Turn Your Associated Content Articles into Ebooks

So you can't write a book? How many articles have you written here? If you're like many content producers, you've written a lot.

Guess what? The only difference between a decent book and a series of articles is the structure of the book.

Articles address short, focused, small topics. The best article gives you information you can use right away - information that addresses only a tiny segment of the information in the larger topic. For instance, say you're an expert Southern cook. A book on this may seem out of reach. But if you wrote an article on how to make perfect buttermilk-battered fried chicken, that would only take you a few minutes - and your reader could use that information tonight.Books address larger topics in a structured, focused way. If you had written dozens of articles on Southern barbeque - with recipes for sauces from North Carolina, Georgia, Owensboro Kentucky, Kansas City, Texas, and Alabama, and ways to prepare your meats from turkey to mutton - you have the basis for a very good book. All you have to do is compile your recipes together, spot your gaps (for instance, you have to have a recipe for smoking mutton if you have a recipe for Owensboro barbeque), and write bridge and introductory pieces.

Then you put your book together, with sections on: Barbeque sauce recipes, meat smoking, side dishes, desserts, drinks, traditional methods for smoking and cooking, and even a full menu for each type of barbeque with your recommended side dishes for that type of barbeque. To make it more than a recipe book, you can write little bits on local color for that region (why Owensboro uses mutton instead of pork or beef, for example) and include pictures of recipes and regions.

The best part: the bits you fill in for your book can be sold as separate new articles to AC, provided you ensure your book has adequate new material to make it a good buy.

Rules To Follow

1. Try to keep your ultimate goal in mind as you write articles for AC. If you're going to compile your articles into a book, the easiest way you can avoid copyright infringement is to sell all the pertinent articles to AC as non-exclusive.

2. Use your AC articles as a way to stir interest in your book - and try to make your book at least 1/3 new material outside of bridge and introductory sections.

3. Let others at AC know what you're doing, and seek out others who have published books, either through a self-publication route or through publishing companies.

4. When you publish your book, let Associated Content know about it. They are constantly looking for ways to promote themselves and their writers.

5. While you're writing, learn everything you can about self-promoting a book. While there's a chance that you can publish it through a New York publisher, even the largest publishing companies will expect you to do a large part of your own promotion. Listening to what others can teach you about this very non-writing topic will give you a head start on the things you'll need to do later.

6. If your book is in electronic format, include prominent links to your content producer page throughout the book. If it's a paper book, make sure that in your preface and the About the Author, you include your content producer URL and instructions on how to sign up for your subscriber list.