This document provides 7 tips for marketers to write a book using existing content: 1) Test ideas with audience to identify popular topics. 2) Focus on a single topic. 3) Recycle existing blog posts, articles, and other content. 4) Create an outline to organize content. 5) Identify and fill any gaps in information. 6) Update outdated content. 7) Revise and edit the content into a polished book format. The goal is to leverage existing marketing content to efficiently produce a book with minimal additional work.

1. Simple Shortcuts for Serious Content
The Marketer’s Guide To
Writing A Book
Simple Shortcuts for Reaching Content Marketing’s Pinnacle
Created by Mark Sherbin for Convince & Convert

2. You’re used to the
blank page.
You’ve maybe even grown quite fond of it.
Like all strong relationships, you’ve had your
ups and downs. But the two of you are
together, for better or for worse.

3. There’s one line you won’t
cross.

4. Whatever
unstructured ideas fill
your white board or
word processor page,
you refuse to call it
the start of a book.
The very thought of
writing a book, in
fact, makes your
mind shut off and
your pen go dry.

5. Marketers aren’t always writers. And when they
are, they still get intimidated by large projects.
Kinda like, well,
professional writers. In
fact, some of the strongest
writers I know are scared
to put line number one on
the page. And some are
just plain lazy.

6. There’s good news for those of you who fall into
the latter category: you don’t need to make any
commitment whatsoever. You barely even have
to try.
You’ve always had more than the chops to write a your
own book—you’ve had the content.The pinnacle of
content marketing is within reach.

7. How I Absorbed Book Learnin’

8. I’ve never written my own book.
I have, however, written other people’s books.
I don’t need to write my own to fill my
immediate timecard, although I hope one day
to attain the clout to sell a book.You know,
when I get around to it.

9. Books Are...
The top-tier of my workload
as a content marketing
specialist and ghostwriter
The ultimate long-form piece
of content
The kind of collateral
entrepreneurs daydream
about

10. Imagine walking into a meeting
and fielding a question with,
“Actually, we wrote the book on
that.”

11. Execs at Well-Established Brands...
Execs at Small Businesses...
...get great peace
of mind working
with ghostwriters
...with everything to
gain (and not much to
spend) should
consider taking
matters into their
own hands.

12. Let me tell you a secret.
My job isn’t as hard as you think.

13. Come to think of it, writing a book around a
topic you want your brand to own is like fitting
together the pieces of a puzzle. It’s about
sifting through ideas you’ve already expressed,
throwing the rest at a wall, and seeing what
sticks. Once you’ve done that, the new ideas
you need to fill the gaps start to flow.

14. Your book is already written.
For awhile, you’ve been
blasting out content
through all of your
channels—from blog
posts to white papers to
social media snippets.
The mildly tough part is
turning it into a
narrative.
Your
Title Here

15. A Few Steps to Shape the Book
You Already Have

16. TIP 1: TEST IDEAS
When “do” or “do not” fail, there is a “try.”

17. Without the right content, your book will fall
flat before you even start to consider
committing to it. What does your audience want
to read about?
Data, social media, and other technology have taken the
guessing game out of understanding which ideas truly
excite your audience. Use these tools to your advantage,
all from the comfort of your computer chair.

18. Test ideas
through
curated content
Nonprofit blogger Beth Kanter
curates content to bounce book ideas
off of her audience. It’s a great low
cost, low effort way to test ideas
you’d like to use in a book.

19. Find your top
content over a
given time period
Identify your best blog, SlideShare,
social media, and other posts. Your
best stuff typically surpasses the rest
in terms of page views, relevant
conversations in the comments
section, and social shares.

20. Pick up the
phone
Have a good relationship with
members of your audience? Call or
email and find out what’s vexing
them, what excites them, and what
they don’t know.

21. TIP 2: LESS IS MORE
That’s it. That’s the tip.

22. Your audience just did the work of choosing a handful of book
topics for you. It’s your job to mix and match those topics to
find the ones that work together and discard the others.
Narrowing your concept to a single topic can be tricky, but it’s
absolutely necessary. Somewhere between what your audience wants
and where your expertise lies is the sweet spot. Isolate that sweet spot.

23. TIP 3: RECYCLE
Find “used” content for your book.

24. Next, find content to fill that sweet spot. You don’t
have to do anything except skim the existing content
you’ve already created and find stuff that works with
your topic and audience.
Save everything. You could use a great tool like Evernote to snip bits of content or
entire posts and e-books. With Evernote, you can tag everything you bag to make it
easier to find later. Categorizing your content now will save you a ton of work later.

25. TIP 4: OUTLINE
Form a loose structure based on your topic.

26. An outline? You mean I can’t just throw the words on the page?
Yes, an outline. Like the ones you used
to do in high school. It’s time to start
planning ahead. Just this once, at least.
Creating your outline isn’t very hard.
You already have all this content. All you
need to do is organize it in an order and
hierarchy that makes sense.

27. TIP 5: BRIDGE GAPS
If it feels like something’s missing, it probably is.

28. Your existing content is an enormous start that cuts out those pesky first
steps that haunt the nightmares of so many first-time authors. But it will
only get you so far.
You’ll notice something missing. Actually, you’ll notice lots of things
missing. At this point, you just need to fill in that missing information.
This is actually pretty easy if you use the existing information as cues.
Once you’ve identified gaps in your narrative, update your outline to
include the content that fills those gaps. Double-check to make sure you
didn’t forget about a piece of content that fulfills the new points in the
outline.
Wherever there’s missing content, it’s time to get to work. But remember
to take plenty of breaks. You wouldn’t want to wear yourself out now—
you’re on a roll.

29. TIP 6: UPDATE CONTENT
You’ll feel much better when you freshen up outdated content.

30. As you read through your content, you might find yourself
saying, “What the hell was I thinking?” more than once. Don’t
worry—this is an entirely natural response to content you
created when you were a younger and less informed person.
Besides your younger self’s mistakes, you’ll also notice that
some of your content just isn’t up to date anymore. It’s time to
revise.
Updating your information may feel like a drag, but it’s an
absolute necessity, especially when you’re piling boulders and
pebbles of old content in hopes of creating a mountain. Get
your hands a little dirty and start updating your content for
people living in the now.

31. TIP 7: SPICE IT UP
Trim the fat, clean everything up, and finish your book.

32. Congratulations! You have a lump of words that vaguely
resembles a book. Like Michelangelo, you must now
shape that lump into your masterpiece.
Your first step is serious revision. Here, you’ll want to
make everything look uniform. Revise to improve
transitions between sections and make your tone more
consistent throughout.
Next, add flourishes like statistics, quotes, and other neat
stuff that makes you look like you know what you’re
talking about.
Finally, get an editor involved. It’s always a good idea to
have a fresh pair of eyes. After all, it’s better to pay
someone to do the dirty work.

33. Mark Sherbin is a freelance writer living
in San Francisco. You can get in touch
with him in any of the following ways.
Thanks for reading! Special thanks to Convince &
Convert for helping me promote this ebook.
@MarkSherbin
www.linkedin.com/in/marksherbin/
msherbin@gmail.com
Read more from Mark at the
Content Marketing Institute