Successful Blog

12 Hands-on How-tos for Repurposing Blog Content into a Book

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Bookcraft 2.0 – The Series

Now that more of my blogger friends have several years of experience, they’re getting serious about the idea of turning the body of work they’ve focused into a book.

Though writing a book can seem a great way to establish proof of expertise, it’s easy to overlook the work we’re taking on while we consider the positive recognition we’re sure it will bring. A solid business person needs to be aware of the process of thinking through a great book and finding a publisher or deciding to self-publish it.

Even repurposing the content on an existing blog to share as an eBook takes more work than we might think.

Then there’s the year of marketing the book that comes after …

What follows are some articles on the subject that you may missed (if you recently tuned in to my blog.) Bookcraft 2.0 was a project that Phil Gerbyshak and I shared in 2006 — a look at how to make a book from an existing blog.

Depending on your plan of action, the quality and kind of content you start with, and your final goal, some posts will be of more interest than others. I include those that have the most relevant information to the process of repurposing content to prepare for a publisher.

Be sure to read the Post 1 and Post 12.

  1. Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives!

    2. Have you looked at your archives lately? If you’ve got a blog with 200+ posts, I’m betting you have at least one book’s worth of content. Go look. Here are the basic of what to look for and what to do.

  2. How to Make Sure Real People Will Want to Read Your Book

    3. I’ll bet you’ve looked at a book and wondered why someone wrote that. Maybe the book is a hit with readers — just not for you — or maybe it had an audience of one. Now you face the same challenge.

  3. Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content

    4. With the working title in my head, I wrote a subtitle — the 25 words or less definition/premise of what the book would be about. That definition would be my tool for deciding what content to keep. Some folks call that statement the “elevator pitch.”

  4. How to Make Sure Real People Will Want to Read Your Book

    5. I’ll bet you’ve looked at a book and wondered why someone wrote that. Maybe the book is a hit with readers — just not for you — or maybe it had an audience of one. Now you face the same challenge.

  5. How Many Words Does It Take to Make a Book?

    6. Editors and agents often quote a word count to writers in order to establish basic parameters. “Casting off” pages also once was a common practice in which the word count was used to determine how much paper a book would require.

  6. Why No Bound Book Has 666 Pages and Get Your Free Blank Bookmap

    7. Books are made from large rolls or large sheets of paper that get folded in a certain way. When they are folded, they are called “signatures.”

    Most books are made of 16-page or 32-page signatures. This picture of how a 16-page signature looks unfolded.

  7. The 90% Rule of Repurposing Content

    8. When my job was finding product to repurpose for the U.S. market, what I realized was that people could repurpose anything. I had to curb my enthusiasm for finding the cool product inside everything that came my way. So I made the 90% rule.

  8. Book Research at Amazon, the Data Giant

    9. Amazon is not just a place to buy things. It’s an incredible source of information about what is selling in the book world right now — updated every hour. So let’s explore some of the informationa that Amazon can offer to help with Phil’s upcoming book.

  9. Even the Best Shoes Don’t Belong in a Bookstore

    10. To me, that advice seem counter-intuitive. Why would a publisher want another book about writing if they already had a list full of them? Shouldn’t I go to where a publisher didn’t have any?

  10. Why Consistency Makes Authors Look More Intelligent

    11. Consistency is a value, a benchmark of quality, and a support for readers. It also makes authors look smart.

  11. Writer, Book Editor, Copyeditor — What Do They Do?

    12. You have to build the book, before you can see the commas.

    This diagram shows the part of the writing process that Phil and I are currently working on.

  12. 12 Cold Truths about Publishing and The 2 Proofs Every Publisher Wants

    13. Well, we think the relationship is with the book, but really it’s with the content. That’s where the misconceptions start. Here are some cold truths publishers wish every author realized.

The traditional book making process hasn’t changed much, but the options for self-publishing have.

What do you find the best way to promote your business?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

The Preschool Teacher and the 3 Year Old: When Customers Misbehave!

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Not a Focus Group Kid

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I’m a teacher. I love teachers. We’re all teachers in some way. So I can tell this story with friendship and compassion. Besides if you read on, you’ll see it’s not about teachers at all, but about companies and customers …

From the start we knew our son wasn’t going to be “focus group” material. He decided when to be born — and even then, the doctor had to go to extremes to convince him to join the world. (I was pretty sure he’d be driving a car out when he did.)

By 2, he could write, spell, and read, but he had no interest in conversation. He didn’t draw until he was 5. He preferred to examine the world through his own eyes and perfect his handwriting, like an athlete or a musician might — hours a day, practicing each movement until he perfected it and then practicing again. That same year, he developed an entire sign alphabet.

Let’s just say that in his preschool class, our son was a niche market. His preschool teacher, an upright authoritarian, was used to serving a one-size-fits-all market. She had her objectives, her goals, and her expectations. As you can imagine, theirs was not a relationship made in heaven.

At the first teacher-parent conference, Ms. Authority laid it all out for me exactly what my son was doing wrong. I heard a short litany of complaints about this young customer misbehaving.

Of course, the problems were all his.

  1. He doesn’t pay attention. “I work hard everyday planning magnificent lessons around fans and feathers,” she said. ” … so that he can learn the letter f,” she went on. “He ignores what we’re doing and walks over to the magnifying glass. He looks at wheels on toy trucks and spines on books.”
  2. He’s defiant. “When I tell him to sit in the time out chair, he defies me. He outright asks what will happen if he doesn’t sit there!”
  3. He’s got a hearing defect and could be deaf. “No matter how loud I talk, he doesn’t pay attention. You need to have him tested. I think he might be deaf.” (I’m not making this up.)

Except, I knew the problems weren’t problems at all. It was all I could do explain that to her. You see, this customer was ignoring her because she had nothing to offer.

  1. He already knew how to read, write and spell. Had she let him near the magnetic letters he would have written out words like “cough” and “pharmacy.”
  2. He’s curious and careful, not defiant. Had she gotten to know him, she would have found out that he can’t make a decision without knowing where it would lead.
  3. It wasn’t his hearing. Had she walked up behind him to whisper “chocolate cake,” she might have seen how well he listened to important words.

Instead, she was the center of her universe. She saw her customer through a filter of expectations. The data set said his behavior was not right and she filled in an explanation.

She had made the offer about HER … not about him.

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With the right offer to the same customer — say a magnifying glass and a set of magnetic letters — she might have made a loyal fan who would be looking for what she was going to bring out next for him.

We do the same thing in business, we design something that we’re sure the perfect customers will love, but sometimes we forget to ask them what thrills them.

What do you advise when someone complains about customers misbehaving?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

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Beach Notes: Oystercatchers

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

These are fascinating birds. Where we see one we always see another at the same time or pretty soon after. An online search told us that as a species they are generally monogamous and show great fidelity to their mate and loyalty to their nesting site, which they apparently defend vigorously. Watching their behavior that all makes sense. They are quite noisy and always seem to be bustling about, presumably looking for shellfish and other delicacies for dinner.

Nothing to do with business, that we can think of: just fun to watch, although no doubt for the oystercatcher and her/his mate it is all quite serious.

oystercatchers

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Thanks to Week 241 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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amp-your-brand
dave-peck
the-elder-generation
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They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 06-04-10

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

WorkLifeNation
But there is swelling support to help you achieve what social media expert Chris Brogan calls “escape velocity.” “The ability to leave a situation that isn’t helpful or desired.” It’s the path less traveled where you’ve got your feet planted in the financial security of a steady job, while igniting the journey toward doing work that you’re passionate about.

Chris Brogan
Yesterday, my blog was not my job, so I didn’t write one. Today? I have two speeches over the next few days. That was my job first, and then this post.

America’s Best Business Practices
I have written many articles on this blog about the huge benefits of using social media in marketing. So please don’t mistake this article as some type of put-down for social media. It is not. I believe that social media has leveled the playing field to some degree between big business and small business. Nonetheless, as with many great things, it can sometimes go wrong.

Shamable
Web traffic for the sake of traffic is meaningless. This is why I don’t advocate always targeting a “top blogger” in any vertical. It makes zero sense to chase big numbers, just as shotgun marketing did — just ask our friend, the banner ad.

Operation Safe
I have been looking at a few blog posts that share what kind of tweets someone should make, and wondering what the right balance for a non-profit like us should be. I won’t claim any magic formula but this is what is working for us.

JR’s Internet Marketing Strategies
Overall, dofollow is obviously the best type of backlink because it passes link juice from one site to another and counts the anchor text for keyword relevance, but, do not discount the nofollow completely!

Related ala carte selections include

Oatmeal.com
via @ChrisGuillebeau

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Cool Tool Review: Highrise

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Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Business

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: Highrise
A Review by Todd Hoskins

Liz reminds us, “Relationships are everyone’s business, and every business is relationships.”

How are you keeping track of your business relationships? This is the purpose of CRM – Customer Relationship Management. CRM is a broad category of software, encompassing anything from fancy address books to sales forecasting and client invoicing. But essentially, CRM is understanding who are the people and companies important to your company. Sidenote: I hate the “M” in the acronym. What customer (or anyone for that matter) wants their relationship managed?

Nonetheless, the people you and your employees know are one of the single most valuable assets to your company. It is essential to develop a database of contact information. It’s a bonus if you also can encourage your employees to include correspondence records and organize their to-do’s in one central place. This way, if one of your employees leaves the company, you can instantly see where they left off and what needs to be done.

Two months ago we looked at Rapportive, a very simple social CRM tool. Rapportive is great for giving you context to who you are corresponding with, and where to find them online. But it currently only offers individual accounts. For businesses, you need something more.

I recommend Highrise. Highrise, developed by the trailblazing software renegades at 37signals is just enough without being too much. If you’ve read this column before you know I appreciate simplicity in design and usability. Highrise shines here.

There are a handful of add-ons that can make Highrise into Salesforce.com lite. The basic product allows you to easily enter names, companies, tags, contact info, social network locations, and notes. You can assign tasks to yourself or others. You can also set levels of permissions so your junior associate doesn’t have your board member’s cell phone.

The pricing is relatively cheap, starting at $25 per month. (Also, a 30-day trial is free regardless of company size). We are all waiting for a customized Android and Blackberry app. iPhone app is available.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 2/5 – more options for business integration with Salesforce.com or Sugar CRM for SaaS. Or maybe your stuck with Oracle.

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – must-have. The hard part is getting your employees to use it consistently.

Personal Value: 0/5 – an online address book or an old fashioned Rolodex is good enough