Bookcraft 2.0: The 90% Rule of Repurposing Content

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Content Always Wins

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When I left you on Friday, an editor friend and I were on our way to Milwaukee to meet with Phil to make a bookmap from the rough cut of his book. The rough cut had been built on a set of criteria that made choosing content from his archives an easy decision-making process. I outlined those criteria in Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content. Now, it was time for a finer cut. Armed with 5 categories of pages, I was sure that we’d sort them into 7 or 8 chapters and make a bookmap. That was the plan.

Because our topic is timeless, we can be flexible about schedule. That gives us even more room to focus on what’s best for the book. Here’s what happened.

We didn’t make a bookmap.

I was wrong about 7 or 8 chapters.

The plan went out the door early on

because

To make a great book, the content must win. Always.

Making the Finer Cut

In order to make that finer cut, we needed a finer set of criteria. Again, we turned to black and white rules — that crucial tool for sorting intellectual gray questions efficiently.

We made two black and white “gating rules.”

A simple definition of what the book would do — Every entry, story, or example would offer a practical application for the reader.

Every written bit of content had to meet the 90% Rule of Repurposing Content.

We read aloud each piece, if it failed on either point, without question it was out.

What is the 90% Rule of Repurposing Content? It’s a rule that I made up.
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Bookcraft 2.0: Why No Bound Book Has 666 Pages and Get Your Free Blank Bookmap

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Done with the Rough Cut, Time To Map the Book

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After I found the 140+ pages, I discovered that Phil actually had 6 more months of archives. What a bonus!

So I now sit with close to 170 pages — sorted into 5 categories. Those 5 categories will soon become 7 or 8 book chapters. That will happen when we’ve reviewed the larger ones to break them into more readable chunks.

The next step is to plan how the pages map out.

We’re actually going to make a bookmap.

No Bound Book Has 666 Pages

You may never have thought about it, but it’s a fact:

You can’t have a page 1 without a page 2.
Every sheet of paper has a front and a back.

That’s the first reason that page counts matter. Paper is tangible.
There are some things that paper won’t do.

It’s also a fact that:

No bound book has 666 pages.

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Bookcraft 2.0: How Many Words Does It Take to Make a Book?

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An Average Book . . .

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As an introduction to Bookcraft 2.0, I wrote Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives! In the comments, Chris showed serious interest in finding out more about it.

. . . My new venture, SuccessCREEations has been up and running for less than a month and already has 23,000+ words, all fairly focused topically. So perhaps in a few months I’ll have enough there to put something together (provided I keep the pace steady).

Of course it begs the question, how much material does it take to become publish-worthy? If you figure an average of about 250 words per page, then what about 60,000 words or so for an average book? Is that anywhere near right?

My apologies. Chris, for trying to answer a BIG question with a small answer. I should have said, “Yes, Chris. you’re more than near right . . . because you write well, you might even have two books there.”

Let me try to explain it better in this post.
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Bookcraft 2.0 Why Read the Date Archives Not the Categories?

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What’s Established vs. A Fresh Look

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I’m still sorting the pages I printed out when I read through Phil’s monthly archives. As I was sorting, I thought someone must have this question.

Why not just use the categories Phil already has?

It’s a great question and it’s an idea with value. Staying with the categories that are already established offers these benefits.

    It saves time.
    The structure is visible.
    The categories are familiar to Phil’s readers.

There are compelling reasons to ignore the categories and take a fresh look. Read more

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Bookcraft 2.0: Let the Sorting Begin

Filed Under Business Book, Content, Strategy, Successful Blog, Writing | 1 Comment

Pay No Attention to the Publisher at the Sidebar

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I’ve completed the content rough cut by printing pages from Phil’s Archives. The next step is to sort those pages into meaningful chunks of related content. I’m doing that now. The process involves a couple of days to let things form and shake out properly.

In the meantime, we’ll speak of other things. I’ll be back to tell you exactly how this part of the process worked.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related articles
Bookcraft 2.0 Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content
Bookcraft 2.0: Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would
Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives!
How to Make Sure Real People Read Your Book
10 Ways to Make It Great!

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