Publishing E-Books For Dummies

Turning Your Nonfiction E-Book into an Online Course

If you’re anything like me, you own books packed with helpful advice that you’ve read (maybe even more than once) but that you’ve never put into action. Most readers struggle to engage fully with the material in an e-book — we skim it, or we nod along with good ideas but struggle to implement them in a meaningful way.

By converting your e-book into an online course, you create a win-win scenario: You can charge a much higher price, and your customers are far more likely to take action on what they learn.

Teaching an online course requires no complex technology. All you need is a way for people to pay you and a way for you to deliver course materials daily or weekly. For a simple way to accept payment, use PayPal (www.paypal.com ), and add your course members to a mailing list so that you can send the course directly to their inboxes. If you want to create a website for logging in, search for membership site software at your favorite search engine, and ask for recommendations from other authors who’ve created similar methods.

Your online course can follow a structure similar to your table of contents. Don’t simply copy and paste your words into a new format, though — include interactive elements (such as one-to-one coaching, group forums, or a weekly live webinar) to help people engage with the material. At the end of every lesson or section, give your course members clear instructions on what to do next, perhaps in the form of ...