How to Become a Prolific Author by Blogging Books

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could decide to publish a book and just pull out a finished manuscript from a folder? It is nice… I know, because I’ve extracted a potential book manuscript on numerous occasions—usually from the archives of my blog.

I’m not talking about deciding to “find” a book on my blog or “book a blog.” I located a book I had already blogged but never published. That manuscript had been living on my site…ready to become a book whenever I decided to publish it.

You can do the same…if you start blogging short books on a regular basis.

Book in Waiting

Back in 2014, I decided to blog a book about virtual books tours. I did it right here on this site. (You can find the original posts here.) I had every intention of editing those posts and turning them into an ebook…at some point.

But I didn’t do anything with them…until last month. That’s when I took all the posts, placed them in Scrivener, and began polishing them into a completed manuscript, The Write Nonfiction NOW! Guide to Virtual Book Tours.

I’d previously written all the essential pieces. I only needed to add an introduction, conclusion, and a few additional chapters and edit the original parts. Plus, I searched out a few guest posts written for my blog by other people and a couple posts I’d written that related to the book’s topic. I also decided to contact a writer to produce a few pieces I felt would make the book more thorough.

About two weeks later, I turned my manuscript into my agent, who assists me with self-publishing. He returned the edited document to me about seven days later. I made his requested changes and sent it back.

Now…just about a month after I started on the project…the ebook is published and available on Amazon.

How is that possible? I had a “book in waiting.” It lived on my blog…until now.

Prolific Publishing

If you want to become a prolific author, first, become a prolific blogger. But don’t just blog willy nilly! Plan out your posts, so you create many books during the year.

It doesn’t take that many posts to create a blogged book. After all, you’ll keep a bit of new content for the book and not publish it initially on your site.

If you want to produce a 10,000-word ebook, for instance, you only need to write about 12 posts. Each post will be approximately 750 words in length. Publish four per month, and in three months you’ll have written a relatively polished draft of the book.

If you choose to blog a shorter book, you can blog on one topic for less time. You’ll still create a manuscript that can live on your blog until you decide it’s time to publish.

Challenge Yourself to Blog Books

I’ve often started a blogged book project during a 30-day writing challenge. Right here on this blog, I used to challenge bloggers annually to blog books—and I’d take that challenge, too. I’ve also blogged books during the Write Nonfiction in November Challenge (aka National Nonfiction Writing Month), and so have many other people.

Consider participating in a month-long writing challenge or creating one of your own at a time that works for you (and your blog plan). Or just decide several times per year to write a series of posts on a topic.

You don’t have to blog an entire book at one time. A series of three or four posts might quickly become a chapter in a book. If you write six series per year (one every other month), you will produce six chapters in that amount of time. That might be enough for content for a short ebook or get you about halfway to completion of a more extended book project.

In either case, when you get the itch to publish like I did, you’ll be able to pull out that blogged book manuscript and release a book quickly. Do that a few times per year, and you’ll be known as a prolific author, a title that stems from being a prolific-and strategic-blogger.

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