The Easy Way To Write Your First Ebook The Easy Way To Write Your First Ebook
The Easy Way To Write Your First Ebook
The Easy Way To Write
Your First Ebook
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 to be 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 Technorati.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
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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
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
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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.
3. Use Ctrl-Shift-S for Word versions earlier than 2007 to
get to the Format toolbar where you can apply it with
the Style box.
Whatever way your word processing program does this, it's
still the same in most word processing programs. In
The Easy Way To Write Your First Ebook - Page 10
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
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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 few
good choices to investigate are http://sxc.hu and
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.
DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING
The software that is most used by people to create ebooks
orally instead of manually is Dragon Naturally Speaking. The
most current standard version is $99. It is a Nuance product
that is available at
http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking. 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
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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
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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 copout, 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 Elance.com and Freelancer.com.
FREELANCE BOARDS
Elance.com and Freelancer.com (previously called
GetAFreelancer.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's 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,
The Easy Way To Write Your First Ebook - Page 21
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
The Easy Way To Write Your First Ebook - Page 22
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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