Yesterday I was in Southern California teaching one of my favorite workshops: “How to Write a Short Book Fast.” As part of that class we discuss all the different ways you can become an author by writing short works rather than your magnum opus.
Attendees leave with lots of ideas for tip books, booklets, short blogged books, or booked blogs (repurposed blog posts) to self-publish. These might be brand new ideas unrelated to any of their larger book idea or ideas. These short book ideas might help them promote their existing or future books or help them make more money as writers.
Today, I’d like to encourage you to consider what you know, what your passionate about, what subjects or themes are in your books and how you might use this information as the foundation for a short book. In particular, if you have a blog, I’d like to encourage you to blog that book. Why? Because it’s an affective use of your time and will attract readers for those books as you write them. If you are already blogging, why not blog a few short books?
You might wonder why someone who has already reads your blog might want to purchase your blogged book. Simple. It’s easier for them to read it in an ebook or printed book form. Plus, you will provide an edited and revised version with additional information—possibly an extra chapter or two or some extra features. This provides an enticement to readers.
However, you could just package up the posts and sell them just as they appeared on the blog and readers are likely to purchase the book anyway—if that series of posts was popular. Look at blogger and author Darren Rowse’s product, “31 Days to Build a Better Blog.” He wrote this as a series of posts. His readers asked for it as a product. He didn’t think it would sell, and it continues to be his best-selling ebook.
Last month I focused my blog, www.howtoblogabook.com, on how to blog a short book fast during National Book Blogging Month (NaBoBloMo). You can find a variety of posts there on blogging tip books, booklets, short prescriptive nonfiction books (like step books and how-to books), and repurposing blog posts into books. Here are some of the posts:
- How to Blog a Tip Book in 30 Days or Less
- How to Blog a Prescriptive Nonfiction Book in 30 Days
- How to Blog a Booklet in Less than a Month
- How to Blog Short Stories and Essays in 30 Days or Less
- How to Compile a Blogged Anthology in 30 Days or Less
During my workshop my attendees came up with many ideas for blogging short books. What ideas for short books could you write fast?
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