5 Proven Ways to Effectively Repurpose Your Book Content
Just published your book? Congrats! It was a lot of hard work and dedication to complete that goal, wasn’t it?
It sure was. So why not repurpose your book content? By doing so, you can reach new audiences with the same information you have at hand.
Yes, your book is a great asset when it comes to establishing your authority on a particular subject in the eyes of your target audience. But don’t stop there. Let’s strike while the iron is hot and get your name in front of as many eyes as possible.
Let’s repurpose your book’s content so you can continue to see the benefits of your hard work for years to come.
What does it mean to repurpose your book?
Repurposing is reusing content created for another purpose (usually within a different context) and applying it to a new situation. When it comes to book repurposing, this means taking the information, advice, and insights from your book and reusing them in a different format.
Ideally, this will provide a new audience with the same value and insights as the first readers. So, repurposing your book may involve taking the same concepts, advice, and lessons from your book and applying them to more than one format.
For example, you could turn parts of your book into blog posts, podcasts, videos, eBooks, or a series of social media posts. You can then use these repurposed formats in different ways to keep the content alive and in front of your audience for longer.
Different ways to repurpose your book content
Blog posts
There are several viable methods when it comes to repurposing your book’s content. One method is to take parts of your book and rewrite them as blog posts. But you’re not just going to copy and paste the book’s content into a new blog post. You’ll need to rewrite it to make it feel fresh and new again.
This is also a great time to work in new links to your latest content so that readers can easily follow and access this supplementary information. It can also be a good time to rewrite any information that has been updated since the book’s publication.
(But that shouldn’t be necessary because you kept your book’s content as “evergreen” as possible, right? 😉 )
While repurposing your book content into blog posts, don’t forget about the different writing style. When writing for the web, SEO is critical. Keywords, backlinks, headers, and sentence structure are critical. (Don’t let your hard work go to waste by disappointing Google!)
Social media posts
Once all those blog posts are complete, you can get even more granular. Take those posts and pull key topics or sentences from them for social media posts.
Thought of a clever line while writing? Come across an alarming statistic? Great! Repurpose these as social media posts.
As an added bonus, let your followers know the content originates from the book. (Nothing quite like a “sneak peek” to drive more book sales.)
eBook(s)
One of the easiest ways to repurpose your book’s content is to turn it into a series of eBooks. This is a great option for books that have enough depth that they can be broken up into several valuable, standalone eBooks.
(Heavy emphasis on “valuable” here. Remember, you’re doing all of this work to boost your credibility. And nothing screams “amateur” quite like a half-hearted attempt at eBook publication.)
If your main book can still provide value as several smaller standalone eBooks, create those and give your marketing team more arsenal with which to work. The shorter, more niched books can prove valuable for readers who prefer short reads. They can also act as an intro into what your main book can offer.
Audiobook
Audiobook sales saw double-digit growth for ten straight years and the industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.4 percent over the next few years. Need we say more?
(Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. Remember the Social Media Posts section above and how we mentioned pulling alarming stats? We’ve repurposed the paragraph above into several social media posts!)
Recording an audiobook can be a daunting task. We recommend to our clients that they block off 3 consecutive days to do nothing but record audio. Once complete, you’ll want to find a good sound editor to ensure the audiobook sounds professional. Then, sites like Findaway Voices can get your audiobook distributed globally!
What better way to repurpose your book content than to let your reader hear your voice?
Online course
Finally, you can repurpose your book content into an online course. Book publication, online course hosting, and keynote speaking all create the perfect cycle of authority. While a book gets into the detail and the story, the online course can get more technical — it can walk the viewer through the necessary steps to achieve their goal.
Even better? The reader who then buys your course can put a face to your name. They can feel more connected to you. From reading your book and hearing your story, they feel connected to you. And that level of connection will come through stronger when they take your course.
Online courses also (usually) come with a high price tag. If you’re going through the work to create your book, repurposing your book content into a course helps to increase the return on your investment.
Repurpose your book(s)
It takes a lot of work to write and publish a book. Believe us, we know. It’s a wild ride and while a ton of fun, is also an investment. This is an important piece of your business or brand. So you want to optimize your effectiveness with it.
If you repurpose your book content into the avenues listed here, you can create more, reach a wider audience, and earn higher revenue in the process.
What happens then? Well, you take what you have learned from writing Book One and create Book Two for your readers, of course.
How could readers benefit from your book? Let’s chat about it.