How I Turned Little Articles into a Legit Book (Ultimate Guide)
Go From Blogger to Author
Writing my first book was both a joy and a pain. The joy was creating an immersive world full of characters I loved. The pain was forcing myself to work privately on one project until completion (cruel and unusual punishment for a writer).
While I maybe needed that extra discipline as a newbie, I’ve now published three books and I’ve found a better way.
Old thinking
I kept worrying people would steal my idea if I wrote about it or mentioned it online. So, I kept it a secret and wrote in private to my book that asked, “What if women ruled the world?”
That wasn’t such a great idea. You see, a writer flying solo can easily get lost in the fog of their own thoughts. Sometimes, it helps to get a fresh perspective.
So, on my second work, The Breath Book, I juiced up the book with Medium stories that were already vetted before a “live studio audience.”
That’s what I had a light bulb moment, why not write an entire book using my Medium articles?
The new formula:
- Write lots, have fun. I’ve been writing on Medium for a little over a year, trying to keep it to 3 to 5 topics. This helps you become a top writer in those topics, and also helps create books from each topic.
- Group your stories into lists. Go through all your articles and group them into themes, a great way to start is using Medium lists. You can build your list like the Chapters of a book. The bonus is you also mafe it easy for Medium readers to access your content by category.
- Copy/paste articles into a Word Document. Now that you’ve got your lists of the articles for the book, go to each article and copy and paste everything, including the pictures!
- Self-publish using an on-demand service like Amazon’s Kindle. With Kindle, I can publish a paperback and e-book. While there are other services, nobody can compete with Amazon’s international reach and nobody else can ship me a fresh copy of my book within a day or two.
A great thing about writing on Medium is that we writers retain the rights to our work, unless we sign some agreement with a pub or something. And sharing it here builds excitement around the project while making us write more “in the moment.”
✍️ So here’s my next book, which you can start reading now…
TITLE: Attracting Your Soulmate
From Someone Who’s Seen Both Sides
(links go to the Medium articles, lines without links are already in article.)
Chapter 1: How to Attract Your Soulmate
a. Are they real?
b. When I Found Mine
c. Soul Vs. Ego
d. Seven Sacred Traits of Soulmates
e. Why soul mates often rebel together: A Real Example
Chapter 2: Who Does Your “Frequency” Actually Attract?
a. A journey through the “frequency chart.”
b. Can you have more than one soulmate?
c. What’s the #1 thing you can do now to find your soulmate?
d. How to Fit In Anywhere (even if you’re new)
Chapter 3: What You’re Missing About Basic Attraction
a. Our entire economy revolves around a desire to be hot
b. Most people get backwards how form comes to be
c. What *not* to do when attracting someone
d. How To Leave Them Wanting More
e. The Phrase That Won Her Over on the First Date
Chapter 4: Tapping Into Your Intuition
a. Attraction Beyond the 5 Senses
a. How To Be Happy, No Matter What
c. Warning: This May Cause Self-Realization
d. If Meditation Isn’t Working, Try This
Chapter 5: Beyond Death: The Real Purpose of These Magical Unions
a. What to do after losing a soulmate.
b.|Is there such a thing as soul groups?
c. What to do after losing a soulmate?
d. What truly connects two soulmates?
e. You don’t need to find a psychic medium, you already are one.
f. What’s Your Soul Mission?
* More to come as the book develops…
But Why Buy the Book When It’s Linked Here?
First, it’s nice to have content in a unified place without needing to click all over the place, or with the potential of getting distracted by related stories.
Second, if somebody wants to gift the content, having it in book form is the way to go.
You can also put exclusive content in your book, to give those readers something extra special.
Added bonus:
Let’s say one article doesn’t take off on Medium (maybe because of timing or a weak headline or whatever), you can always still use the content in a book.
So just keep writing and sharing, that’s what we’re here for, and that’s how you’ll find the most writing success. You may even create an “abundance loop” with articles feeding the book and the book feeding the articles.
Happy writing. ✍️
P.S. first of all, you should get my posts in your inbox here! Second, if you’re not a Medium member yet, jump in! You’ll get access to so many great writers, all my articles, and who knows, maybe you’ll start writing too! Start here!