Repurpose Your Blog Content: Blog to Book Is Easier Than You Think
Well, hello there, the author of [insert your book title here].
If you have ever dreamed of hearing those words spoken to you or being able to introduce yourself as the author of a book, your dream may be easier to attain than you think.
Having a fairly successful blog or even one just filled with your own ideas could mean that you are sitting atop an entire draft of a book; the only hiccup: not having a clue how to repurpose a blog into an actual money-making manuscript.
The transition of blog to book, while it is not entirely copy-and-paste easy, is probably a lot easier than you think. Whether you are a prolific writer who can adapt to long-form writing or not, you will be able to create your very own book, either on your own or with some help from experts.
Penning a book gives you authority over your chosen topic or niche, and most authors are recognized as experts in their fields. Starting with a blog means you have already completed the groundwork and gained followers to make your book more successful.
How Is Blog Writing Different to Book Writing?
Non-writers often have the assumption that writing is writing, no matter where the copy is going to end up; it’s just writing, isn’t it?
Definitely not, and as all writers know, it is actually quite the opposite. The art of writing differs widely based on the reason for writing.
Copywriting needs to follow a strong marketing tone that sells with its words, while content writing should be warmer and inviting as if you are having a conversation with the customer instead of selling to them.
In the same way, blog writing is very different to book writing in both its tone, language, and content. You should understand these differences to be able to turn your blog into a book.
Blog Writing
Blogs can take anywhere from 20 minutes up to a few days to write, depending on how informative and research-driven the article is. Generally, they can be written in shorthand with lots of slang and can merely encapsulate the feelings of the writer at that time.
This means that blogs are highly informal and “rough” compared to other forms. This is not to say that some posts cannot be packed full of well researched and formulated ideas.
Book Writing
In contrast, when writing a book, the author needs to imagine the final product throughout each step they take and visualize what the bigger picture will look like once the book is written.
Books offer a lot of information that is beneficial and entertaining to a wide range of readers to have a monetary value for the author. This means that a lot of thought and planning needs to happen before the book even begins.
A book is not just thrown together with a few joining paragraphs; rather, it is giving your audience a fresh approach to what you have already written by offering something new for them to indulge in.
The Transition From Blog to Book
Knowing these differences between blogs and books, you may be wondering if it is even worth the transition.
The answer: Yes, it is.
Your blogs are most likely the rough drafts of a book waiting to be shined to perfection, and here is how to start polishing.
Easy Steps to Take to Turn Your Blog Into a Book
Find Your Topic
Your blog is probably one of two types. Either you have followed a consistent theme throughout on one topic with many angles stemming from it, meaning you can use most of your blog posts as chapters for your book.
Alternatively, you have a blog that covers a variety of topics and you will need to carefully choose which blog posts work together, and those that do not relate, should be left out.
Your topic can come from your entire blog or you can use only one or two posts as a starting point to build a book. Look at what topics you can delve deeper into or what are frequent questions that your audience asks that you may be able to answer or solve in your book.
Research Your Idea
Once you have decided on your topic, it is time to research. Look at what has already been written on the topic and where there may be a gap in the market for you to fill.
What have your competitors left out? What angles haven’t been explored in-depth? Does any of your blog content offer up the solutions to these missing areas?
Looking into reviews on similar books can help you find what your audience may be looking for.
Use the Views
If you have been consistently working on your blog for a while, you will most likely have a certain number of followers. This is your audience base and they will be able to give you the necessary insight into what your readers may want.
The likes and comments section on your blog is useful feedback and can show what your viewers have and haven’t liked. Listen to them. If the readers enjoy it on your blog, they will most likely enjoy a book based around that content.
Also, look at the posts with fewer likes and views. Have these left out any information that you could include in your book? Ask yourself why they may have not liked that post and learn from it.
Some people don’t read blogs but will pick up a book; this way, you can expand your audience. So, don’t focus too much on blogs that have likes; they may be perfect blog posts but might not fit into your book idea.
Create Your Outline
Outlines are key in the book writing process. Having a well-written outline will help you write your book a lot faster and structure it in a way that allows you to visualize the end product before you even begin putting it together.
Using your blog posts as a chapter or theme inspiration will give you all the tools you need to create a streamlined outline. This will help you or a ghostwriter write your book efficiently and without continuity errors.
How to Write Your Book
Let Your Blog Be Your Rough Draft
Every great writer is an A+ student in writing and re-writing until the words are polished and ready for public scrutiny. While blog posts can help guide you on what works and doesn’t, keep in mind that they are usually quick writes.
Allow these to be your rough first drafts and pick them apart to improve them as much as possible so they live up to book standard writing. Never be afraid of a strong editing hand and learn to distance yourself from your first drafts.
Repurpose a Blog With Your Writing
As mentioned before, book writing is vastly different from blogging in that it requires a different set of skills. When writing blogs, you need to keep your ideas fairly short and to the point so the readers can fly through it in a couple of minutes.
Readers who have a book in their hand usually have a lot of time to sit in a comfy chair and read more in-depth with a broader picture around the ideas in the book. This requires different skills to keep a reader enthralled for an entire book.
If you have these skills along with your blogging fingers, then you are all set, but if this is a point of struggle for you, then there are professionals who can help.
While you may be proficient in writing to keep viewers enthralled in your blog, authors, on the other hand, are proficient in keeping them captivated for longer.
Ask for Help
If you struggle with writing long-form or have no idea how to put your random blog thoughts into an actual book, hiring a ghostwriter can help you to create magic from your musings.
Ghostwriters have the most experience in book writing, and they also have a distance from your topic that will benefit your book. Having a new set of eyes can help with noting where more information can be added or what should be left out or changed.
In Summary
Writing your book from content that you have already taken all the time and effort to gather and collect in your blog can be such a rewarding task. Even if you cannot write an entire book yourself, you have already completed the groundwork.
Asking an expert to string your ideas together is what they are doing every day and they can do it for you too.
Ghostwriters are great at writing in the tone and style that you want your book to have while adding in their expertise in long-form writing.
Remember, you have already done all the hard work, and publishing your book that states your name on the front cover is within your reach. Are you ready to be an author?
