Speeches into Books

Speakers often ask. "How can I turn my speeches or seminars into books? The answer is tape your speech or presentation and have it transcribed. I first discovered how effective this is when I ran into Bob Schwartz author of Diets Don't Work.  This is a book about losing weight without dieting.

Bob at the time was giving workshops and seminars but wanted a book to go with them. He first taped his seminar transcribed it then worked it into a book adding subtitles and filling out information where needed.

The book published in the 80s is now in its third edition and still drawing rave reviews. Bob has since brought out another book Diets Still Don't Work.

I also used this technique for my first writing book How to Make Big Money Freelance Writing Parker/Prentice Hall. This came out of my article-writing course at American River College Sacramento. I taped the class and turned each lesson into a chapter adding a number of my own experiences. At the time I was writing and selling dozens of articles a month.

This book did reasonably well then went out of print. I turned around a re-sold it to Writers Digest Books under the title The Complete Guide to Marketing Magazine Articles. This book made another $15000 then went out of print. A few years later adding more material I sold it back to Writers Digest Books under the title How To Sell and Re-Sell Everything You Write. Its out of print again and I'm looking for ways to re-sell it for a fourth time. Maybe I'll publish it myself this time. The plus to this is that these books make good back-of-the-room sales for any appearances you make.

So if you give speeches or seminars tape them. They can often be turned into gold.