Want to write your first ebook? Start with what you’ve already written

Something that always comes up in my reader surveys is that you want to create digital products but have no idea where to start. I’ve got just the tip for you:

Start with what you’ve already written.

Want to write your first ebook? Start with what you’ve already written.
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If you’ve been blogging or writing for an email list for a while, you’ve built up a library of posts in your favorite topic. So use them! Here’s how:

Gather your posts in one document

You might think the first step to creating your ebook is to create an outline — and we’ll get there, promise. But what has helped me the most is to gather all the posts I’ve written on my ebook topic in one document. Then I can see just how much I’ve already written, and it gives me a lot more motivation to keep going. Suddenly this huge task sitting in front of me seems more manageable.

Plus, over time it’s easy to forget what you’ve written. Going through my blog posts before I start writing gives me new ideas for what to include in my ebook and helps me start understanding the overall structure.

Going through old blog posts will give you new ideas for your ebook.
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Create an outline

Now that you know what you’ve already written, you can start creating an outline for your book. I like to start with a list of sections I’ve created from blog post titles and some headings from those posts. For example, something I only wrote a paragraph about in one blog post might deserve its own section in my book. Put those in order, then start filling in the holes.

Edit your existing posts

Once I have an outline, then I can move the relevant information from my posts to their proper section in my ebook and edit accordingly, removing references to other parts of content that I’m not including, and adding what I need for it to make sense within the context of the book. I turn my outline into headings for each section of the book, and once I’ve put my existing content into place, I can very quickly see where the holes are and start writing. Then, as I write new sections before and after content I’ve pulled from posts, I can edit the post content further to improve the flow between sections.

Add new book sections to your editorial calendar

If you find you have a lot of holes to fill once you have your existing content in place, one of my favorite tricks is to turn new sections of my book into blog posts topics and add them to my editorial calendar. I’m writing content weekly for my blog anyway, so I might as well be working on my book while I’m at it! Creating blog posts from your book sections helps break things down so you can focus on just that one specific area, without getting overwhelmed by the big idea of “writing a book OMG!” Once you have it written, then you can plug it into your book and edit it to flow with the rest, just like you did with the content you had already written.

Writing an ebook? Schedule blog posts from your book sections.
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You may wonder if there’s still value in your book if you’ve already published the content elsewhere. I can say with certainty — yes! There is value in having all of the information on a topic in one place. People looking for answers do not have time to search through every post you’ve written on a topic and try to make sense of it all. Plus, as you put everything together, some changes to your content will be necessary to help the content flow together. You’ll also need to add new information as you’ll almost definitely have some areas you haven’t already addressed on your blog. If you want to be absolutely sure you’re adding value to your book, create exercises, printables, or worksheets to expand on your content.

If you’ve had “write an ebook” on your to-do list for ages, I want you to do one thing today: gather all of the content you’ve already written on the subject. Things will start flowing from there.

Want to write an ebook? Start today by gathering what you’ve already written.
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Tell me: are you working on an ebook? What have you been struggling with?

P.S. What I’ve learned about creating products and 4 ways to start creating your own today.

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