Q –
Hi Angela,
I have hundreds of blog posts on my website and I’d like to turn them into a book. Do you have any advice on how to do that?
– M.B.
A –
Blogs with a loyal following can lead to book sales later! Lots of people would much rather read information in book form rather than click, click, clicking repeatedly on somebody’s online blog. And, of course, you can later use your blog to promote your book(s)!
There are several different types of blogs. The most common are:
A. Blogs that contain posts on one main topic
B. Blogs that contain posts on a variety of topics (or those that feature short pieces of fiction or poetry)
C. Blogs that contain posts in chronological order (i.e. travel stories or non-fiction coverage of life events)
A. ONE TOPIC BLOGS
If your blog contains posts on one main topic, you will need to arrange your posts in a reasonable order by sub-topic. After reviewing the titles of your blog posts, I recommend creating a preliminary table of contents (which may, of course, change as you work on the file). Create a new word processing document (i.e. MSWord, WordPerfect, or other) and inserta new page/section (Chapter) for each sub-category.
Then, copy/paste the text of your blog posts into that file, each in the appropriate chapter. After you finish the base foundation of text for your new book, you can move posts around during the editing process, if need be.
Don’t worry too much about formatting at this stage. Your publisher or publishing service can help you with that. Focus on getting the posts into the most reasonable, easy-to-follow order.
B. MULTI-TOPIC BLOGS or BLOGS FEATURING SHORT PIECES OF FICTION/POETRY
Choose which topic you’d like to publish your first book under and, using the information from “One Topic Blogs” above, create your manuscript. Use blog posts that are in some way related to a specific or even broad topic, and organize them into a reasonable, easy-to-follow order.
TIME-LINE BLOGS
These are the easiest blogs to turn into books. Using the information from “One Topic Blogs” above, copy/paste your posts, in the order they were posted to your blog, into your word processing file. During the editing process, you can insert chapter breaks and titles where appropriate. For a travel blog, you might have a chapter per day, or a chapter per city. If your blog chronicles a particular time in your life (i.e. a health crisis, your experiences in a cult, etc.), you can group different posts in chronological order, and insert chapter breaks where you think they are appropriate.
After your manuscript is complete, submit it to BookLocker.com for consideration! We’re always looking for great books. 🙂
RELATED:
From Blog To Book! The Journey From Blogger To Author By Neil Tortorella
HOW TO COMPILE AND PUBLISH AN ANTHOLOGY
HOW TO MAKE MONEY GUEST BLOGGING
Self Publishing Service Price Comparison
The Do-It-Yourselfer's Guide to Self-Syndication
Practical resource outlining the self-syndication process, step-by-step. Packed with detailed information and useful tips for writers looking to gain readership, name recognition, publication and self-syndication for their column or articles.
https://writersweekly.com/books/4693.html
https://writersweekly.com/books/4693.html
90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy
Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.
We know what you're thinking. You're an author, not a marketer. Not to worry! We have more than a decade of successful online book selling experience under our belts and we're going to teach you how to promote your book effectively online...and almost all of our techniques are FREE!
Online book promotion is not only simple but, if you have a step-by-step, day-to-day marketing plan (this book!), it can also be a very artistic endeavor, which makes it fun for creative folks like you!
Yes, online book promoting can be EASY and FUN! Let us show you how, from Day 1 through Day 90...and beyond!