Table of contents:
- Why Workbooks Are Trending Right Now
- The Business Case for Companion Workbooks
- What Makes a Good Companion Workbook
- Which Book Topics Work Best for Workbooks
- Creating Your Workbook
Ask a literary agent what types of books are selling right now, and in addition to prescriptive memoir, self-help, and fiction, you’re likely to hear them mention workbooks.
Search on Amazon for workbooks and you may be surprised by the number that have emerged on the publishing scene. There are workbooks to accompany all types of books, from business to memoir to textbook, thought leadership, children’s, and reference, among many others.
Many bestselling titles now have workbooks available, although not all have been created by the original author.
Why Workbooks Are Trending Right Now
Workbooks have burst onto the publishing scene very recently as readers increasingly want to understand how to apply what they’ve read.
The shift toward practical learning, rather than reading for information or pure enjoyment, seems to have sparked interest in creating supplementary tools. Instead of taking in a memoir to better understand the author’s experience, for example, readers now appreciate ancillary tools, like workbooks, that help them pick up the intended takeaways and consider how they can help improve their own lives.
You’ll spot many books now offering a companion workbook to aid in comprehension or application of the material.
The Business Case for Companion Workbooks
From the authors’ perspective, workbooks offer new opportunities.
Yes, designing and creating them requires work, but once produced, workbooks can provide a new product line and additional revenue stream. They can be sold independently or bundled with the accompanying book, increasing the profits from each sale.
They can also help improve the Amazon rating by helping each reader get the maximum benefit.
What Makes a Good Companion Workbook
Now, not all workbooks are useful; there are good workbooks and bad. One recent one I bought was nearly a complete repeat of everything in the book, rather than containing exercises to help apply the takeaways. It was disappointing.
Some common elements of helpful workbooks include:
- Exercises that reinforce concepts
- Fillable forms
- Action items
- Space for reflection
- Templates
- Tracking forms
- Scheduling tools
- Calculators
- Additional reference materials and resources
The best workbooks complement and deepen the reader’s understanding of the original book, rather than simply regurgitating the same material. It should help the reader figure out what to do with the knowledge they’ve gained.
For example, a workbook to accompany a retirement planning book could have many types of financial tracking tools, evaluation forms to help determine where you are in your retirement planning journey, links to online calculators, and perhaps some pages to brainstorm and dream of what an ideal retirement would look like.
Which Book Topics Work Best for Workbooks
It’s surprising how many genres and subjects could use a workbook. Obvious topics, such as self-help, business, fitness, hobbies, careers, and how-to, where the reader is looking for education and guidance, are fairly easy to convert into a workbook format.
Others may be more of a challenge, such as fiction, art, or cookbooks, but with some creativity, I bet you could come up with some useful pages to help readers reflect and learn from the original content.
Creating Your Workbook
If you’d like to consider producing a workbook, start by designing some of the key sections, much like you crafted your original book’s outline.
Is there a chronological process that could form the backbone of your workbook? Are there certain milestones or core lessons the reader needs to comprehend? What exercises or actions could support their application of your material?
Could you provide a list of essential tools and equipment? How about a typical timeline for implementation? Photos to demonstrate the ideal outcome?
As long as you keep your readers’ interests and needs front and center in your planning process, I’m confident you’ll be able to think of many additional exercises and tools to aid them.
Workbooks are hot right now, so do your best to design and produce one soon, to take advantage of this trend. Because workbooks help readers make better use of your book, they can also convert one-time fans into repeat customers.