Whether you want to have a deep knowledge of a subject and convey your knowledge about it, or you have a story to tell, producing and selling this in e-book format is one of the most cost-effective and effective publishing methods. In this article, we will mention about useful tips for those who want to write e-books.
- Find an Idea
The e-book is no different from the books we are used to, except for its format. Therefore, the most important step for writing an e-book is to find and develop an idea. First, go to the table and consider the concept and scope of the book. List the subheadings that come to mind. Then consider what kind of information you can fill in these headings.
People who will write fiction book like novel, etc. usually spend more time on topics such as plot and characters. Books that provide non-fictional information have a relatively comfortable flow.
- Develop the Idea
Start with a simple idea that you wrote down on paper and think about the different aspects of that idea. Take note of the concepts related to the subject as free association. For example, let’s say you are writing an e-book on “real estate for beginners”.
Also take note of the subheadings in this book related to topics such as “licensing, marketing techniques, social media usage, revenue, accounting”. While writing your book, you will also benefit from these subheadings.
- Organize the Details
After developing the main idea, a lot of material accumulates to write. Reorganize this material in a vertical format and match it to the flow in your head. Try to prepend the basics that readers should know first. Once you have embedded the basics, you can address more complicated issues later in the book. So you don’t lose your readers on the first pages.
If you divide the literature into chapter, you will provide ease of both writing and reading. When you state what you will write in context, you will not deviate from the subject.
- Write
Start writing your book without getting stuck with things like book title, table of contents, font. Sit down and write. It’s that simple. You can either start writing in the middle of the book or write directly from the beginning to the end. Choose whichever method is easier for you. We highly recommend BookBaby for creating and selling your eBooks.
Even writing a short book takes time. From BookBaby’s point of view, the most important thing is to persevere and not give up. Take time to write each day. Or try writing 500 words every day, for example. Do not leave the table without achieving this goal. Even if you don’t think inspiration is coming, sitting at a desk can give you the urge to write something. Briefly, don’t give up, try not to think “I’m stuck, I’m bored”.
- Review and Re-Write
Don’t look at what you’ve written for a week as you’ve finished writing. Deal with other things. At the end of the week, get back to the table and read your writing critically. Look at the ranking first, decide if the order of the chapters makes sense. If you are satisfied with the ranking, read the chapters one by one and make additions and corrections where necessary.
Like writing, checking and editing takes time. Therefore, set a certain number of words per day, for example try to check 1000 words a day.
Take care to preserve the integrity of the paragraph where you will make corrections. Make sure your rewriting sentences go with the flow.
In addition, you may have used unnecessary expressions in some places. We recommend that do not be afraid to delete sentences that do not add value or benefit the writing. If there is important information in a sentence containing repetition, you can try to get this sentence into the text with a more accurate expression instead of deleting it.
- Add Details
If you are satisfied with the text, now is the time to define the title, front and back cover text. You may be tempted to think too much while titling the book, but especially if you wrote a non-fiction book containing information, “How to Make X? Titles like the X Guide or Everything You Need to Know About X” are ideal.
Similarly, you can also use your name: “Gary Moore’s Real Estate Guide, Secrets of Real Estate Success from Joe Satriani”.
If you have cited other works in the book, be sure to include this quote in the bibliography section at the end of the book. Don’t forget to thank the people who contributed to this process at the beginning or at the end of the book.
- Add a Cover
As with physical books, the most crucial part of an e-book is its cover. Even with a virtual cover, customers see the cover first. For this reason, you can get professional support in cover design. If you are going to use images on the cover and in the book, be sure to respect copyright or use your own photos.
Affordable Book Cover Design
BookBaby Design Studio makes it easy and affordable for you to realize the dream of holding your own printed book! They offer two flavors of designer book covers with design proofs sent to you.
How BookBaby Cover Design Works
Using their online order interface, it’s easy to create a project quote for your book. Simply select your book’s trim size, cover style, book binding style, cover finish, print type, paper stock, as well as your design preferences in the add-ons section.
After you select the design options that are right for you and save your quote, you will be asked to complete a short design questionnaire. This will give you the opportunity to share your vision for your book cover. You can request that our designers find images for you, or you can upload images of your own for them to work with.
BookBaby designers will combine your input with their own design expertise to create a custom designed book cover that you’ll be proud to show off. CLICK HERE TO GET MORE INFO!
- Collect Feedback
After completing the book, make people around you whose opinions you care about read it.
How is the book? Is the language of the book fluent?
What is the most popular part?
What are the dislikes?
How is the design and font? Is it readable?
What suggestions do they offer for improvement?
Make the necessary corrections in the book according to these feedbacks. You don’t have to consider every suggestion and redesign the book according to the words of others. You will make the final decision. However, getting ideas and suggestions from people is a good way to improve the book.
- Collect Your Information
Do usually this kind of research. The more precise information you provide about your e-book, the more successful you will be to publish and promote it. In a separate document write the title of the book, its chapters, the number of pages, the number of words. In addition to this information, extract keywords about the topics you mentioned in the book and provide a summary of the book.
- Consider the Target Audience
This is the most important thing. Find out who might be interested in your book. Do young people or old people show more interest in this book? If you’ve written a book about real estate and home buying, are your target audience tenants or landlords? What are the monthly earning rates? Determine your target audience by relying on your knowledge, research and common sense. Ask your knowledgeable friends for their opinions.
- Decide Where To Publish
There are various platforms for publishing and selling e-books. Some are more protected against piracy, some advertise and promote for you, some get commission per book sold, etc. You should choose the one that suits you best and research different platforms.
- Look Through Amazon Kindle Platform
Amazon Kindle is almost the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to e-books. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform provides you with everything you need to convert and publish your book to the proper format. Even if your book is sold on Kindle, it charges 30% commission from this transaction. You are also allowed to price your books between $ 3 and $ 10. The only disadvantage of selling on this platform is that you can only reach Kindle owners.
- Consider Other E-book Publishers
There are also e-book publishers such as Lulu, Booktango, Smashwords. Things like converting your book to the proper format are free on these sites. Matters such as marketing and editing are subject to a fee. These platforms allow you to reach a wider audience than Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Lulu also only gets 10% commission.
- Beware of Hidden Expenses
Basic formats are used in professional ebook publishing platforms. If you have not written in a format suitable for publication, these sites will make appropriate formatting on your behalf for a fee. Of course, you won’t pay if you do it yourself. Therefore, learn the format used by the platform you will publish. Some publishers may charge you overpriced prices. A great book cover design is your best sales tool. A professionally designed cover will instantly (and attractively) convey the essence of what your book is about. If you need professional designs, we highly recommend BookBaby!
Never work with publishers that don’t let you set the price. When an ebook is priced between $ 1 and $ 6 on average, it gives you maximum earnings.
- Publish Yourself with Special Software
If you want to publish and sell your book on the internet yourself, that is, if you don’t want to stick to a specific site, there are software for e-book design and publishing. You can buy and sell one of these software.
Caliber, for example, is a fast, powerful and easy to use software. It easily converts HTML files to EPUB (standard format for e-book) format. You can also donate to the owner of this free software.
Adobe Acrobat Pro is the number one software for creating PDFs. This software allows you to create encrypted PDF files. However, to take advantage of this feature, you must purchase the software.
We can say that OpenOffice is the free version of Microsoft Office. You can save your articles as PDF via OpenOffice Writer (= Microsoft Word). However, it is not as advanced as MS Word, but it still works. If you want professional designs we recommend BookBaby.
There are many other paid and free software like this. You can prepare your e-book with a software that you like by doing some research.
- Promote
After you’ve published your book, it is time to promote it. You can promote the book on your blog, social media accounts, and websites related to the book.
Be sure to share posts related to the book on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Make a Youtube video where you promote the book.
Be sure to add the link to buy the book and your e-mail address on the platforms where you promote the book.
Send your book to internet celebrities, known as influencers, to professionals about the subject of the book. Ask your friends, family, and community to promote the book.
Click Here To Make Your Own Book and Sell It Online!
In this article you learnt how to make an eBook and sell it online. Thank you for reading!
