How You Create Your First Book From Blog Posts, Tweets and Diaries: Part One by Douglas Glenn Clark

Many people in business and other walks of life say they want to write a book. Or, to be more specific, a best-selling book. But too often they never take action. The task seems too dauntin g. Who has time to write a book?

Yet a book is a powerful form of content marketing; a
proven method of building public awareness; and can help build alliances and opportunities with other talented people.

A first book need not be a burden. In fact, many would-be authors may already have the core of a good book in the marketing materials and notes they've created.

Start with an Inventory

Take an inventory of the free content that appears on your website, blog or even in the hundreds of tweets you've posted. Also, search through old files, digital or paper. I always find something useful in the deep, dark dungeon of my productivity. Sad to say, we often overlook or lose faith in good, impulsive ideas.

Use your inventory list to organize the main ideas you wish to express. For example, perhaps you have one free article and 12 tweets that focus on a similar theme. Group them together and call that a chapter. Maybe one article is also a chapter. In fact, if you've already written a series of articles, even if the topics are diverse, you may already have the heart and soul of a good book.

"Long" is not Better

The chapters need not be long. So if you find five tweets and a short blog post that seem compatible, put them together, even though it may not seem like much. For now, each chapter only needs one idea that helps you articulate your mission.

Now give each chapter a name. They don't have to be perfect. Brainstorm, free-associate. If they sound silly at first or make you laugh that is not a bad thing; you can revise them later. What you're looking for is some coherence or perhaps a sequence that readers will find helpful. You might even be searching for your overall purpose or mission: something that is distinctly you but perhaps has not yet been fully expressed.

In my free e-book How to Write the Story of Your Success I gave each chapter a name that corresponds to a story type. The Emotional Story. The Transformation Story. The Unwritten Story - and so on. The names of each chapter reinforce my theme, which is the power and many uses of story.

Book Title (Steal from Chapter Titles)

Your next task is to create a title for the book. Maybe one of your chapter titles is suitable. Or perhaps your collection of chapter titles suggests a unifying phrase or thought that can be shaped into a title. Another possibility is that you hate giving each chapter a name. Too many titles! That's okay. The titles were merely a way to focus your ideas. You can remove them, if you wish, but only after you have a working title for your book.

Now what do you have? The first draft of your book. It may be sketchy, too thin and lack detail. But don't despair. That sounds like the first draft of all my books, and the books of best-selling authors and Pulitzer Prize winners. You're in good company.

You've also accomplished something profound. You have done what many would-be authors fail to do. You have taken real action. It will take time to shape your first draft, yet without it you have nothing. Be proud.

Summary:

• Take an inventory of the free content that appears on your website, blog and tweets
• Search through old files, digital or paper
• Use your inventory list to organize the main ideas you wish to express
• Group articles, blogs and tweets into idea categories and call each a chapter
• Create a title for each chapter
• Create a title for your book