry that really sees what the audience responds to.
Then determine how you and your knowledge and experience can crossover with what the audience wants.
2. Outline Chapters
Once you have a topic, begin laying out chapters for how you’ll provide content that is valuable and entertaining for the audience. Say you’re aiming for 240 pages with 20 pages per chapter. You’re looking at 12 chapters. Start filling in the blanks on the concept. Then go in and rearrange things so the order makes sense. Consider how other books are organized that you enjoy reading. Use those as guides for how to create the outline for yours.
3. Chapters = Blog Posts
Now look at these chapters as blog posts. You might have more than one blog post per chapter depending on how long each of the chapters will be. But really after you break your entire concept into chapters you have what are essentially blog posts. You can categorize them under an umbrella concept that is the same as what the concept is for your book. You do the same research, editing, etc. as you create and publish the posts.
In fact, books used to be released this way. An author would submit a book. A newspaper would buy it and publish one chapter per day or week. Readers would consume it this way and later the book would be released in book stores.
It can be the same with blogging and a great way to write a book while also getting the value from the blog posts that will live on your site forever.
4. Edit for Book Format
You may need to edit the blog posts so they fit into book format. You might need to remove some sections or even add sections so it makes sense for the physical version. Whoever is publishing your book may have some requirements on word counts and size and things like that.
You may also be working with a book publisher now that wants to change the actual words from the blog posts before they go into the book. They may want to alter a few of the points you’re sharing and things like that. The book and posts are on the same topic, but written and organized different for the two different types of readers.
5. Alternative: Rewrite Posts for Book
Another possible route to go is to look at posts you’ve already written. This works well if you’ve been blogging for a long time. You’ve probably covered some similar themes throughout your archives. Now that you’ve identified a topic or concept that is exciting with your audience, go back through your archives and identify content you’ve already written. Use that, along with some new ideas and thoughts, to create your book.
Conclusion
It is possible to create a great book from blog posts. You not only get the benefit of repurposing content and appealing to audiences on different platforms, but you may be able to use content that you’ve already written as a way to jumpstart your efforts on a book, which is no small task.