How The Heck Do I...

Plan and Write an E-book?

How To Write An eBook

In just a few easy steps, you can learn
how to write an ebook that will sell like crazy!

(Yes, even if you're not a great writer yet.)

If you are a good writer, you're a few steps ahead. But stick around. The tips you'll learn here will save you time and make the job easier than you'd ever expected.

What You Need To Know About Ebooks

1. Write What You Like To Read

Let's assume that you either:

• know a lot about a pet subject, or
   

• you are prepared to research a subject you enjoy.

Good. We've just covered the most important factors! This might seem too simple - but it's not. Time-tested advice for all writers has been "Write what you like to read." That goes for ebook authors too.

If you are interested in your subject matter, then you'll be amazed at how quickly your ebook will come together. It won't even seem like work - because you're having fun.

2. Plan Your Ebook Carefully

Anything is easier to swallow if you break it into bite-sized chunks. That goes for ebooks too. At the beginning you might be thinking: "I have NO idea how to write an ebook!", but really, it's not such a huge project. Keep just one thing in mind and it will become much, much easier: "If I were buying this book, what would I hope to find out?"

Put yourself in your readers' shoes. What is the best possible information you can give them? What would it take to make them say "Wow, I'm so glad I bought this book!"

• Start with a list of headings - then expand.

• Think about things that are important to you.

• Give the best value you can. What would you want to know? How would you like it presented?

3. Writing Your Ebook

There's just one thing you have to remember: "Good writers are re-writers". Nobody ever wrote a perfect first draft. You'll be amazed at how much easier it is to write your ebook if you get that critic off your shoulder at the start.

Just write!

Remember that every beautiful piece of pottery started out as a lump of clay. :-)

You can always have your e-book edited at www.elance.com

4. Compiling Your Ebook

An ebook compiler is a software program that lets you put your book into a form that can be downloaded and read as an ebook. There are plenty of good ebook compilers on the market. Your main decision will be whether to use a book compiler that can be read only on Windows computers or the kind that can be read on all platforms. Windows-based compilers are downloaded in an .exe format; the kind that can be read on any computer (including Macs) are PDF compilers.

To learn more about compiling your ebook, click here.

5. Pricing Your Ebook

What should you charge? $9.90? $19.97? $39.97? More?

It's not easy to decide on your pricing. You may even want to make your ebook free! (Many savvy marketers write free ebooks. Why? Because they can use them to promote other products and services. Free ebooks quickly 'multiply' on the internet. This is known as viral marketing. You'll find more about this in other parts of this site.)

But... back to pricing. You know how to plan, write and compile an ebook... but how do you settle on a price? There are ways of deciding this.

To Learn More about Pricing Your E-book, Click Here

6. Marketing Your Ebook.

Aha! Now we come to the hard part. How do you market your ebook? Do you try to get the word out yourself? Or do you send it to an ebook publisher to sell for you?

This question is tied up with your whole online business. You need to think about whether your ebook is the main product, or if it is a way of promoting your business. Will you have traffic coming to your site for other reasons? Will there be enough visitors to buy your ebook? If not, how can you get those visitors?

If there's one subject on the Internet that there's a ton of information about, it's marketing. BUT... there is a catch. There's SO much information on marketing that you can find yourself more confused than ever. So... we're making it simple. We'll give you some basic information, then the names of just a few good resources.

If you want to find out more about marketing your ebook, click here.

7. Selling Your Ebook

What about selling your ebook? How do you collect the money? Do you intend to take cheques, or just credit cards?

Remember that most people who like to order digital products want them now. They don't want to wait a few days. They don't even want to wait a few hours!

Do yourself a favour and make it easy for them to download your ebook and read it within minutes. That means you need a credit card facility.

If you want to find out more about selling your ebook on the Internet, click here.

8. Ebook Covers.

What about the cover of your ebook? There's no doubt that it's much easier to sell an ebook if you can put up an attractive cover on your web site.

Oh, so you're not an artist? That's okay. Most people aren't. That's why there are software programs and professional designers to help you. If you've got a good eye for graphics - and you plan on writing more than one ebook - an ebook cover generator program is probably a good investment. If you just want to produce one ebook, then you might prefer to use a professional designer.

Your cover doesn't have to be fancy. It does have to look good - no clashing colours and amateurish looking fonts! Luckily, with the technology that is available to us today, that's pretty easy to achieve.

If you want to find out more about creating ebook covers, click here.

Now all you have to do is have fun writing your ebook!