The most important thing we can do as authors is to write the next book. The second most important thing is to let readers know about it. One way to do that is through advertising, but it has become rather expensive in recent years.
As costs increased, advertising became a larger line item on my P&L, prompting me to search for ways to promote my books without breaking the bank. So I doubled down on free or low-cost options like newsletters and social media.
Like me, I’m sure you have plenty on your plate already, between drafting your next novel, managing your backlist, and updating your website, which means cranking out more content. Sounds like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be—especially for veteran authors—if you repurpose your content.
Content repurposing allows you to maximize your reach without significantly increasing your workload. Repurposing means taking one piece of content that you’ve already created and revising it into a new format for a different platform or audience.
If you’ve been writing for a while, you already have years of valuable content: newsletters, blog posts, interviews, deleted scenes, speeches, etc., that you can reuse.
Unless it’s outdated, that content still has value, especially for readers who never saw it the first time around. Even if it is outdated, with a few tweaks you could probably bring it up to date.
The problem
Because of social media algorithms, our most loyal followers don’t see everything we post. People forget. Newsletter subscribers don’t open every campaign. We’re constantly gaining new followers and subscribers who haven’t seen any of our old content.
The good news is, you don’t have to create every new post from scratch to stay visible, and you don’t need brand new information to include in each newsletter. Social media rewards consistency, so you just have to show up with valuable content for your audience. For your newsletter, valuable content translates to better open rates.
Content that can be repurposed
You might think you don’t have much to repurpose, but this list will show you that you’re wrong. You’ve probably already been repurposing content; you just need to be more intentional about it. The list isn’t exhaustive, but it demonstrates that almost anything can be reused in a new way.
- Blog posts
- Reader questions
- Podcast interviews
- Newsletter content
- Speeches or workshop materials
- YouTube videos
- Social media posts
- Bonus content
- Novels
- Audiobooks
Examples of practical ways to repurpose content
Blog posts. Do you guest post on other blogs during book launches or regularly write on your own blog? Extract key sentences or paragraphs and use them on Instagram as a quote graphic or reel. Use the entire blog post as a thread on X or Threads or even a LinkedIn article. Or summarize the main points in your newsletter with a link to read the entire post.
Reader questions. Compile your most commonly asked questions into an FAQ page on your website or a carousel on Instagram, or use them to inspire ideas for a podcast episode. The questions can also be turned into a reel or YouTube short. Include them in your newsletter (chances are, if a few people have asked a question, even more have the same question).
For example, months ago, a new member of my reader group asked a common question: Where do I start in your catalog? I answered the question on the thread and then included the same information in a future newsletter. I also made the question and answer an Instagram carousel (positioning the question as the first graphic) that I pinned to the top of my profile.
YouTube video. Use CapCut to split the video into YouTube shorts or a series of reels. You could also transcribe the content using a transcription tool or pay someone to do the transcription, turning the text into a blog post or series of articles on Substack or Medium.
Bonus content. Deleted scenes, extra epilogues, etc., can be repackaged as reader magnets or bonus content for direct sales buyers. Pull out teasers and overlay them on a royalty-free image, then post it on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok with emotive music. Use the content as an excerpt on Instagram or Facebook, or turn it into a story time thread on X or Threads.
Podcasts. Have them transcribed into a blog post or use a tool to cut them into teaser audio to share on your social media profiles.
Speeches or workshop materials. These can become blog posts, short guides, listicles, and downloadable PDFs used as reader magnets. You can even expand on them and create an online course.
As you can see, you don’t have to be concerned with rotating one idea through multiple channels. Just keep your audience in mind and adapt the size of images and the length of the captions to the platform you’re using.
Tools for repurposing
The following tools will help you streamline your repurposing process.
For scheduling, platforms like Buffer, Metricool, and SocialBee allow you to schedule posts across social media channels so you can stay visible without having to constantly do manual posting. Each of them also has an evergreen function, which means you post once and have the content re-enter the queue for posting later. All automated.
I love this function! It means that even if I’m busy and don’t have time to add new content, my work is still being promoted. For example, I have more than 50 blog posts from my blog and guest blogging that tie in to one or more of my books. Twice a week, one of them goes out, and whenever I write a new blog post, I add it to the top of the queue. It goes out and then moves to the back of the queue for release at a later time.
Swipe file. Keep a folder on Google Drive, Notion, or your computer where you can store posts, captions, graphics, and teasers to reuse.
Templates. Take the time to design templates for regular content sharing. Doing the work upfront makes life easier down the road. For example, I have a New Release Template for my newsletter, so I never have to think about what to include when I have a new release. The same goes for my social media: I have several countdown templates, carousels, and teaser reels. I drop the content in, schedule, and move on.
Reformatting software. Audacity is free, open-source software you can use to edit audio. GarageBand performs similar functions and comes free with Mac computers. CapCut is all the rage now for video editing, which you’ll find useful for splitting up content into shorts and reels, as I mentioned before.
Otter.ai offers transcription and can identify different speakers.
Canva Pro allows for video and audio editing, and I’m a big fan of how it makes resizing social media graphics super easy—with just the click of a button. That saves time when repurposing to different platforms. For manual resizing, check out Metricool, Buffer, and SocialBee. All three provide image size guidance for different platforms in one place so you don’t have to hunt down the specs.
Benefits of repurposing
By repurposing strategically, you’ll save time and maintain—or increase—visibility because of consistent posting across platforms, without the stress of constantly having to create new content. That means your reach will increase with minimal effort, allowing followers to see your brand more often.
Repurposing helps fill gaps in your schedule, especially when you’re busy with time-consuming projects or just dealing with life. It also enables you to maintain a presence on platforms where you might not have hours in the day to dedicate a lot of time.
Another benefit is the revival of your backlist. Pulling teasers and excerpts from published books and audiobooks introduces new readers to older titles and reconnects loyal readers with books they love.
Finally, because you don’t need to spend time creating new content for your posts, you’ll have more time to work on your next manuscript or spend time doing whatever you want.
Recommendation
I shared a lot of information, so here’s what I suggest: To get started with repurposing, pick one piece of existing content and find three ways to reuse it over the next two weeks. Do that several times. Once you have a sense of the types of content you have and can repurpose, create templates to increase efficiency.
The more you practice, the more efficient you’ll become, and you’ll find you not only save time, you’ll sell more books, too.
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Delaney Diamond is the USA Today Bestselling Author of more than 60 contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels and dozens of romance short stories. When she’s not spinning tales of romantic fiction, she enjoys learning about time management and ways to increase productivity. She shares her recommendations on her For Authors page where she lists tools and resources to help her fellow indie authors save time and improve their processes to attain the elusive work-life balance we all crave.