Viral articles are sometimes the launching pad for a successful writing career. A viral article may turn into a series of articles followed by a book, or it may be the impetus for writing a book. Here are a few tips on how to turn a viral article into a published book.
You Can Create a Series of Articles on the Same Subject
Every book should have a central focus, even if it is your ramblings about life. Think about the story you’re trying to tell, if a personal blog post has gone viral or a short story has become wildly popular. If you have an article on a subject you know about go viral, then you can consider whether or not you have enough content to create a whole book based on the series. A rough rule of thumb equates 500 words to a single page. If you have 100 related two-page articles saved on your computer hard drive, you have a 200-page (or longer) book. If you have dozens of related articles you’d like to write, you could probably create a book, even if it is only a collection of essays.
If you have a short story that has gone viral, sit down and write out an outline for a potential book. Do you have enough “story” to stretch it into a book? Do you have other short stories in the same genre that could be released in the same collection?
In short, make sure you have enough content to fill a book before you start the actual process of writing a book.
Get the Tools You Need to Write the Book
In theory, any word processing program is good enough. However, you might from dedicated book writing software. This software may automatically format chapter headings and track references to sources. Using tools made for authors will create the polished manuscript you would send to publishers. The best book writing tools will check your spelling and your grammar while reporting the readability score of the content.
Publish the Book
There are several ways you could publish the book. One option is selecting an agent and asking them to shop the manuscript with publishers. This is the traditional approach. Unfortunately, you might pay an agent who never gets the book published. Another option is self-publishing. This has been made easier by ebook publishers who let you upload a book manuscript, select the settings you want to apply and then hit publish. This approach may make the book widely available such as when you publish through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Other services will offer an ebook for download and a printed version for those willing to pay for the printed book. Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay them part of the proceeds to pay for the service.
Another solution is offering the book for download to your readers. This approach gives you total control over its publication and all of the income. The challenge is getting people willing to pay you for the book through your website.