Course Summary
Blog-to-Book Course
Welcome!
Intake Survey
Bonus Q&A Webinars
How to best engage with this course platform
Our Private FB Group for Mutual Support -- connect here ๐ฅฐ

๐๐ฝ Great example of a support thread in our FB group

Course Helper: Dorota Godby

Comments under the lessons are worth reading!

Watch whole course at once, or at own pace, one phase at a time?

Is there a Resource Document / written handout?
The Publishing Mindset

The Magnum Opus Trap

Imposter syndrome in book writing

Your Book within Your Business Model

5 Phases of Book Writing/Publishing

Your Future Audience

Imagine your ideal reader -- write a quick note...

Should you publish workbooks or "low content" books?
Choosing your Book Topic

How to choose topic of your book? Intuitively or analytically...

Several questions to help you choose the theme/topic of your book...

You have lots of writings... what order to publish your books?

Are inspirational books less valuable than how-to books? Free vs premium content...
Book Structure & Content

Book Structure... and is it really OK to just have a book of blog posts?

What's the Ideal Book Length?

What kinds of CTAs could you have in your book?

End of chapter CTA links -- Text or Video?

Is there an ideal chapter length?

Can you mix styles, e.g. memoir vs how-to?

Can you repurpose content between books?

Ideally you would publish blog posts / chapters along the way...

Linking ideas, or having one chapter flow better into the next one...

Does social media, like Facebook, own your writing?
Gathering Your Notes / Blog Posts

Intro to the "gathering" exercise

Joselito Laudencia shares experience of gathering notes into a book

How broad or narrow should book topic be?

Is 1 blog post a chapter... or multiple posts?

Should you mix in yet-unblogged writing with blogged writing in your book?

What about interviews and speaking notes, can they be book material?

You can also turn Audio recordings into book chapters...

How to gather book references?

Quoting others in your book -- Fair Use

What about images / photos / graphics in books?

EXERCISE: Gathering Your Posts and Notes

Scrivener?

Copy/Paste Emojis โฆ
Categorizing Your Blog Posts / Notes: Simple Document

Categorizing with Simple Google Doc
Quickly See Your Best Social Media Writings

Quickly see your best writings on Medium

Quickly see your best writings on FB Business Page

Quickly see your best writings on Instagram
Categorizing Your Blog Posts / Notes: Spreadsheet

Categorizing with Spreadsheet

How to put repurposed articles into the Spreadsheet?

Only track organic reach?

Overwhelmed with spreadsheet consolidation?
Let's Categorize!

EXERCISE: Categorizing Your Notes into Themes

Order of chapters: prioritize Best or Logical?

EXERCISE: Put your Posts into Chapter Order...

Thoughts on the Intro and Ending Chapters

Introductory chapter -- how long and what's in it?

At what point should you stop adding to the material of a book?

You have so much writing... how to chunk down to manageable book?
Recruiting Your Editors

EXERCISE: Write names of potential editors...

Heather Tobin: Experience of a Volunteer Editor

Do editors need to be content experts? + How much time to give them?

How much work is expected of a Volunteer Editor?

How many editors to invite?

Should we give our editors some incentive or thank-you gift?

EXERCISE: draft email to editors...

Track your contacting of editors...
Book Draft Document for Editors

Actual example of me prepping a document for Editors

HOMEWORK -- Prepare the document for Editors

How "ready" does your Draft need to be for the Editors?

Give all Editors the whole book draft?

Yes: Acknow. + About Author. No need: Preface, Foreword, Afterword.

Why I put FB video at end of each of my chapters...

If you have many references... just make a bibliography?
Are you ready for a 2nd Edition?

When is it time for a 2nd Edition?

2nd Editions: add more content, or just revise?

What's my process of creating a 2nd edition?
Progress Checkpoint 1

How's it going with getting Editors?

Reminder: join our FB group for mutual support ๐ฅฐ

Announce your book process as early as possible ๐๐ฝโโ๏ธ
๐ THE BOOK LAUNCH TEMPLATE

The Book Launch Template ๐

What's the ideal time of year to launch a book?
Book Marketing Principles

Top 10 Factors for Book Selling Success

Lots of Book Marketing Ideas!

Do you have to market your book... or can it just be "discovered"? ๐ค

KDP Marketing Tools

KDP Marketing -- Nominate your ebooks and prime reading

Kindle Countdown Deal and Free Book Promotion

Amazon Author Central - syndicate your blog post RSS feed to your Author Page

Set up your Goodreads Author Page and associate your books

Most book sales are Kindle version... so teach your audience how to read that version :)

The lazy / easy way -- does it require a large audience?
Book Title & Subtitle

Keyword brainstorming for the book title

How niched-down (specific) should a book title be?

Turn your Keywords into Book Titles โจ

Poll your audience with your favorite 3 book titles ๐ค

Example of a title poll
Ensure that your Title doesn't violate existing trademark/copyright
Fiverr Tutorial
The main Fiverr tutorials have moved...

Try Fiverr: get started with a book cover idea...

Finding a Fiverr book editor
Getting Reviews & Book Blurbs

Getting book blurbs

Getting reviews (important!)

How many reviews to aim for?

Give a book summary to reviewers also?

My lazy way of requesting book reviews...
Progress Checkpoint 2

Progress check-in 2

Delay publishing, so you can fill the gaps in your book first?

My personal update (and on "working lightly")

Check-in with / remind your Editors

Plan to do a Pre-Order period?

Amazon -- ethical objections to using it or buying from them?

Carve out extra time during launch week...
Book Cover

Book Cover -- first brainstorm your vision

Book Cover -- secondly, get ideas via Amazon

Book Cover Fiverr designers

What does your book cover designer need from you?

Does book cover need to match your brand colors?

Poll your audience re: designs, via google form (randomized questions / shuffled order)

Upgrade your book cover design

After eBook Cover is done, *then* create the Paperback Cover Design

Book Back Cover Design tips
Your Edited Book Draft ๐๐ฝ

Which edits to accept vs reject? and f* chicago manual of style ๐

Confirming the edits, and putting it all into one google doc! ๐

Creating a Table of Contents for your book using google doc

Copyright page -- anything important to note?

Formatting headers and subheaders in google doc

Spellcheck!

Send your digital book to reviewers ๐คฉ
Book Interior Design / Formatting for Kindle & Paperback

What is book "interior design"?

Send book to Fiverr for layout / formatting aka "interior design"
Uploading your (Kindle) book to Amazon!

KDP intro and previewing your book manuscript

Typos can just be corrected & reuploaded

KDP Details -- Title, Series, Edition, Author, Contributors

KDP Book "Description" field

Why I don't worry about KDP keywords...

Book Categories (and the sham of Amazon Bestseller Status)

Kindle DRM

Kindle Select

Launch previewer and approve before you can go to final step...

Paperback territories, "primary marketplace", pricing, royalties, and publishing

Be sure to check in and remind your reviewers several times!
Book Pricing Tips
Easily creating a Paperback with Amazon KDP

Get a free ISBN from KDP Amazon

Uploading your Paperback Manuscript to KDP + Trim Size, Bleed, and Finish

White or Cream Paper? (Probably cream)

Create a quick temporary paperback cover so you can preview the book

Previewing your paperback text in the KDP previewer

Uploading the real Paperback Cover Design

Paperback territories, "primary marketplace", pricing, royalties, and publishing
Paperback/hardback printing options other than Amazon
Progress Checkpoint 3

Overview of Blog-to-Book Process
Recording Your Audiobook

Tips for recording your Audiobook

If you have an accent, should you record your own audiobook?

Audible / ACX -- creating your title and uploading the audio files (after sound mastering)
Congrats on Publishing Your Book! ๐๐ฝ๐คฉ

Secret of becoming #1 Amazon Bestseller...
BookLinker: one link that auto directs people to their correct Amazon website

KDP Book Sales Reports

Thank you for taking the course! I look forward to your updates ๐
Feedback about this course ๐๐ผ