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 Dont 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 Dont 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 Im looking for ways to re-sell it for a fourth time. Maybe Ill 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