Q: How should I go about writing a book based on my published article?

Congratulations on receiving an opportunity to write a book on the field of your specialization.

As articles and books have different scopes and are written for different audiences, turning an article into a book requires a significant amount of restructuring and revising effort.

A journal article contains most of the essential content related to the topic and has a distinct structural organization like Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. But the content of an article usually does not suffice as a chapter in a book. And the same structural format cannot be followed in a book. Depending on the specific topic of your article and the target audience of the proposed book, first, create an outline of what aspects of the topic you want to include in the book. You may create chapter headlines, subheadings of each chapter, and decide how you want to place the information and findings of your articles within these chapters.

For example, the information you provided in the Introduction section of the article, can be included in the introductory chapter of the book that will provide an authoritative view of the current knowledge of the topic. Similarly, in a chapter dedicated to various methods, study design, and analytical approaches related to the specific research objective, you may use some of the information you used in the ‘Methods’ section of your article and include other relevant details that were not part of the article. Please remember that, use your article only as a foundation of the book and provide your opinion as an expert, rather than merely stating your research findings.

Also, while writing the book, try to avoid the academic tone that is usually used in a research article. Use a scholarly, but a friendlier tone to engage the readers in the mental conversation, a practice usually not followed in an article.

A good idea to make the proposed book more informative and attractive is using ample illustration and graphical presentation. You may create or collate relevant images that you want to use while ensuring you procure the permission of any copyrighted material before using those in your book.

You may try to find a writing partner or collaborator with whom you can share your ideas and ongoing-writing process. Also, consider taking the help of the professional editors and the graphics experts to polish the language of your book and the images to render the book a more appealing look.

Related reading:   

• How to write a book review
• Writing in the cloud: tools for collaborative writing