HOW TO WRITE YOUR FIRST EBOOK
BECOMING AN AUTHOR
Writing an ebook is one of the
easiest ways to become an author. These days,
you don't need a publishing house or literary agent to get published. The Internet and modern software packages
have made it possible for anyone who
wants to create his/her own ebook. Even if you decide you don't have
a knack for writing,
there are other ways to put together an informative piece
of work that will sell and will help to get you labeled as an expert. All it takes to start is having a passion for
or knowledge about some popular niche that you want to market in ebook format.
FINDING YOUR NICHE
People who want to become authors
usually have a specialty that they want to pursue.
However, it is a wise business owner who finds the hot niches
first and then goes
out to write about them. This way, you know there already
is a market for the ebook before you
even put a single word to paper. While you
do want to go into something that sets you on fire, there is probably one angle above others that will help it to
sell more. Remember that people will buy
ebooks because they have a problem that they want solved or they need more information on a specific issue that
will enhance their lives. If your passion
is jewelry, you may find that an ebook on how to pick out an engagement ring might be a hot topic. You
want your niche to be specific enough
to attract the demographic you already have as an audience, but not so wide that it seems too broad-based to offer any useful information.
If you're not sure where to start,
check out hot topics on popular blogs by going to techcrunch.com. See what excites
people and what questions people
have about a certain topic or dilemma in their lives. Look at the news,
see what's on everyone's mind, and
try to develop a topic niche that can help address
those issues. Right now, economic topics are very much in demand from saving money to making money in a tight economy.
FLAUNT YOUR CREDENTIALS
The author is just as important as
the topic, and you want to flaunt your credentials
if you have them. Give the reader some idea of why you are especially qualified to write this ebook.
Your credentials don't have to be a Ph.D.,
but they can be some inspiring story that shows why you are the one to help your customers resolve
some issue in their
lives. Credentials come in many forms, not all of them being
academic. They come in life experience, business
achievements, and the school of hard knocks. Whatever it is that makes you qualified, make sure your reader
knows why you wrote your book.
Writing Is Easy, Right?
Many people who have never sat
down to write an actual article think that writing
as a craft is simple. You just start with one word, and you follow that with another. It's also usually all in
your native language. How hard can that be, right?
Well, once they start to write, they may find that they don't have a clue on where to start. If they've never
written an ebook, they may not understand
how to properly organize their thoughts so that enough information is conveyed in an easy and highly digestible form
for the reader. In fact, once they
sit down to look at a blank sheet of paper, they may actually freeze because they have no set plan in place. That's
why it's important to sketch out an
outline before you start. Let's first take a look at how long an average ebook might be and how to set up chapters to
fill the pages.
WHAT’S A GOOD LENGTH?
In general, ebooks can range from
50 to 100 pages. Unlike published books that
range in the 200- to 300-page range, ebooks are much shorter since they are electronic in nature and are
meant for an audience
that isn't reading
them like a novel. They are informational mostly, although adding some humor and entertainment is permissible.
People who buy ebooks are looking for
solutions, not entertainment, and they want it to be informative, not pure fluff. They also want it to be a quick
read, as they're used to reading short Web articles or even short reports. For this audience,
50 pages is enough, but never exceed 100 pages.
YOUR OUTLINE
Within those 50 pages, it's common
to see about 10 chapter headings. That gives
you about five pages for each major topic in your ebook. There's no right or wrong way to divide chapters
up, and you can make some longer and others shorter,
but on average, most will be five pages long of
written text.
You can add pictures, but those
shouldn't count towards the text. That means that when you sit down to brainstorm your ebook, you will want 10 main headings.
Within those 10 chapter headings,
you may end up with several subheadings. These
break out your major topic into easily digestible packets of information that people can scan via the table of
contents. We will discuss how to automate
the creation of the table of contents so that each of those headings and subheadings with corresponding page
numbers is inserted at the front of your
book. For now, realize that you will need to brainstorm an outline with 10 major points
and three or more subheadings each.
Fill In The Blanks
Once you have a good outline,
you'll know what topics you need to research
more and can spend a little time doing just that. You should become
familiar with quick ways to research
any topic so that it can speed up the writing
process. If you're a walking library of information on your topic, you
won't have to spend much time
researching anything. However, for those that want to spend a bit more time getting into their subject more,
there are a few options before
they set pen to paper.
GOOGLE IT
Use keywords that define your
niche topic for each chapter to Google new information
across the Internet. Almost everyone is familiar with Google's search engine. You can even use the
advanced search to limit yourself to recent
postings on the Web too to make your information more current. Just be sure not to plagiarize information and
to use it solely for research purposes.
Be careful about the information on Google, as sources may not be accurate, so it does take some good
ability to discern good and bad information
via the references offered in each article. Even Wikipedia, a great source for research, is not 100%
accurate, since it is updated by everyday people
who can and do make mistakes. Consider the source when doing research. This way, you'll be more
accurate if you use any facts or figures that are quoted within
an article by checking
the source too.
ASK AN EXPERT
A great way to put together some
valuable information for your readers that you
don't know without necessarily doing heavy-duty research is to ask an expert to contribute to your ebook. Of
course, there has to be something in it for him/her,
but you can do an entire ebook with chapters
devoted to him/her discussing a particular topic of
interest to your readers. If you promise
to let him/her link to his/her products and services within the ebook, and you have a wide enough audience who
will be offered the ebook for free, it can be
a win-win for everyone. Write it
up in an interview format that’s
very easy to read and nicely segmented. In some cases, the ebook might
be a
promotional item to help you prod a person into buying something
else that you and/or your expert sponsors, so it's
not going to be sold, but is going to be
given away instead. With so much exposure available to experts trying to sell their products, it will be something
that will interest them to help you with it because it will help them
sell their products to a new audience.
How To Format Everything Quickly
If you're using Word, you can
format your headings and subheadings so that
they can be used easily at the end of the creation of your ebook to
generate a table of contents (TOC).
Depending on the word processing package you
are using, there will be different menus that allow you to format the headings. If you start with the idea that
your chapter and section headings are
going to make up the table of contents, you will know ahead of time to format them as you go along. For now,
let's just quickly go over how it's done
in Microsoft Word, as this is the most popular word processing program out there.
HEADING STYLES
You will have the option to format text that you highlight in different styles.
You can do this from the menu or from the Style box on the formatting
tool bar if it's showing. Heading 1
is the style that is used for major chapter headings,
while Heading 2 is used for subheadings. To apply a Heading 1 Style,
you can do one of the following after selecting the text:
1.
Click the Style
box and choose Heading 1 as your style to apply.
2.
Using the menu, you might try using the Format
menu, and under Styles, you will be able to click Apply.
Whatever way your word processing
program does this, it's still the same in most
word processing programs. In OpenOffice, you will even have Chapter Headings
that you can use, which are much larger
and which appear like the page headings in this report.
TO INSERT THE TOC
Once you have a few heading styles
applied, try to see how they look in a shortened
TOC. In a new page near the top of your ebook, before your headings and subheadings, you will place
your cursor to insert your TOC. This is done by choosing
the Insert command on the main menu of Word.
In earlier versions of Word, the submenu you want is “Index and Tables” or
“Reference/Index and Tables.”
Click OK, and it will take your headings, add
the page numbers, and put in a TOC for you. If you want to change the look of the TOC, choose to modify it within
this command, not from within the ebook.
Adding Pictures
Adding pictures breaks up the
monotony of an ebook, although they're not entirely
necessary. It is nice to include a photo with your ebook cover when you market it, but it's not entirely
necessary to add them within the ebook itself.
Although they can be very helpful when it comes to certain things, like explaining how to do a particular
operation on a computer. Just be sure that the
pictures you use are either your own or are licensed to you for the proper usage. Otherwise, you can end up in
legal trouble for infringing on someone else's copyright.
SCREEN SHOTS
If you're trying to depict how a
certain operation is done on the personal computer,
you're in luck! It's a very easy thing to take a screen shot off of any personal computer
and embed the picture
into your ebook. All you have to
do is to hit the <Alt> button at the same time as the <Print
Screen> button on your keyboard.
The <Alt> button is next to the space bar on the left and the <Print Screen> button is on the top right
hand side of your keyboard. Pressing
the two together takes a picture of whatever is on your screen and saves it to memory.
You will then want to open any
photo processing program or even Paintbrush
and paste it into the front screen so that you can edit it there. The
way to do that in Paintbrush is to
simply choose to edit/paste the information into it after you've opened it. Then, you can crop it and resize it if
you need to for use in your ebook. To
paste it within your ebook, either copy and paste it or insert it via the word processing
program after saving it onto your hard disk.
USING STOCK
PHOTO BANKS
There are a number of great stock
photo banks out there that allow anyone with
a few bucks to download some great photos that they can use for free on their
personal sites and for a few
bucks in their commercial ventures. The terms of the usage will depend on the
photo and the site itself. A good place to
investigate is Dreamstime.com. You sign up as a member and are able to browse photos by categories and by a
number of different keywords. Next time
you want a photo of a red sports car, it's as simple as logging in and seeing what's available. The selection is
tremendous, and the prices are reasonable.
You may be able to use a photo for free if you give credit to the site and photographer, but if you want it
just as a photo, you will probably have
to pay to use it. However, when you factor in the amount of time it will take
you to get the perfect
shot of just the right image,
it is well worth any
investment to get a license and just
pay for the privilege of using
the photos in your ebook.
For Those That Talk Better Than
They Write
Some people can go on for hours
talking about a subject that they are passionate
about, but ask them to write about the same thing, and they freeze. If you're one of those people,
don't fret. There are tools available to make
it easier for you to take advantage of your immense oral knowledge in such a way that it even lessens the
amount of time it takes to create an ebook.
They may cost a bit more than just using a computer and keyboard, but it can be a Godsend
for those who find themselves literally
challenged.
OLD-FASHIONED AUDIO TAPES
You can go out and buy yourself an
old-fashioned audio tape recorder. This might be helpful if you're doing
interviews that are to be typed
up later.
However, it's not the most ideal
tool for just putting down your own thoughts
to later write out in format. It still will take time to transcribe that information
to the keyboard. That will take more time than if you just started using software that allows you to record
what you're saying and types it into your computer
for you.
DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING
The software that is most used by
people to create ebooks orally instead of manually
is Dragon Naturally Speaking. It is a Nuance product that is available at https://www.nuance.com/dragon.html You can probably get it for less if it's not a physical shipment
and is downloaded off of the Internet. Some places offer
it for $49.99, but it may be an earlier
version. Decide what you need and then order it online.
WHY CHOOSE A VOICE RECOGNITION TOOL?
One reason: speed. The average
person can only type 40 words a minute, but they can talk much faster,
sometimes up to 120 words per
minute. If you are a
two-fingered typist, then you are going to be able to write much faster using voice recognition software than if
you tried to write it from your head onto
the keyboard. You also tend to make mistakes when you're typing, whereas the software will write what you
speak, with fewer and fewer mistakes the more that you use it.
Most of these won't be spelling
mistakes,
as it uses its own dictionary, but
will be recognition errors. After you use the
software for a while, it begins to recognize your words better, and you
will have a very easy time writing an ebook just by talking through it.
When You Can't Fill In The Blanks
Still lacking inspiration? It's
not unusual for people who have never written
an ebook to find themselves stuck for words. Don't worry though, because
if you find that you can't find the
words, there are still other methods that you
can use to get the information down on paper. The most important part of writing the ebook is really the topic and
the outline. Once you have that done,
you have the framework to fill in whether you write the material or not. One way to get the job done, even
when you don't do the writing yourself, is to use Private Label Rights (PLR).
WHAT IS PLR?
Private Label Rights is copy
written that provides a license to modify and to use that material as your own, even when someone else wrote it.
PLR comes in the form of Web articles,
reports, and ebooks. PLR is sold to people looking for content that they want to use
for different purposes. You can use PLR
as is, but it's often better to take some PLR content and modify it so that it isn't an exact duplicate of some
other copy bought by some other person too.
People can buy PLR ebooks, but they may not follow exactly the outline you've set up. They'll be someone else's
ideas of what's important about a topic.
Thus, if you want to use PLR content and still have it follow your outline,
you'll need to use a different
strategy.
BUY PLR ARTICLES
You can buy multiple PLR articles
on your chosen subject, tear them up, use different
paragraphs, reorder the content into different chapters, and make an ebook out of them. As long as it has a
PLR license, you can even modify the content
and put your name on it, and it's completely acceptable. It's also a
fairly quick way to fill in those blanks when you just can't seem to get the words out.
WHERE TO FIND PLR
You can Google online for “PLR.”
It's available for sale from different websites, and you'll want to find some that are relevant
to your topic. Or you
can join PLR membership sites that
offer PLR on a variety of topics and use that
content to create multiple ebooks on different subjects. The same way you can create an ebook from multiple
articles, you can also create separate articles from a
PLR ebook. There are lots of uses for
PLR, and they’re usually available at very cheap prices.
What About Ghostwriters?
Another popular way of getting a
first ebook out is to hire someone to ghostwrite
it for you. It may seem like a cop-out, but even people who have already made a name for themselves with
their own original research and ideas
in published works will hire ghostwriters from time to time. It's a way to reduce the amount of time taken in the
writing process, as freelance writers
can put together a 50-page ebook in less than a week in some cases and often do it better than if you spent months
doing it yourself.
COSTS MORE THAN PLR
Ghostwriting is more expensive
than using PLR, as you are paying someone to develop original material and then transfer
all rights to you. You can even claim
the work as your own after that, but no one else gets the right to publish that content other than you.
That's the major difference, and the reason
that the pricing is much higher for ghostwritten work than for PLR. You can be assured that you won't be
posting anything that anyone else has posted
on the Web from the same PLR source you got yours, as it's not PLR, but original copy. While you might only
pay a few dollars for an entire PLR ebook,
you can be certain that ghostwritten work will cost you dollars per page, not
per product.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
Even though the cost is higher,
the quality is much higher too. Freelance writers
will take the trouble to spell check their work and use correct grammar. They will follow your outline
exactly, saving you the time trying to find
PLR articles that fit within your framework. Some freelancers are so knowledgeable about their niches that they
will even provide you with an outline,
and all you have to do is to approve it first. The research is often all in their heads or is available from other
jobs. If you ask for a table of contents,
they'll provide that too. In general, using a freelance writer is the most highly customizable way to get
original copy that you can later claim as your
own work.
YOU CAN USE THEM AGAIN
Good freelance writers will
actually make you money, even if they cost you
more than PLR or a voice recognition software program. That's because
you aren't just paying for the words
that they write, but also for the information
stored in their heads. They come with their own backgrounds that may include information you need, but don't
know. They know what's hot in their markets
and how to present information so that it is easy to read and that it provides solutions to your customers. Get
a good one and keep them to use again and again.
How To
Hire Freelance Writers
Not everyone
that calls himself/herself a freelance writer is
going to work for you. Each writer has his/her
own level of proficiency and knowledge base.
Some will work for some types of
work, like short articles, but be unable to deliver
ebooks on larger topics that require more in-depth research. Others won't be available when you need them. Your best bet is to start
looking now if you think you
are going to go about hiring freelance writers on a continual basis. The first thing you want to do is
to start looking them up on different job
boards, like Upwork.com and Freelancer.com.
FREELANCE
BOARDS
Upwork.com and Freelancer.com are bulletin boards
where buyers and sellers of different freelance talent can come
and find each other. You can hire freelance
writers there, as well as coders and graphic artists. They will allow freelancers to post their profiles online
and to bid on projects posted by buyers. You can take a look at
any number of projects that are up for bid, and
also at the profiles of those who are bidding on them. Once a project is completed, the person is rated by the
buyer, and so you also have that feedback
that can help you determine whether the person might be a good match for
you or not.
TAKE A LOOK AT PROFILES
Take a very good look at each
seller profile. They will offer samples of their work so that you can see what their specialty niches are and
whether their writing style is close
to what you want. It will also give you an idea of how long they've been doing this type of work and what their
expected pay rate might be. The pay
between freelancers varies greatly, as some have more years of experience and/or specific knowledge of hot niches
that puts them in high demand.
START WITH A SMALL PROJECT
Start with a small project that
you can post and determine who might be available
and who will bid on it for you. Or you can email people whose profiles you like and ask them if they
would like to do a private project for you.
You don't have to start by putting something up to bid if you find a few profiles that work for you. If you do
put it up to bid, you can invite the people you like
to bid on it. If they're available, they're more than likely to bid on it. If the project shows that they
can handle a larger project, then you can
ask them to do the ebook. By doing a smaller project first, you'll get a good idea of whether they will work out for you with a larger project or not.
Locking Your Content
Away
You will receive editable content
from ghostwriters, from speech recognition software,
and even from using PLR. It will be in a popular word processing format that you will not want to sell as
is. You have to lock the content away so
that people can't take it, use it without paying for the rights to use it, and steal portions of it to put on their
websites, to use in their own ebooks, and so
forth. You do have to use some safeguards to keep your content safe; after all, it was your money, your time, and your hard work that went into it. If anyone stands
to profit from it,
it should be you and no one else.
ADOBE ACROBAT READER
This software program is the
standard for ebooks and allows anyone with the
reader to view .pdf files from their personal computer. The reader
itself is free, but the actual Adobe
software to create your own .pdf file is expensive. If you intend on doing many books and want many of the
features of the Adobe Acrobat line of
products, then it can be a sound investment. However, if you just want a straight .pdf file format, there are a
variety of ways you can produce
the same thing for nothing.
ONLINE PDF CONVERTERS
There are free online
.pdf converters available that will allow you to post your content
to them and they emailing you back the .pdf version. They may or may not be that compatible with Adobe
Acrobat Reader, and you should check
to see how the final product looks when opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader. You also want to be sure that it
opens in the latest version of the Reader,
as this can differ too. It may be a trial-and-error process, as many things can shift in the formatting of the
ebook when you convert it from a word processing format to a .pdf format. Be sure to load it and
then
proofread it for orphaned titles
and such on pages that were formatted incorrectly.
Much of this can be fixed just by adding additional spacing into the original document
and then converting it again.
OPENOFFICE
If you don't want to go through
the trouble of doing things back and forth online,
and you don't want to pay for Adobe Acrobat for .pdf file creation, you can still use an open source product
called OpenOffice to get the option to export
to a .pdf file. This is loaded directly onto your personal computer; it has a suite of products similar to
Microsoft Office, except that it requires no
licensing or sales fees. You can get Openoffice for free at http://www.openoffice.org. Using the word processing program, you can open
the file that was sent to you or that was created in another program, and then using the File menu, you can
choose the “Export as PDF...” format to
get the right kind of file. Once that's done, your file will be protected from people who want to try and copy and paste
the information to their sites or products. It won't be possible to do that operation anymore,
so they will have to pay you or notify you if they want the copy in text format.
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