I’ve noticed a trend recently on the consulting calls I’ve been doing where podcasters who are past the beginning stages of starting a podcast have now hit their strides and then question, “Now what?”

The answer I generally give is in the form of another question or two, “Well, what is it you want to do with your podcast? What did you want when you started it and is that goal the same?”

Sometimes people just start a podcast because they love to talk about their subject matter and would do it whether there’s a microphone in front of them or not. But sometimes, podcasters look back after they’ve had a number of episodes under their belts and think, “Can I do more with this information and content?”

Speaking from personal experience, when I had gotten to 100 episodes of The Story Behind after about a year (I released 2 a week), I was contacted by who would turn out to be my publisher to inquire if I had thought about turning the podcast into a book. I hadn’t thought about it until that email, but as soon as the idea was presented to me, I realized all those episodes I had curated and written were essentially the closest to a book I had ever managed to write before, and the transition was fairly easy for me.

Fast-forward to today and even though The Story Behind has been on hiatus for a few years, the book continues to bring in royalties, and those just finding the podcast are introduced to it on a daily basis! (The power of podcasting, indeed!)

You don’t have to wait for a publisher to reach out to you to begin turning your book into a podcast though!

In fact, when I told my friend Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis from Write For You about the trend I noticed and how I wished I could help out my clients when it came to turning their podcast into a book, she sprang into action and offered to write this guest post!

Lynn is a wealth of information on so many topics and it’s such a delight when we get to chat because she’s one of those people I walk away from with ideas bursting from my brain I can’t wait to start on! She is also the host and creator of the podcasts Travel Gluten Free, Your Writing Coach, and the upcoming podcast, Caring for Your Aging Parents.

I know so many podcasters who are going to love her and her ideas!

Post below from Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis from Write For You:

All right, podcasting friends, so you've been creating content for your platform. Maybe you've been podcasting for two, three, or more years, and you have all of this content you want to repurpose into something bigger. If you've been podcasting for a while, you've probably got quite a bit of content on your computer. You may also have a YouTube channel, a blog, or a vlog where you are repurposing some or all of your podcast content (and if you're not, you're missing out on a huge SEO piece).

Still, even if you're not repurposing your podcast content, you can turn the content from your podcast into a book!

Now, while you can't just copy and paste transcripts from your podcast to make a book, there is a method you can use to organize and create book content from your podcast. Even if you don't have a podcast, if you have a video channel, a blog, or a vlog, you can repurpose any type of content using the steps in this process to create a book.

Creating a Book from Your Podcast

I do feel, however, it is easiest to create a book from podcast content because not only do you have your own content that you are chatting about — showing your expertise on your subject matter — but if you have additional content such as video, additional audio, or interviews, you can utilize all forms of content by turning them into the written word. I'd also recommend using the quotes from your podcast interviews in your book so you can harvest great content for your book that you already have in your files.

Editing Your Podcast Content for Your Book

Now, one of the other steps you need to know is even though you have content from your podcast, you'll still need to write some of the content for your book. You won't be able to take your content, cut and paste it into a book, and voila, you have a book. You'll need to do some writing. However, having a podcast, especially if you have a lot of episodes, will get you ahead of the game because you already have a large chunk of your book material, mostly written for you in rough draft form. In addition to writing part of your book, you will need to go back and edit the content from your podcast episodes, which we will discuss in the steps below.

Either way, you will have a huge jumpstart on your book using your current content, giving you a bigger lead and a shorter timeline for publishing your book than someone writing a book from scratch.

When to Choose Your Book Title

People always ask me, "When do I need a title for my book?" Don't worry about a title now — you won't need a title for your book until you're ready to format your book at the end of the process when you're finished with your rough draft and professional editing. You need to have a solid title and subtitle for your book between your professional editing and creating your book cover.

The Process of Taking Your Podcast Content and Turning it Into a Book

Here are the steps you'll need to take to repurpose your current content (whether that's podcast files, blog, vlog, or video) and create your book. So first, you'll want to choose a topic you want to write about. Once you have your topic or idea, you're ready to take the first step!

You're ready for Step #1: Creating your mindmap.

We are working on using backward design to produce your book. Not sure how to go about using backward design? Backward design is when you start your project with an end goal in mind and build out your next steps based on your end goal, constructing the pieces that fit your desired outcome. In this case, we are using a mindmap as a fluid outline to get you started organizing what you want to talk about when you write your book so you can add the content to build your book outline.

A mind map is a tool used to organize information in sections so you can understand what topics and details you want in your book. To make your mind map, you can start by grabbing a large piece of paper, such as the back of a desktop calendar or a large art sketchbook paper that is around 16 x 20. You can use a smaller size if you prefer — I always go big with my ideas, so I love big paper! Although I like doing this exercise on paper, you can also build your mindmap inside a program such as Lucidspark, Mindmup, Miro, or Canva. There are a lot of different free mind map tools out there, and you can Google more to find out the options each platform has.

Starting in the middle of your page, draw a circle, and in the center circle, write your main topic (idea or title). Remember, it's OK if you don't have a title yet. If you have a title and decide you don't like it later, you can switch to a new title later in your writing process. Now that you have your main topic in the middle circle, say your main topic is caring for houseplants; you'll want to draw a line out from the center circle and attach another circle to the end of that line. Each new line you construct is a new circle that you'll write a subtitle, and those subtitles will be your chapter headings!

So you may have a chapter on caring for succulents, another on caring for tropical house plants, or yet another chapter on the types of soil to use, how often to water different varieties of houseplants, and so on. Keep writing down chapter ideas or titles until you run out of ideas. Don't worry about changing your verbiage or worrying about grammar just yet because you are only in phase one - the process of a brain dump - which technically equates to emptying all of the ideas from your brain onto your mind map.

Next, you'll draw lines out from your chapter titles and attach new circles to the end of those lines. Here, you'll add additional information that you're going to include in your chapters. And then, underneath those circles, you can add other subtopics until you can't think of more ideas.

So you're making wheels with little spokes, and all of the spokes will be information supporting the bigger idea attached to that circle. You want to keep writing your mind map until you run out of ideas, and don't overthink them! Stay with the process of your brain dump until you don't have any ideas for a few minutes, then you'll be done with your mind map outline.

Maybe your mindmap takes an hour, two, or four hours; there isn't a time limit or amount of time required to create your mindmap. You could also work on your mindmap for an hour a day, step away from it, and see what other ideas come to mind later that day or the next day. Please know that you can always add more content to your book later. Still, you must have a basic outline on your mind map of what you will write about in your book if you want your message to be organized.

Step #2: Find podcast episodes that fit into the chapters of your book.

Now that you have your outline look at your podcast episodes to see which episodes you have that fit into the chapters of your book.

You don't want to take your content and squish it together to make a book because the flow will be terrible, and it won't read well. People will not be able to read your book and comprehend what you are saying because it won't make sense. This is why using backward design for your book is so important.

In addition to podcast episodes, you may also have other content you can use for your books, such as blogs, show notes, and articles. Gather all of the content you have that fits into the context of your book. Maybe you've posted some newsletters on LinkedIn, or you have video content with interviews and other content from guest contributors.

However, if you have a guest contributor, make sure you ask their permission before publishing their work in your book. It's also a good idea to have an interview form with a checkbox and statement that reads, "I give permission to (your name here) to use my image and my interview on their platform and any future content they create from my interview." I use this in conjunction with my terms of service on my website — written by my business lawyer. I'm not a lawyer, so please check the legality of your local and state laws before you publish content that's been co-created with another person. If you need a reference for a business lawyer, feel free to contact me at my contact information listed below.

Step #3: Transcribe your repurposed content for your book.

At last! Your content topics are organized, and you know which podcast content you want to be repurposed into your new book. This brings us to transcriptions. Many podcasters use an automatic transcriber for their audio content when they want to post transcripts or use their episodes as repurposed content. Several transcription services exist, such as Rev, Descript, and Otter AI. I would recommend using the automated transcription option, whichever service you choose.

Why? I would not use professional human transcription because it's more costly, and you don't need to clear up your transcripts to write your book. In addition, you're going to have to rewrite the content from your transcripts. You can't use the original transcripts directly as book material and say you're done because the verbal word will be a bit different than your written word.

Step #4: Adding more content to your book in addition to your repurposed content.

After you have all your content has been organized, you'll find that you're going to want to add more content in your chapters, such as your own thoughts, maybe some research, or add content for flow and style in your book chapters as well. You're also unable to use all of your podcast or repurposed content for your new book. While you may be able to use most of it, there will be content you won't use in your book, which is OK.

Step #5: Organizing your content in Google Drive

Once you have the content you want to use for your book and your mind map outline of your book chapters, the best advice I can give is for you to write your books in Google Drive.

When I write books for clients (or my own books), I make a main folder with my book content. In that folder, I have a separate Google document for each chapter. There are several reasons why I write using this process.

First, when you're reviewing and reorganizing your work, you'll want to be able to reorganize content easily. Take a look at your content. Do you need to add chapters? Do you need to add original content? Are there some chapters in your book you just need to write? Maybe you want to combine chapters. What else do you want to add to your book? Remember, your book is like a work of art. It is a process you'll repeatedly return to change and modify. So you may be adding, deleting, or moving chapters around.

Secondly, writing each chapter on its own dedicated Google document is easier to handle because that document is the same topic, so I can easily tell if I get off topic in that chapter.

Next, it's much easier to move around the chapters in your book (and trust me, everyone does this at one point or another) if you have each chapter in a separate document. Lastly, it is much easier when you ask people, such as Beta readers, to review your book and to share one chapter with them on a Google doc, asking them to comment. Definitely a lot easier than emailing chapters back and forth on a Word document or another file.

Have each chapter on a separate document, then you can share the document with the settings on "comment." Then share with them your table contents and ask, "Hey, here are my chapters. Which chapter would you like to read as my beta reader?" Then you can get their email and share that specific chapter document on google drive. This makes the beta reader process easy peasy!

Remember, although writing in google documents is my favorite way to write a book, you can write your book in the way you feel most comfortable. Some writers like the more traditional manual or electric typewriter method, and others like Word documents and Dropbox. I've found the easiest way to create a book is by using Google Docs because of the productivity and flexibility documents offer.

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Need help with writing, editing, formatting, or publishing your book? Maybe you just need an hour to bounce ideas off an experienced ghostwriter? Definitely grab a spot on my discovery call calendar to find out more. I'd be happy to work with you if we're a good fit to check off your bucket list of writing a book and becoming an author!

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Ready for Lynn to walk you through Steps 6-10? Check out Part 2 Here!

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