What To Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book

Editing and Revising a Blogged Book Before Publication

February 2, 2012 By Nina 4 Comments

This month’s focus is on going from blog to book. After all, that’s what this blog is all about—helping you take your book idea and turn it into a book. However, I know some readers are also trying to book their blogs (repurpose posts into a book), and I hope to write about that this month as well. I’m at the tail end of turning my blog—this one—into a book, so I’m going to share some of my experiences with you and tell you what I learned. I’m going to ask some blog-to-book authors to share their experiences as well.

I’m going to start the month off by discussing the editing and revising process. For your blogged book to become an ebook or printed book–and to succeed, it needs editing and lots of it. And it needs professional editing, not just a look see from your favorite English teacher or family member who is a grammar buff or a good writer. I wrote one post about beginning to edit my blogged book a while ago. You can read it here. Let me pick up where that one left off.

Once I had finished my revisions and edits and sent my manuscript off to the publisher to meet the deadline, which was part of my contract, the developmental editor at Writer’s Digest Books got her hands on my work. She went through the manuscript with a fine tooth comb looking for any way we could improve the book. When I got the manuscript back, there were notes from her asking me to make changes and to do things like:

Add resources
Add tips and tools
Add examples
Elaborate on certain topics, sentences, etc.
Cut or move CopyWright Communications

This is pretty typical stuff as far as developmental editing goes. I found it interesting given that I am normally doing this work for other writers. I also found that I agreed with most of what she asked me to do and thought the suggestions made the book better.

In the process of adding the resources, the need for resources at the back of the book was eliminated. I had told the publisher this would be a source of backmatter.

One thing we really struggled with in the editing process, however, was repetition. I’m pointing that out so those of you blogging your books can watch for it already as you write. I’m not sure, however, that there is a good way to get rid of this issue as you blog. By being aware of the fact that it may be a problem in the printed book, though, you can pinpoint repetition and redundancies in the manuscript you are creating off line from the get go, I think. Let me explain.

As I edited and revised initially, I struggled to find all the places I had repeated information. Since a blog reader can show up at your blog at any given point in the book (unlike in a book where a readers starts at the beginning reads through to the end in most cases), often you do have to repeat information as you compose posts. Another way to handle this is to send the reader to another post with a link, but sometimes that’s not effective. In any case, it became blatantly apparent to me that repetition was an issue, and I didn’t think I’d eliminated it totally on my own. So, I alerted the editor prior to the developmental editing stage. I noticed that this remained a problem as I worked on the developmental edits, and I mentioned it again when I turned in my changes.

When I got the manuscript back after then next round of editing, which was line editing (for grammar, punctuation, sentence strength, etc.), I thought there were still repetition and redundancy issues. To be honest, though, I’d read the book so many times, it all sounded like repetition to me! So, I had to be really careful in my read through and ask the editors and proofreaders at Writer’s Digest Books once again to keep their eyes open for this.

Okay…on to the line edits. I got these back as a hard copy. I was a bit freaked out by this, since my handwriting pretty much is a sloppy mess even my family can’t read. The developmental edits were completed on the computer using Microsoft Word’s Track Changes function, which is what I use for all editing with my clients – developmental and line. The line edits showed up as made in Track Changes but I had to respond to them on the hard copy. This means that I had to write down any changes I had, and I had to do it neatly enough for someone to understand. This turned out to mean that in some cases I had to type out my changes. What a pain in the rear end.

I agreed with most of these changes, but the line editor and I did have some differences in opinion on comma usage and other such things. It’s tough to work as an editor and then have your work edited. I’m not really too attached to my writing, but I am attached to having my writing well edited and end up reading well.

At that point, I sent off the hard copy by snail mail. And I didn’t see it again. Until this week, when I got my first glimpse of the actual book as a PDF all designed and everything! (And I immediately found a mistake…) I believe it will still go through proofreading at this point and indexing; and I think the indexer also does a bit of proofing along the way. I have not heard if I get one last read through or not.

So, that was my experience of the editing process, and the one BIG issue that came up. If you’ve got anything to add from your own experience, please do! What issues have you encountered while editing your blogged book? Or what issues are you currently having as you edit your manuscript?

And if you aren’t at the editing stage yet, here’ s my advice: It’s never too early to get out the dreaded red pen and start the self-editing process–or ask a critique group to take a stab at your manuscript. You might also consider getting an editor or writing coach to help you out early on so you have a polished manuscript to turn into an agent or publisher when the time comes.

Chris Garrett on How to Blog a Book or Book a Blog

January 5, 2012 By Nina 3 Comments

My last post featured the first part of my interview with Chris Garrett, co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, in which he discussed how to convert blog readers into book buyers using attraction, retention, conversion, and referrals. Today, in part two of the interview, which I conducted at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Los Angeles, CA, in early November 2011, Chris speaks more specifically to aspiring authors, writers blogging books and bloggers who might want to book a blog, or repurpose their material into a book.

I was quite honored to spend time speaking with Chris, who is an online business consultant, teacher, coach, new media industry commentator, writer, speaker, and all-round web geek. He has been involved in several start ups and has written for some of the web’s best-loved blogs as well as co-authoring four other traditionally published print books and many ebooks. (See the end of this post for a full bio.) He definitely knows how to look at the idea of blogging a book and apply all he knows about blogging, writing books and new media to this endeavor and offer relevant tips and advice. Below, find my questions, and Chris’ answers, in part two of this two-part blog post:

I tell people who want to begin blogging a book to go through a full evaluation process to make sure their book has a chance of succeeding both in the blogosphere and in the online and brick-and-mortar book stores. What are your thoughts on getting started blogging or writing a book?

A lot of people say they have a book in them, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a book somebody would want to read. You are going to save a lot of pain, heartache and effort if you work out if the book you want to write is one the market is going to accept. Plus, there’s a confidence that comes in doing your homework. The more confident you are the more likely you are to carry on, because writing a book is not easy. It may be simple, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. The most important thing to know is that if you do your research you understand the audience you’re speaking to; I think that’s vital because you can have great content but miss the mark.

I know you haven’t actually blogged a book, but if you were going to give advice to writers doing so, what is the most important tip might you offer them to help them build their readership?

It’s the point I made earlier: You don’t drive traffic. It’s not like being a cowboy. It’s not getting on horse with a Stetson and driving people to your blog. They have to come of their own free will. You’ve got to attract rather than drive. You have to go where people are, and meet them where they hang out. You’ve got to find what they want and need, what’s going to get their attention and deliver that. You might have to give ¾ of what you know away to get that attention and to get people to know and respect you enough to trust you with their money. Because at the end of the day if they are going to take action by investing time and money in what you have to offer they have got to be sure about you.

Do you work with work with any aspiring authors, and, if so, what do you recommend to them as far as their books?

A lot of my friends are authors—some of them New York Times bestselling authors—and a lot of my clients are authors or prospective authors.

The first thing I recommend is probably the most important: Look at what successful people have done before them and what is working right now. Things that have worked two years ago will not necessarily translate to now. So you have to look at both. And also look at what people have done that have gone terribly wrong, especially in their specific market or niche.

The second thing I tell them is to have a plan. Someone was telling me that they thought they were going to be able to retire early because they got a book deal, and most people know that is crazy talk. Unless you are JK Rowling, you aren’t going to retire early. This writer had no plans for what would happen once their book hit the shelves. They were so focused on writing and launching that they never thought, “What’s next?” They had no back-up plan, no follow-up plan. Basically, they thought their life was going to be transformed once their book went on sale.

Also, authors need to be realistic. Unfortunately, today the publisher can only do so much to help you and your book succeed; you have to do a lot more. And the best book tour is not going to make your book a best seller without a lot of marketing, a very, very good subject, a well-defined audience, and a lot of effort. Even then it doesn’t mean you are going to be able to live off it the money from your book sales. But people see Amazon Kindle sales are making a million dollars a year and think, “This is for me.” They believe once you get to Barnes & Noble you are a millionaire, but it just doesn’t work that way.

Writers and authors need to need to research what is working, plan and be realistic.

Lots of long-time bloggers would like to turn their blogs into books—or “book a blog.” What would you tell these bloggers about repurposing their posts into an ebook or printed book?

I’ve found that there are certain markets where there are readers who are very receptive to the idea of you putting a book out, and there are markets that are very resistant to any sort of monetization at all, any sort of business influence. The strangest niches I would have never expected have worked super well. A lady told me the other day that she has a blog where she writes about a hairstyle of the day. All the content was on her site, and she packaged it up into a PDF. It sold really well. It blew me away because I never thought people would pay for an ebook full of photographs of hairstyles. She had a receptive market that really loved it and told all their friends.

At the same time, I’ve seen people in tech fields who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a workshop but won’t buy an ebook. They will buy a textbook off the shelf, but they won’t buy an ebook. They are technical people who should be okay with it.

Market research is very, very important. But if you’ve been blogging for a while, you have an audience; you have a really good focus group. They are going to tell you what they want, what they don’t like, what they are struggling with. You just have to open your ears to it. If you deliver what people want and need, you’ve got a lot better chance of success.

You can put the content out there and see what your readers’ reaction is, what they share, what their comments are, what they tell you about, or the follow up questions they ask. That’s the first test. This action lets you know you have an audience. You know if the audience wants that stuff. Then you have to find out what they are willing to pay for, which is sometimes a different thing.

Does pricing come down to trial and error or is there a better way to know what blog readers will pay for a book or other product?

Sometimes it’s trial and error. The more you know about your audience, the better.

If you know what else they are buying, that can work really well. You can either ask them, or you can be an affiliate. You can review items and tell your audience about things they could buy in return for a commission. Dollars and cents is the best feedback ever. If they are willing to tell you via buying something that they are interested in paying for something then you know there’s a market there.

More About Chris Garrett

Although Chris Garrett has been “online” since the 1980?s, it was in 1994 Chris first became addicted to the World Wide Web. Since then he has helped thousands of individuals, non-profits, small businesses and blue chips such as Heinz, Toshiba, Hugo Boss, Lacoste, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Durex, amongst others, make the most of the internet.

In 2005 Chris left the advertising agency world and founded a company to help smaller businesses and solo-entrepreneurs profit from their skills, knowledge and experience, achieve more with Online Media, and grow audiences of people who know, like and trust them. See how your business could benefit from working with Chris on the services page here.

As well as coaching and training companies and individuals, Chris also regularly speaks at conferences around the world about internet salesmanship, writing compelling content, and social media for business. He has spoken at events such as BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the Successful Outstanding Bloggers conference in Chicago, Think Visibility, Affiliate Expo, Wishlist Member Live, WordCamp, the Netherlands Social Media Congres and the Institute of Fundraising, along with the dozens of webinars, teleseminars and virtual events he holds or contributes to annually.

Chris was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1974. He lived in the UK for most of his life but now lives back in Calgary with his wife, daughter, cat, and a three-year-old Cocker Spaniel.

www.chrisg.com

Filed Under: Booking a Blog (Repurposing Content into a Book), Create an E-Book, How to Begin Blogging a Book, Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog, Selling Books and Information Products, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: blogging a book, book a blog, Chris Garrett, repurposing blog posts, strategic planning

New Year, New Look, New Goals

December 30, 2011 By Nina 3 Comments

I’m proud to unveil How to Blog a Book’s new design! I hope you like it. It’s cleaner, brighter and aligns with the design of the new How to Blog a Book printed book (which is now available for presale). Plus, it takes the blog to a new level.

I have written about starting out with free or hosted blogs, and then moving up to self-hosted blogs, ones where you pay a hosting company and purchase a domain name of your own. There also comes a time when you want to move away from free themes and have a custom-designed header and other unique features on your blog. With my book coming out in late April or early May, for me that time was now.

Additionally, a new year offers an opportunity to consider new goals. For several months now I’ve been thinking about how to improve this blog. After all, I’ve finished blogging the book. What more can I offer you, my blog readers? I can offer you what I myself want: tips and tools for creating a better blog. Why? Because the best way to blog a book and get noticed is to create a great blog that attracts lots of readers. That, of course, means creating great blog content. When you do that, everything falls into place. You can land a book deal or self-publish a successful book, and you can monetize your blog in a variety of ways–including with all types of information products, including printed and digital books, coaching products, teleseminars, etc.

To achieve this goal, I’ll be introducing a variety new features to the blog, including expert interviews, guest blog posts, and podcasts. While I will continue to offer tons of information on how to blog a book, I’ll also discuss how to book a blog (repurpose blog posts into information products) and create the best blog and blog posts possible. I’ll also provide information on publishing as it pertains to blogging a book and landing a traditional book deal or self-publishing your book.

Oh…and I’d love to hear more from you this year as well. You can start by letting me know what you think of the new design and giving me ideas for topics you’d like to discuss over the next 12 months. Leave me a comment here!

Happy New Year!

Filed Under: Building a Better Blog, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: build a better blog, inspiration, inspired action, passion, purpose

How to Revise Your Blogged Book Manuscript (Like I Did!)

August 3, 2011 By Nina Leave a Comment

Just over a week ago, I turned in my revised blogged book manuscript to my editor at Writer’s Digest Books. If you recall, I landed a book deal for this blogged book, How to Blog a Book. I promised to discuss how to revise your blogged book manuscript. Now that I’ve finished doing so, I can tell you about my process, and you can glean some information from my experience.

In the process of my revision, my blogged book went from approximately 26,000 words to approximately 44,000 words. And I wrote those extra words in just three week’s time. As I revised, I added, elaborated, expanded, and explained. I also added a whole chapter. In fact, I still need to add another chapter; that’s the only thing unfinished on my end.

Where did all this extra copy come from? I discovered areas in my original manuscript where my concepts where a bit too sketchy, and I really meant to be more detailed or in depth. I actually did this in some important places, such as how to actually write your blogged book and blog posts. So the chapter in the book that covers writing your blogged book contains much more information on that than you will find here in this blog. I realized while revising that as I was blogging the book I actually thought I had covered this topic pretty well and that I had made sense and been clear. When I came back later, I realized I hadn’t said enough and had left out important details. It’s so important to edit! (You can come back and add to your blogged book right on line; remember that.)

Additional copy came from techy experts I asked to review the chapters on creating a blog and promoting a blog. While I know a lot about these topics, before I committed this information to print with a publisher, I wanted to have my facts checked. This was done by several experts who helped me also see where I needed to expand on subjects. They also added some information. Thus, these two chapters got a bit longer. (And I realized, again, I’d left out some important topics.)

When you blog a book you are not creating the final version of your manuscript. I’d say you are creating something better than a first draft–maybe a second draft, but your manuscript will still need work. And you’ll want to add some special features as well to make the print version different from the blogged version.

You also have to edit it just like any other manuscript. I’m a professional nonfiction editor, so I dug into my manuscript like I would if it were one of my client’s manuscripts. I edited for content and for grammar, punctuation and sentence strength. In other words, I did developmental and line editing. My writing is pretty clean, but I found plenty to correct and improve upon as I went through the manuscript once, twice, and in some cases three or four times. I cut and moved copy. I rewrote passive sentences. I cut words. I added or deleted commas. I put in transitions. I rewrote. I reread. I reread again. And again.

Then I sent it off to the editor at Writer’s Digest Books. Now we’ll see what changes he asks me to make.

Filed Under: News About How to Blog a Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: blog-to-book, editing a blogged book, editing a manuscript, revising a manuscript

What the hoohah about e-books means for bloggers

March 25, 2011 By Nina Leave a Comment

I recently published several posts about indie e-book publishing here, here, and here. Seems lots of authors–mostly novelists–are making big money selling e-books cheaply (99 cents and $2.99).

What’s that got to do with blogging a book? If you don’t get noticed by a publisher while blogging your book but you do gain readers, this proves you have a market. Thus, you should find you have readers in the e-book market as well.

I suggest you take your blogged book over to Smashwords.com and produce an e-book that can be distributed in a variety of e-book formats. Take it over to CreateSpace.com and produce a POD book and a Kindle book, too. (In the near future, Smashwords will allow you to produce a Kindle book there as well.)

Then keep posting to your blog to keep readers interested–and buying the e-book or POD book.

Rinse and repeat. In other words, start a new blogged book.

Filed Under: Create an E-Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: CreateSpace, e-book distribution, e-book market, e-books, Smashwords

What to do if you didn’t plan to blog a book?

February 14, 2011 By Nina Leave a Comment

Most bloggers don’t set out to blog a book. They don’t even intend to write a book–ever. However, many bloggers discover after many, many posts on one topic that they have enough material–possibly too much material–for a book. Thus, they move out of Cyberspace and into the real world of physically published material. Or maybe they opt for an e-book.

Bloggers produce an enormous amount of copy. Believe me, I know. I have five blogs. That’s one of the reasons why I decided my physical book on how to blog a book would include information on repurposing or recycling blog posts into books and other information products. Someone who does this is Rebecca Morgan, who wrote this blog post for me a while ago. I’ve done this, too, with special reports, like the one you get for free when you sign up for my mailing list here; it began as a series of blog posts.

However, Joel Friedlander, a self-published author and book designer, currently is writing an interesting series of blog posts on how he is “booking” his blog. In other words, he is creating a book our of existing blog posts. He includes some interesting information about his process in these most current posts, since he thinks about it a bit differently as a designer.

It’s well worth reading Friedlander’s posts about “booking his blog,” and they may inspire you to create a book out of your existing posts if you didn’t actually set out to blog a book.

His first post can be read here.

His second post can be read here.

Filed Under: Blogs Turned Into Books, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: blog-to-book, booking a blog, Joel Friedlander, recycling blog posts, repurposing blog posts

Turning Your Blog Into a Book

December 17, 2010 By Nina Leave a Comment

Have you finished blogging a book? If so, there are lots of programs available these days that can turn your blog into a book. Many of them, however, produce a book that looks exactly like your blog. In other words, each page looks like a blog post.

Personally, that’s not what I want my physical book to look like. I want it to look like a book not a blog.

If you haven’t produced a manuscript in some other form other than on your blog–by which I mean in Microsoft Word or some other word processing program–then you have two choices. You need to either start copying and pasting those posts into a word processing program or you need to find a program that will turn your blogged book into something that looks like a real book.

Check out Fastpencil.com. This program claims to do just that–turn a blog into a book that looks like a book. Plus, it’s not overly expensive for a service that produces a print on demand book and ebooks in a variety of formats at the same time. You also could choose to compose your manuscript in the program and copy and paste into your blog. I haven’t tried doing this, though, so I don’t know if this would create any html errors. If it doesn’t you could easily use this reverse process and then produce your book and ebook with Fastpencil.com.

That said, if you have created a manuscript as you write your blogged book, you can choose any number of printing options.

Filed Under: Create a POD Book, Create an E-Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: blog-to-book options, Fastpencil.com, publishing a book, turning a blog into a book

The End: This Blogged Book Manuscript is Finished…or Not

June 25, 2010 By Nina 1 Comment

This actually brings us to the end of this blogged book. Amazingly, I began blogging in February and I have completed the whole book before the end of June—just five months later. I do have some additional material I plan to add to the physical printed book, but I do not intend to ever place that in the blogged version.

So, what happens to this blogged book now? You will find occasional posts here about blogs that have become books. You will find information pertinent to books being blogged or how to blog books that I come across and feel I want to share with my readers. This information may also get incorporated into the physical book.

You may also find me creating information products into the mix, if I have the time or energy to do so. I’m a firm believer in creating a business around a book.

This blog will, indeed, also become a physical book. My agent likely will peddle it after she finishes trying to sell my current book. If nothing happens with it, I will produce it as an e-book.

So, keep watching the blog for additional posts, which will be fewer and farther between, and for notices of new products and services.

Until then, I’m patting myself on the back for finishing a book—23,076 words—in five months. As I said at the beginning of this blogged book, that’s a good enough reason in and of itself to blog a book—you get your book written.

With that in mind, I hope you will sit down and start blogging your book. Let me know when you’ve finished yours. I’ll create a resource page of people who have followed the advice in these blogged pages and finished a blogged book.

Good luck and happy blogged book writing!

Filed Under: What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: additional material, blogged book, book manuscript, finished manuscript

Create Related Information Products for Multiple Streams of Income

June 23, 2010 By Nina Leave a Comment

When you finish blogging your book, consider writing short posts to promote new information products you create related to your book. Information products, such as special reports, videos, recordings (mp3s, CDs or DVDs), e-books, workbooks, teleseminars, webinars, home study courses, or on-line courses can provide great income sources.

Your book shouldn’t be your only source of income; if it is, you might fin find yourself in the poorhouse. Therefore, use your blogged book to create multiple streams of income.

Look at your manuscript and see what parts of it could be expanded into information products you could sell. You can create a page on your blog site or on your website with a shopping cart so readers or visitors can purchase these items at any time and download them. You may need to sign up for a service like www.aweber.com. This allows an auto-responder to send the purchased items immediately.

You might also provide these free as a way to entice people to sign up for your mailing list. For example, you can offer a free e-book or special report if they agree to be on your mailing list.

In either case, don’t consider your blogged book as your only or last bit of written copy. See it as your first and as a constant source of continuing information and income. Consider it the kernel of a total business.

Filed Under: Create Information Products Tagged With: e-books, home study courses, information products, multiple streams of income, webinars

Turning Your Blogged Book Into an E-Book

June 21, 2010 By Nina Leave a Comment

If you don’t want to go to much expense, you can simply convert your blogged book to an e-book yourself and sell it from your blog site or from a website. This doesn’t make it available on e-readers. It does, however, create an information product from which you can earn money.

Creating this type of e-book is pretty simple. You do need some design savvy, though. You must create an e-book that looks nice and has some decent graphics, especially if you plan to charge a fair amount for the book. After that, you need only get yourself a copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional. Save your finished manuscript as a secure PDF, and you are ready to sell it.

Many people ask if this PDF needs to be password protected. You can do that if you like. I’ve never yet purchased one that was. Most people treat these just like books, which are purchased and then lent out if they are well liked.

If you want to create an e-book that is ready for most e-readers, try the service offered by Fastpencil.com, which claims to create e-books for ALL e-readers. You also can try Smashwords.com. You can format your book for the Amazon Kindle here.