Book Marketing
Welcome to the episode. Today, we’re looking at a fresh way to think about book marketing: turning the knowledge in your book into an online course. A book can introduce readers to your ideas, but a course gives them a guided way to put those ideas into practice. And if you already have a manuscript, you may have a strong starting point for building one.
First, start with the material you’ve already created. Upload your manuscript, and AI can help convert it into a structured course with lessons, quizzes, and slides. Instead of facing a blank page and planning every module from scratch, you can use your book as the foundation. That can make the leap from author to course creator feel more manageable.
Still, treat the first draft as a starting point, not a finished product. A book and a course serve readers differently. Books can explore ideas at length; courses benefit from clear learning goals, practical steps, and opportunities to check understanding. Review the generated lessons, make sure the sequence makes sense, and add examples or exercises that reflect your own teaching style. Your expertise is what turns a useful outline into a genuinely helpful learning experience.
Second, consider how a course can complement your book marketing. The book can help people discover your perspective, while the course can offer a deeper, more interactive way to learn from you. You might use a course to help readers apply a process from your book, work through a set of skills, or reach a specific outcome. The key is to make the relationship clear: the course should expand on the book, not simply repeat it in another format.
Third, think about the student experience before you sell. Slides can make key ideas easier to follow, and quizzes can help learners pause and check what they understand. Read through the lessons as if you were taking the course for the first time. Are the instructions clear? Does each lesson lead naturally to the next? Small edits can make the material feel more personal and easier to use.
Once your course is ready, you can host it and sell it to your own students. That gives you a direct way to offer learning experiences alongside your book. Before launch, decide who the course is for, what it helps them do, and how it fits into your broader book marketing plan. A simple, specific description is often more useful than trying to promise everything at once.
Turning a manuscript into a course isn’t just a way to reuse content. It’s a chance to shape your ideas into a different learning format and build another way for readers to work with them. Let AI help organize the first version, then bring your judgment, examples, and voice to the final course. Your book may be the beginning of the conversation; a well-designed course can help your students take the next step.
