Yesterday I sent off a short book to the printer created out of just 10 blog posts. Yes, just 10–and now it is a 78 page 4″ x 6″ book. Previously, I published it as an ebook. I’ll have it in my hands in just 10 days.
Does that inspire you to blog a book? You can blog a long book or a short book. In fact, you can blog lots of books.
Originally, I wrote the ebook as 10 consecutive blog posts. I planned them out in advance. Last week, I edited my existing ebook again. I designed the interior and a cover, and then I had the cover checked and altered slightly by a designer. Then I sent them both off to a printer.
All totaled, I wrote and produced a book in just under a month. My copy was created in 11 days; I added an intro and a conclusion on the 11th day. I learned how to do the design work and created all of it in about 5 days. The designer took about two days. The printer will take about 10 days.If you know how to do the design, know where to find everything you need, etc., you can do this faster.
Here’s the thing. It’s really not that hard to do this. Plus, it’s quite liberating. I self-published a book based on just a few blog posts, and you can do the same.
Tomorrow I’ll tell you a bit more about how to get started. In the meantime, don’t forget that I have a workshop coming up that will teach you a lot about how to write and produce a short book fast from your blog posts and from other content you generate. You can find out about it here. If you live in N. CA, please join me!
Wow, your method is really fast. I have always associated making a book whether it is literally long or short as something that is time consuming as you have to establish some sort of writing mood or momentum to keep those ideas coming.
It is very fast, Darcy. Some people still do need to create a mood to write, but you can get in the flow easily and quickly if you blog often and make it a daily practice.
Hi Nina,
I always thought that once you have sort of published your articles or stories somewhere else i.e on blogs on line the publisher won’t want to publish your works. I am interested to learn more. Is there any chance for me to do that. I didn’t know publishing can be that simple. Thanks a lot .
Yes, it can be that simple. Here’s a post I wrote on this topic, since you are not the first to ask: https://howtoblogabook.com/2012/06/14/does-previously-published-blog-content-turn-away-publishers/