Turn Your Blog Into A Book?

69 thoughts on “Turn Your Blog Into A Book?”

1. I’ve thought about doing this, but on a personal level for my son, to add to his baby book. I’ve peeked at a few of the sites you’ve mentioned, and would love to see everyones’ recommendations.

   1. Hi RC,

      I love your idea of doing that for your son. I thought it would also be cool to put together a family album where all of the ancestors and relatives are included, and anything we find from searching genealogical records; like a page from a ship’s manifest where our ancestor’s name is listed. There’s so many possibilities.

      For that, I like what Blurb offers in their software. And from what I read, I think you can buy as few books as you want.

2. I’ve thought about publishing something for a while now, but haven’t looked at any of the sources you found, except Lulu, which I first looked at several years ago. I’ve got too many other interesting things on my plate right now to go down the self-publishing path, though.

   1. Hi Mike,

      I hear you. When we have a lot on our plates, adding more feels overwhelming. I think your Civil War stories would make a great book.

3. I’ve actually been researching this a lot lately so this was a PERFECT post for me. However, I have a Typepad blog and it seems that some of these resources were for WordPress only. Any suggestions for Typepad?

   1. Hi Dani,

      You know, in all of my research I saw nothing for Typepad. Most of these work for WordPress.com, Blogger and LiveJournal though. If this is something you REALLY want to do, you could transfer your blog posts to another platform and go from there, but that might be more work than what you’re wanting to do.

4. Yes! I did publish a ebook and of course only a couple of sales but I did it the hard way, by typing it out myself. I did not know about these programs that could do this! What a find! Would you recommend fast pencil and/or would you include your comments in your ebook?

   1. Hi Linda,

      I remember when you published your book, but I wasn’t sure how you did it.

      I’m not certain what I’ll do yet. I really want to include comments and the links, which Fast Pencil doesn’t do, so I’ll keep my ears open and see if I find an easier way than copying and pasting. From what I’ve read this is a fairly new concept, so someone may come out with just what I’m looking for. And since I’m not in a rush, I don’t mind waiting a while longer.

5. There really isn’t any easy way to publish from blog to book. I know, I’ve done a few for clients and to a certain extent with our novel.

   Automating it won’t get you what you want. Many times what looks good on the blog won’t translate well into book form. You still need to go through all your posts, pick out the ones that apply and do some rewriting and re-arranging along the way.

   If you need some help or coaching, Barb, give us a call.

   1. Hi Deb,

      That’s true. Right now there isn’t an easy way. In fact, I was thinking of you and Wendi when I wrote this, knowing how excited you must be, being so close to having your first novel published.

      You raised a good point. Our blog posts do end up “looking” different when we try to automate the process. I realize I’ll have to do some work on the back end, but am hoping to keep it to a minimum.

      Thank you for the heads up if I need help. I know where to find you. 🙂

6. Barbara,
   As you know, once you take the steps as you have begun to do, the Universe meets you…so if it is a book your heart desires..a book will be created…I am excited for you!
   In researching how to create an ebook, the best option for me seemed to be LuLu…however, in creating one needs to be comfortable and at ease, enjoying the process so may I suggest you find a source that allows you to feel such…

   1. Thank you Joy,

      That’s true. The Universe will meet me now that I have that thought “out there”. I always find it amazing how that works.

      LuLu does look like a great site and even though the reviews of them a few years ago weren’t all that good, it appears they’re now a big contender in the self publishing market.

      So…you’re thinking of writing an ebook too? Care to share what it will be about?

7. I am writing one book, my game, Newsies & Bootblacks. I am quite advanced with the whole thing. What I did, however, involves a lot of work, if only to learn the software involved, but I’m happy with the results.

   I could write you a guest post if interested

   1. Hi Miguel,

      You’re one busy guy. And I accept. A guest post would be awesome. I’ll send you an email and we’ll go from there.

      Thank you!

8. I have published a couple of e-books through Lulu, but I could barely even give the things away. Lulu is not a good place to try to sell your work.

   1. Hi doug,

      Thank you for stopping by and sharing your experience with Lulu. Other than on Lulu, did you have any further success selling your books?

9. Hi Barbara,

   Thanks for the mention. The E-book that I talk about in my latest Smashwords post is actually a condensed series of three posts I did on writing the perfect query letter.

   I highly recommend doing this, no matter which service you use. I think the experience is invaluable.

   George

   1. You’re welcome George,

      You know, I went on your Smashwords page and didn’t realize you had published five books. It’s good to know you’re having such great success with Smashwords and have now hit 1000 downloads. Congratulations.

10. Barbara, what a great list.

    You *have* been busy! I did not know these plugins even existed. It sounds like they would be a good way to get started collecting the posts on your blog. But like Deb says, you’d have to edit through everything. Your book sounds like a great idea because so many of your posts offer value and they end up hidden in your archives.

    I have done two ebooks so far, and for both of them I used OpenOffice. I want to do another book, but not an ebook. Something is percolating… something in fiction.

11. Thank you Davina,

    Up until a few days ago, I didn’t know these plugins existed, either, and I’m guessing there’s going to be more in the near future.

    I remember you saying you used OpenOffice for your fabulous ebooks. Now I can hardly wait to see what your next project ends up being. Fiction, you say?

12. Hi Barbara,

    You always bring us lots of great information! I didn’t know there were plugins to turn posts into books; that’s very interesting!

    I haven’t written an ebook or book…yet, but the plans are there, somewhere. I like the idea of making an ebook out of the best or more popular posts, not only as a way to “dig them out”, but also as a way to create a sort of personal archive as a reference for the future; and of course is the possibility to give it away whiting the blog.

    Great information and more homework checking out those plugins 🙂

    Raul

    1. Thank you Raul,

       Yes, Ebooks are a great way to revive old posts or compile ones from the same category together to share with readers who may not have seen the posts before. Plus, it could be a fun challenge, as well.

13. Authoring an ebook sounds like an intriguing proposition… although, I’m not so sure that there’d be a big demand for my brand of nonsense. 😛

    Still, this is good information to have. You just never know what I might do next! Thank you, ma’am! 😀

    1. You’re welcome Tony,

       You know, you could always put your cartoons into book form. It would be a great way to showcase your work and possibly even gain you notoriety – that is, more than you already have. 🙂

14. Pingback: Monday Reading Roundup Take #27

15. My blog won’t work as an eBook. But yours certainly will. Hope you manage it soon!

    1. Thank you Vered,

       You may have answered that a little too fast. I think your posts on advocating for more truth in advertising with regard to pictures which have bee photoshopped and giving young girls the wrong impression on body image could make for a great read.

16. Barbara – you are one determined lady!
    When you want to do something you really do the research.
    Take a look at this article for full info on setting up an eBook…

    http://www.onlineprofits.com/how-to-make-money-fast-on-the-internet/

    Looked good to me – hope you don’t mind the link in the comment.

    1. Thank you Keith,

       Yes. I do like to cover all bases when I’m researching a topic. I try to be an “informed consumer” and like to pass my findings onto all of you.

       I checked out the link you provided. That’s a fabulous find, and no, I don’t mind you including it in your comment. I appreciate it.

17. I think of my blog as a living book, notes, and knowledge base.

    Down the line, I can create snaphots in time and identify themes for books. I think of a book as a specific experience, so I would optimize for that, when the time comes.

    While I do have a lot of reusable nuggets throughout my blog, I try to keep it very blog’ish and free form. For books and other information products, I’ll experiment and test different paths.

    One thing I found useful lately for my blog is to run a project for a month. In this case, I’m using the month focus to share nuggets from my first non-technical book, as a way to help my readers get more from life … faster, easier, better results.

    1. Hi J.D.,

       I agree. Your blog would definitely make for a good book. Not only are your posts well researched, but you provide links so your readers can find out even more.

       I like your monthly project concept, unfortunately I’m still on day 4 (and I see you’re already on day 16) Yikes! I have lots of catching up to do. 🙁

18. I’m thinking of turning my blog more into a song, than a book! And am well on my way towards that. 🙂

    I remember John Hoff had a great article about things to think about before you publish an e-book. Do you remember reading it on his blog? I made a mental note that it would be invaluable for someone going the e-book route.

    Agreed on Davina! She’s a great resource. And human being.

    As are you!

    xo

    1. Thank you Jannie,

       You know, that could be your “handle”. The singing blogger. It reminds me of how on the Food Network they recently crowned their latest “star” and she was a food blogger.

       Keep those tunes coming. 8)

19. Barbara,
    I was too late to be able to comment on your blog registry post, but I followed your directions to post in another topic. Interestingly enough, I actually read this post before when I was looking to incorporate my writing into my blog.

    My name is Michael, and I am a blogger and aspiring author. My profession is education. I teach American fourth graders in Japan.

    My blog is If I Was Your Man (http://www.ifiwasyourman.com), which is a blog about my journey to become the man of her dreams (my wife).

    Visitors can expect to read my thoughts on a number of issues related to marriage and relationships.

    1. Hi Michael,

       I’m happy you commented here since I completely forget when I closed comments on posts older than 90 days, that also affected my Blog Registry. I’ll have to do something different on there.

       It must be so exciting to be teaching fourth graders in Japan. Kids that age much be fun to teach.

       Your blog sounds fascinating. I took a peek at it and will be back sometime soon to read a post or two.

       Happy Blogging!

20. Hi Barbara .. not having gone this route .. but certainly thinking about it in various ways .. I’m not sure what platform Patricia’s IT girl did her cookbook on last Autumn .. and Marelisa from Abundance Blog at Marelisa .. has definitely done some posts on ebooks .. Davina’s OpenSource ebook looked good ..

    But I love the ideas you throw out here and the brief summary for us to think about .. and it’s good to read other commenters and ideas .. as to how they’ve done it ..

    Thanks – good thoughts .. Hilary

    1. You’re welcome Hilary,

       I think you should definitely think about writing a book. With all of the wonderful information you share in your posts, I see it as being a huge success.

       I also think you’d be excellent at writing history books. You make the topics so fascinating and always find the perfect photo, as well. What do you think? 🙂

21. HI Barbara,
    I have turned my blog into an ebook…and believe you me…I did so much research on this very topic. I wanted to use a free editor that can turn documents into pdf for free. And well i managed to find it.
    I drafted and published my whole ebook in OpenOffice. Its amazing. Simple and clean. All you have to do is copy paste the content into the document and then draft the header footer…and shazam save it as a pdf. Your book is done. Also just for the front page(not cover) i used word and then copy pasted the whole page in openoffice.
    I know openoffice can look very rudimentary compared to word…but its amazing in functionality. And most of all its all Free free free!
    I have become the queen of freebies after starting to blog 😉

    1. Hi Zeenat,

       I knew you wrote an ebook, but didn’t realize you had also used OpenOffice. I’ve downloaded it, and like you say, it’s not as sleek as Word, but it offers more possibilities – with creating PDFs being one of them.

22. I really did not know that, we could turn our blog into a book. Thanks for sharing. I am checking out the sites.

23. Hi Barbara, I have written a book, typed word for word, edited, proof read, etc. Took an age. These facilities sound much quicker. I believe your blog could be a wonderful book (I also believe Hilary’s blog would make a wonderful book too!). Good luck in your quest. I can’t wait to hear the product is finished!

    Enjoy the journey.

    Mandy

    1. Hi Mandy … thanks – spotted your comment just as I was leaving to see my Ma – but had to say “thank you” .. that’s really kind .. I have ideas .. just need the energy and time – but they’ll come.

       Hi Barbara .. certainly lots of support for your book idea – and I absolutely agree .. you’ve got so much to offer here .. and thoughtful ideas and posts – let alone everyone’s wonderful knowledgeable comments adding to the mix ..

       Thanks – me too – can’t wait to see your finished product .. ebook without an ebook?! Bye – Hilary

    2. Thank you Mandy,

       So, you did it the “hard” way. I find it interesting how in the past we didn’t have so many options, but now that we do, I can see nearly any blogger doing “something” in book form.

       My ebook isn’t at the top of my list, but it’s definitely something I hope to accomplish in the next year.

24. Hi Barbara – You should check out Lillie Amman’s current post about turning a story into a book. She sings the praises of createspace and has written a great 3 post tutorial.

    1. Thank you Arkitx,

       I checked out Lillie’s blog and you’re spot on. Her tutorial is awesome. Plus she shares how she did it on CreateSpace, a paid service from Amazon. If Lillie recommends that platform, I’d say it well worth checking out.

25. Thanks for all your work and excellent advice, Barbara. I enjoy your blog, and this post is bookmarked, for sure! A little off-topic, I’m wondering about turning the novel I’ve written into blog posts. Any thoughts about that? (Not called “Contrary Mary” for nothing! :))

    1. You’re welcome Mary,

       And, thank you for the kind words.

       As for turning a book into a blog, it might (guessing) depend on which blog platform you use, plus how you have the book stored on your computer (I’m assuming you do). My guess is you’d have to use some type of text editor and copy and paste from there to the “write post” screen.

       I’m thinking you could be onto something. You could share pages (i.e. posts) from the book on a regular basis, plus offer the whole book for sale to those who don’t want to wait for all of the posts to be published.

       Keep me posted. I’d love to hear if you do this, plus would love to read your work.

       lol @ “Contrary Mary”

26. Thank you so much for these ideas and suggestions. My goddaughter Lauren got me into blogging in 2002 and she kept a blog herself until she passed away from cancer in 2006. I’ve often talked about downloading all her posts into an ebook to give to her parents and our other family members.

    I love the idea of Open Office and will definitely try that route. It’s also good to know that info for the time in the not too distant future when I create my own ebook!

    Awesome ideas and suggestions and very timely, too! Many thanks.

    1. You’re welcome Lisa,

       As I was reading your comment, it reminded me of what Blurb offers. The free software which you can download on their site shows how you can add text and photos to each page. I was thinking how special it would be to include photos of Lauren along with her words. I believe Blurb is a POD (print on demand) service so you could just order as many books as you need.

       OpenOffice is another great choice. If you have a chance check out Davina’s ebooks as well as Zeenat’s since that’s what they used.

27. Barbara,

    I’m so appreciative of your advice on this topic of creating an ebook because I will cross this road someday soon. I would like to avoid a huge headache and that looks possible with your timely tips.

    1. Hi Sandra,

       You and I are on the same page. With all that goes into writing blog posts, it’s disheartening to think we’d have to do it all over again (plus edits) just to create a book.

       If I find other platforms, I’ll definitely do an update, or post another comment to let you and others know what I found.

28. I have to say as a person who often rummages through your archives – I always start here to answer my questions – an ebook would be wonderful…
    I do not know what program IT Girl used…either for the cook book, I thought she just created it herself because I did not know any of these things existed and I just sent her the recipes and pictures and index which I did in WORD – actually I think it was Office Word… and I followed Marelisa’s suggestions on how to write an ebook, publish and use creative commons.
    I followed Lance’s example of how to link the book to UNICEF…and then I know IT girl had to design some kind of code reference for the donations??????

    It took me hours and hours to do my part…the submissions were easy and I made everything that was submitted except the marshmallows because most folks did not send pictures that could be used…

    Talon gave freely the cover photograph…
    I think you have enough here for 4 or 5 books on various concepts….

    I will have to start JD 30 day class over again…I just have been overwhelmed since my hubby’s jogging accident…and now am just exhausted again! Oh pooh!

    1. Hi Patricia,

       Yes. Your IT Girl did great with your cookbook. You’ll have to ask her what she used, or if she just did all of the coding, etc. herself.

       I agree. Since I have over six hundred posts on this blog, I could produce more that one book. I’ll kick around other ideas as well since I want the book to be of value, plus be fun to read.

       P.S. I hope your hubby is doing better.

29. Holy cow, Barbara!
    I missed the fact that you linked to me at the end of your post! Some proofreader I am 🙂 Thank you. Much appreciated.

30. You’re welcome Davina,

    What’s a book without a good proofreader, eh? 🙂

31. Barbara, I’m a little late to this one. I haven’t published anything yet, but hope to at some future point. I have read about a service called [url=http://www.bloggertobook.com/]Blogger to Book[/url]. Not having used this, I can’t vouch for it, but it does allow you to keep comments, choose the order newest to oldest, includes all text and images. I don’t know about links, though. Just another option to check out. This does not include a printed copy. Just an electronic file.

    1. Hi Linda,

       For some reason your comment ended up in the spam folder. 🙁

       I checked out the link for “Blogger to Book” and that looks fascinating too. I noticed right now it’s only for Blogger blogs, but with so many WordPress blogs, I’m guessing that may be an option down the road. Thank you for the heads up on another resource.

       1. It probably ended up in spam because I attempted to make the link look better and wasn’t able to correct that. I thought there was an edit period on comments here, but it just disappeared, so I thought it didn’t take. Sorry that the link is ugly, and I didn’t realize it was just for Blogger. Like you say, maybe later.

          1. Hi Linda,

             No need to apologize. I’m happy you included another resource. I did notice on the site they ask if others would like to see it available to WordPress users too, so I’m guessing it won’t be long before I can test it.

32. Barbara,

    I can’t really talk about plug-ins and my e-book idea is still in it’s infancy phase, but I love this idea of turning your blog into a book. You have so many helpful posts for bloggers and it would help if they could be accessed via an e-book.

    I do appreciate all the sites you provided and how you researched them. You make so much easier for the rest of us…or as Tony Single would say the rest of us “noobies.”

    I agree about Davina…she is an excellent proofreader:~)

33. Hi Sara,

    So….you have an ebook on the back burner, too? Yeah!

    My thought was since I’m doing all of this research, why not share what I found, and after reading the comments, others have contributed excellent ideas, too. I like how everyone is so willing to help each other. 8) (I left you this smiley because of your sunglasses avatar)

34. I’ve thought about publishing something for a while now, but haven’t looked at any of the sources you found, except Lulu, which I first looked at several years ago. I’ve got too many other interesting things on my plate right now to go down the self-publishing path, though.

35. Hi Kenny,

    I hear you. Self publishing is a time consuming endeavor. I hope when the time comes, one of these links might come in handy.

36. It’s far beyond my dream. All I want is to be a teacher. But if permitted by chance and time, why not? I will make a book out of my blogs. If it’s your heart desire to be an author aside from being a writer, work on for your dreams. Try to ask some tips from bestsellers writers. They can definitely help you with this stuff. Good luck to your endeavor…=) I know you can do it.

    1. Thank you Lyan,

       A teacher? Are you getting closer to your dream? Ironically, when I look at your photo you remind me of one of my God daughters who just recently become a teacher. You both have a beautiful smile and those twinkling eyes.

       Yes. Putting some of my blog posts into a book is something I hope to do one day. It’s not necessarily a burning desire, but I feel it would enable those who want to read more of what I’ve shared, a chance to have it in book form instead of digging through the archives (which includes over 600 posts).

37. This is definitely on my mind as well. I don’t know that I would want to do everything. Plus, since my site is about the Sandwich Generation, with articles about caring for elderly parents mingling with activities for grandparents and their grandchildren, I’d probably want to split it into 2-3 books. So I really appreciated the info here. I’ve done photo albums with Blurb and, overall, found it pretty easy, so that’s one I was leaning on. But I am signing up for your email to keep up with any new finds you come up with. Perfect for when I am finally ready to take that step. Thank you 🙂

38. You’re welcome Kaye,

    I was just looking at your blog. I LOVE the individuality of your niche and where you’re going with it. Good stuff!

    I agree. For what you’re doing, it would be best to divide your topics amongst 2 or more books. In fact, that’s what I’d probably do too. We certainly don’t want to overwhelm our readers with too much information, all at once.

    Since I wrote this post, I found one more resource. It’s named Calibre, and it’s also free. I haven’t had a chance to experiment with their software yet, or figure out if it’s something that will work for me, but it’s worth taking a look at.

    I’ll share more if and when I find them. 🙂

39. Doing an e-book (or e-books) based on my blog is something I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, so this post looks like a great resource to help me along in my own research into the subject.

    I’ve got a variety of locations or subjects where I’ve done multiple posts that might work as short e-books/tour books. I just did a post about a scenic drive with links to a batch of articles I’d previously written about stops along the route. I’ve wondered if something like that entire group of articles (about 20 in all) might work as an e-book.

    1. Hi Dominique,

       I love the idea of you making an ebook out of your scenic drives. I can see how many could benefit from that. When people are vacationing in an area, they often don’t know what to do, or where to go. With an ebook of yours in hand, they would have all they need for a fun filled vacation.

       I don’t know if you do, but including great places to eat would be a nice addition, too. (It’s usually the locals who know the top restaurants).

       I can see all kinds of possibilities, including having a map in the book. I’m thinking you could also get sponsors; for a fee you could include an ad for their business in your book. And, you could sell it on consignment in local (to the book’s topic) businesses.

       Keep me posted. 🙂

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