How to Blog a Book

Inspiring You to Build Visibility, Boost Authority and Become an Author Post by Post

Inspiring You to Build Visibility, Boost Authority and Become an Author Post by Post

  • Home
  • About
    • Vote This Blog One of Writer’s Digest’s Annual 101 Best Internet Sites for Writers
    • Resources for Nonfiction Authors and Bloggers
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
  • The BOOK!
    • Table of Contents
    • Page One
    • NEW! Revised and Expanded–2nd Edition–of How to Blog a Book
    • How to Blog a Book (Revised and Expanded Edition) BLOG TOUR
    • Previous Virtual BookTours
  • Services
    • Blog Services
    • Coaching
      • Blog and Blog-to-Book Coaching
      • Author Coaching
      • Writing and Book Coaching
  • Courses
    • The Productive Writer Course
    • Inspired Creator Community
    • High-Performance Writer Group Coaching Program
    • Turn Your Blog Into a Book Production Machine
    • Build a Business Around Your Blog
    • How to Blog a Book Audio Course
    • How to Blog a Book eCourse
    • How to Blog a Book Audio Recording
  • Contact
  • Login

November 19, 2013 by Nina Amir 4 Comments

How Authors Can Turn Their Books into Workshops and Classes

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket

authors can be teahersIf you are willing to go from author to speaker, a whole new world of opportunities opens up to you. Additionally, your ability to earn money increase as well. Since most chapters of your book can be turned into speeches, talks or lectures, which you can present to group of all sizes and types, you can now turn these into larger teaching opportunities—workshops and classes. That means you can transform yourself into a workshop leader or a teacher, not just an author. And your book becomes the source of content for these educational events.

How to Impact Reader Beyond the Book

I believe you can have the largest impact on readers when they can see and hear you “up close and personal.” It’s great to speak to a large crowd. Even in this scenario I believe someone in the room (in fact, lot’s of “someones”) may feel you are speaking only to them and that they were meant to hear your message on that particular day. You can change a life or many lives with your story and your message from the lectern. However, when you teach a workshop or a class, the numbers get smaller, and you get to work with people in a more intimate setting.

When you really teach over several hours or days, you connect with your students and readers in a different way. They may become your readers and customers for life. Why? Because you impact them and their lives. You help them. You not only give them information, but you provide them with tactical tips and advice, transformative experiences, and, hopefully, ways to transcend their current situation. You touch them personally.

How to Turn Your Talk into a Workshop or Class

It’s not that difficult to turn your talk or speech into a workshop. First, determine if the talk or talks you’ve given lend themselves to workshop or if you need to combine several of them. Ask:

To teach this as a workshop or class, do I actually need to cover more than one chapter?

With that decision made, take the outline or outlines you produced and return to your book. (Read this post for more information on how to turn your book into a talk.) First, for each section of your talk and each bulleted point in each section, ask yourself these questions:

  • Is there information in the chapter I didn’t include in my talk that would be important to include in a more in-depth workshop or class?
  • What types of written exercises might support this material?
  • What types of questions might I ask the participants to support their understanding or discovery at this point?
  • What checklists, guides or tools could I create for them to use in class for each of these sections?
  • What resources can I provide to support them in learning this material or doing what I ask?
  • What types of group activities or dyad or triad exercises could I have them do to facilitate learning?
  • At what points will we have group discussion?

Create a Visual to Go with Your Content

I find the best way to put a course or workshop together is with a PowerPoint presentation. You can use Keynote if you have a Mac, and there are other alternatives as well. Here’s my four-point workshop- or class-building process:

  1. If  you already have a PowerPoint presentation for your talk, begin with that. If not, create a new presentation document, and put the major points from the original talk on individual sides. For example, you might place each of your main topics might on individual slides, and then you might create new slides with heading and three of your bulleted points between two other main topics for secondary points. Or maybe each of your secondary bulleted points go on individual slides as well. (Tip: Save this document as a different name at this point so you have two documents—one for the workshop and one for your general talks on the topic. Come back to it later and add graphics so the next time you speak on the topic you have visuals.
  2. Flesh this out with the additional points, questions, exercises, resources, etc., you decided upon after answering the questions above.
  3. Add graphics to illustrate your points.
  4. Conduct a practice run to see how long it takes to get through the presentation. Add or delete slides as necessary.

Don’t go overboard with content on your slides. You can make notes instead. It’s best to keep the slides as simple as possible; usually a snappy heading and those bullets points you used to remind yourself what to say when you speak are more than enough. Sometimes a cool picture does the trick.

You Can Earn Money as an Expert Teacher

Although leading workshops and classes involves speaking to smaller groups, this doesn’t mean you have to earn less money than you might speaking to larger groups. Remember, you are an expert as well as an author, and people pay to learn from experts.

Usually, you want to leverage yourself. If you can reach more people at once, you can charge less and make more. However, with a workshop or class, you can charger per person at a rate that equates to a reasonable hourly rate when multiplied by the number of people in the room. For example, if you offer a workshop based on your book, you could charge $299 for six hours. If 20 people attend, you have netted $5,980. That’s $997 per hour before any expenses. Not shabby. (Of course, you might have a room charge or other expenses to deduct.)

How_to_Build_a_Business_Around_Your_BlogOften, you can get an organization to run the workshop for you for a percentage. Even doing it 50-50, you take home $2,990, which means you earned $498 per hour. Pretty good money for an author—definitely better than selling books, which you will have done at the back of the room on breaks for some extra change.

Do you think you can make a chapter of your book—or two or three—into a workshop or class using this model?

Photo courtesy of Monkey Business Images | Dreamstime.com

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket

Filed Under: Build a Business Around Your Book, Selling Books and Information Products, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: build a business around your blog, build a business around your book, leading workshops, speaking, teaching

Comments

  1. Mike Walker says

    July 20, 2016 at 11:08 am

    I am publishing “The Social Construction of Mental Illness and Its Implications for Neuroplasticity” this fall (2016). I could really use so coaching/consultation regarding marketing it with speaking engagements and social media.

  2. Nina Amir says

    July 21, 2016 at 12:18 pm

    please contact me directly, Mike. You can use the contact form on this site or go to http://www.ninaamir.com.

  3. Erica says

    June 6, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    I have been searching the net for something like this for days. Thanks so much for sharing!!

  4. Mauricio Ventresca says

    September 4, 2018 at 11:05 pm

    I am the co-founder of a company that creates online training courses, aka eLearning, called Mind Rocket Interactive. I came across this article while searching for copywriting information for a client who wants to create a course based on someone else’s creative work.

    I agree with some of the content published here but disagree with others. Just because you ‘speak’ to the content (or are considered an SME) does not mean you are training people (change behaviors that lead to results). The author describes a “lecture”, and you are barely scratching the surface of learning, especially if you’re presenting soft skills or any other type of knowledge and skills that can be applied to the field.

    I highly suggest working with an instructional designer, a performance consultant, learning and development and a facilitator/coach who are experts in their field. The skillsets to write are not the same to train and deliver content in an engaging and inspiring manner.

    Call it a lecture (article also refers to it as a “talk”) however, keep in mind that this is the most passive and least effective method to learn something (https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/).

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

About Nina Amir

Nina Amir, the Inspiration to Creation Coach, inspires writers to create published products and careers as authors as well as to achieve their goals and fulfill their purpose and potential.

Read More . . .

Follow Me!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on Google+Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on LinkedInFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on SkypeFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

As Seen On:

social proof2

How to turn your blog into a book

Amazon.com
Barnesandnoble.com
IndieBound.com
WritersDigestShop.com

Create a Successful Author Website!

Book. Books and laptopPurchase a copy of my eBook!

Bestselling authors like Michael Hyatt and Joanna Penn use Scrivener and endorse this course! I tried Learn Scrivener Fast, too, and found it a quick, easy way to learn the Scrivener writing technology. Plus, you can use it to produce produce ebooks!
Click here to find out more!

250x250

bluehost

Writer's Digest: 2013 Best Writing Websites (2013)
This website has been awarded a Best Writing Website.
Sponsored by Writer's Digest, Writer's Market,
Writer's Digest University & Writer's Digest Shop.

TFOI Badge

Popular Posts

  • Are You Blogging a Book? List it here!
  • Can You Publish Blogged Material As a Kindle Ebook?
  • Darren Rowse on Book Deals and Discovery in the Blogosphere
  • 3+ Reasons I’ve Started Using Scrivener as a Blogging Tool
  • Selling Your Ebook on Your Own Website vs. Amazon

Search

Categories

Archives

Copyright © Nina Amir 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Generate Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

»
«
Powered by Conversion Insights: Boost your online revenue.  
Are you a productive, semi-productive or unproductive writer? Take My Quiz To Find Out!
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.