Convert your blog into a successful book in five steps
By Hannah Bickerton • • 2 min read
whitefox publishing: helping brands, thought leaders and writers create beautiful bespoke books
In 2018, 91 per cent of B2B marketers used content marketing to reach their customers. That’s a lot of content, and a lot of competition. So, how can your content target and attract the right audience in an innovative way?
When you’ve been working non-stop to publish a thought-provoking, keyword-heavy blog every week, it doesn’t take long for you to have a backlog of writing sitting still on your website. But what if those blogs could do something more than generate content? What if you could repurpose all of the writing work you’ve already done and create the ultimate content marketing tool?
If you’ve got sixty 1000-word blogs or forty 1000-word blogs, you already have 60,000 words of pure gold: the average size of a book.
To make it even simpler, here are five tips to help you successfully convert your blog into a book.
1. Structure your content
Start your book planning by writing the titles of your blog and ordering them chronologically according to their subject and how they relate to one another. This will eventually become your table of contents. It may even be useful to use google analytics to work out which of your blogs performed the best – they’re probably going to get the most attention in print too!
2. Fill the gaps
Chances are that although you have a heap of content, gaps may appear as you form a cohesive narrative, and it’s important to fill them with thought-provoking and useful content. But don’t worry, if you have to write additional content for your book, you’re still saving time as new chapters can double as new blog posts.
3. Engage your audience
Who is reading your blog? If you’re ready to write a book, you probably have a big network, so use them! Make sure everyone is signed up to a newsletter through which you can publicise the book, and think of other ways you can monetise your audience (perhaps you could even consider a Kickstarter campaign?).
4. Hire a professional
Sure, you’ve got the content, but it’s always best to seek the advice of an expert when approaching a new project. Editors are there to help you improve your writing and show you the best way to structure your text to ensure it’s digestible, fluent and interesting.
5. Choose your route
There are many different routes to publication: traditional publishing, self-publishing and everything in between! Make a list of your reasons for writing and publishing a book, and your goals and hopes for publication. Once you’ve done that you will be able to search for a company or publishing house that meets your expectations, whether your priority is to maintain creative control, receive marketing support or have a recognisable logo on the spine of your book.
Take these simple steps and you’re well on your way to becoming a published author, with no time wasted, plenty saved and the ultimate content marketing tool!
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