There’s a lot of hype online about low-content books. Some people love them, some hate them. But if you’ve written a non-fiction book, you may have considered creating a companion workbook or journal to accompany your main book. If you want to learn how to write a companion workbook or journal for your non-fiction book, read on.

Low-content books—such as journals, planners, workbooks, and coloring books—have gained popularity because they’re quick to produce, inexpensive to create, and make it easy to add to your list of published titles. For authors and entrepreneurs, they offer an accessible way to build a product line or passive income stream without writing thousands of words and spending months or even years on the project.

Many readers appreciate the simplicity and practicality or journals and workbooks, especially when it comes to habit tracking, reflection, or creative expression. However, some people argue that the market has become oversaturated with low-effort, low-quality products—often churned out rapidly with little thought or originality by people who are looking to get rich quickly. This has led to concerns about value for money, especially when many of these books are marketed without truly useful or thoughtful content inside.

However, if you’ve written a non-fiction book and want to create a companion workbook or journal, that’s a whole different story. Journals and workbooks add value, helping your readers to reflect on the content of your main book and giving them space to write out the answers to the questions you pose. It makes it easy for your readers to engage with your content.

Creating a journal or workbook doesn’t just help you to help your readers; it also helps you create an extra income stream.

Define the Purpose of your Companion book

A workbook and a journal may seem similar, but they serve different purposes and create distinct experiences for the reader. A workbook is action-driven: it’s designed to help readers apply what they’ve learned through structured exercises, checklists, templates, and goal-setting tools. It walks them through a process, offering practical steps and activities that lead to measurable outcomes. This format works especially well for books focused on personal development, business strategy, productivity, or habit change—any topic where the goal is to move the reader from insight to implementation.

My book, Dynamic Alignment: A Companion Workbook, which I co-wrote with Brad Borkan, is a good example of this. It walks the reader through the eight steps of Dynamic Alignment and gives them plenty of space to work out their answers to each question. My annual planner, The Year You Want, is another good example. It walks the reader through the process of evaluating their current year and planning what they want to experience in the coming one.

On the other hand, a journal is more reflective. Rather than instructing the reader on what to do, it invites them to explore their thoughts, emotions, and experiences in a deeper way. A journal typically includes open-ended prompts, inspirational quotes, or questions that encourage self-awareness and inner dialogue. It’s a softer, more personal companion—ideal for topics like coaching, healing, spirituality, mental health, or memoir-based themes.

I have four companion journals (though I call them workbooks) that accompany my business mindset books: Business Beliefs, Business Blocks, Business Visibility, and Business Intuition. These journals provide plenty of lined pages for readers to reflect on the questions I pose in the main books so they can get clarity on their current business mindset, as well as what they need to believe to achieve their business goals.

To sum it up: while a workbook says, “Here’s what to do next,” a journal asks, “What are you noticing or feeling about this?” Some companion books blend the two approaches, allowing space for both action and reflection. Ultimately, you can call your companion book whatever you want. It doesn’t matter. But it’s a good idea to know what you want your reader to get out of it.

Map Your Book’s Core Content

If I’m creating a companion workbook, what I usually do is to take the main manuscript, make a copy, and delete everything that doesn’t need to be in the workbook. I’ll usually add an introduction to the workbook and a brief chapter on how to use the workbook/journal. Then, I separate the questions on to different lines before sending the whole thing to my graphic designer for formatting. I usually maintain the same chapter headings for the book and the journal so that readers can easily follow along the journal or workbook as they read the main book.

My hiking journals are more of a standalone book, but some of them make a good companion to my main walking books. For example, I have my book Alone on the South Downs Way and my South Downs Way Journal. I have a similar journal for the Ridgeway. I created these journals from scratch, adding questions for the types of things I journal on when I go on a long-distance hike. When I walked the Coast to Coast Path for the second time in 2024, I took my Coast to Coast Journal with me to test it out, and I loved the structure of a guided journal, rather than simply using a blank notebook to write in.

Choose the Format and Features

You’ll need to decide what format to use. I don’t create ebooks for my journals and workbooks. I did in the beginning, so people could use their own notebook for writing their answers to the questions. I also included a link so readers could download a pdf of the workbook and print their own. Ultimately, though, I ended up unlisting my ebook journals and only offering paperback editions.

You’ll want to think about what size works for you. I prefer to use a lined A4-sized notebook for my normal journaling, so I created A4-sized workbooks for my business mindset companion workbooks, The Year You Want, If Trees Could Talk: A Companion Workbook, and Dynamic Alignment: A CompanionWorkbook.

But for my hiking journals, I decided to go with a smaller, more portable size that would make the journals easier to fit into a backpack. I usually produce paperbacks in the 5.5 x 8.5 inch size, so I made my journals just a little bit larger: 6 x 9 inches.

Design for Usability

The companion workbook for If Trees Could Talk was my first workbook. For each chapter, I included each tree’s story, followed by the questions for reflection, and several lined pages for people to write out their answers. However, I decided to go with a different format for my business mindset workbooks and all of my subsequent workbooks and journals: one question followed by several lines, with enough space to answer it. I much prefer this option.

The important thing is to provide your readers with plenty of space to respond to each question. I highly recommend using your own journal to see if it needs to be updated. After using my Coast to Coast Journal in 2024, I made a few minor changes to it.

Be careful with the book description

You want to be really careful with the book blurb or description to ensure that people know they’re getting a workbook or a journal, not a “normal” book. Remember that people often don’t really read a book description, they just scan it.

This is why you need to make things crystal clear for people: so you don’t end up with a one-star review for a book that is called Psychedelic Integration Journal and has a book description that uses the word “journal” four times. Nowhere does the blurb call it a “book”—it always says “journal.”

I ended up adding an extra paragraph to the book description that says: “This is not a typical book to simply read. It is a guided journal, designed for you to write in, reflect with, and return to as you process your ceremony. Each page invites you to actively explore your insights and weave them into your everyday life. It’s designed to help you through your own integration.”

Fingers crossed that will make it extra clear for any future purchasers.

Are you ready?

I hope this article has helped you decide whether or not you want to create a companion workbook or journal for your non-fiction book. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Further Reading

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