This week I’ll be going over tips on writing eBooks.
Everyone knows something that’s worth writing about. Whether you are a gardener, an artist, or an auto mechanic, you have some tidbit of knowledge that may improve the lives of others. Do you know how to plant and care for perennials? Have you been someplace interesting? How about basic auto care like changing tires and oil? (I sure wish someone had told me that I was supposed to put water in the car battery!) You can write an eBook about practically anything. The last one I wrote (I ghostwrite informational eBooks,) was targeted towards online merchants. It gave useful information on chargebacks, fraud and online security, and went over some of the basics of recognizing ways to avoid and/or deal with these issues.
E-Books are great for newbie writers because they’re not always as long as traditional books, especially if they are meant to offer useful information or advice. Make sure that you’re not writing less than 25 or 30 pages though and price accordingly. I’ll talk about that in my next post when I go over publishing options.
For writers who have never undergone the task of writing an eBook, it can be a bit jaunting. The key is finding ways to keep yourself focused. Keep in mind that writing an eBook isn’t necessarily about writing one huge document, it is actually the act of writing several smaller interrelated documents and seamlessly tying them all together. Here are some tips to help get you started:
1) Decide who your audience is going to be. Are you introducing the basics of your topic, or are you presenting a more advanced idea? How old is your demographic? Are they male or female? What will they use this information for? Knowing who your readers are will help you to screen out what information you need to include, and what you can leave out. Also, it will help you to write in a tone that will keep their attention.
2) Write down a general idea that encompasses what your book is about. If you can think of a title, it may help you focus on the general topic. Don’t worry about being clever just yet. You can always go back and change it later. An alternative to this is writing down a “thesis statement” of sorts. Anything that helps you keep the main idea in mind.
3) Write down a list of chapters. If you don’t want to give each chapter a name, just write down what each chapter will be about. Again, nothing clever; that will come later if necessary. Right now you are essentially building an outline to help you focus. Later, you may split one chapter into two separate chapters, or you may consolidate if you find two chapters are very much related or too short as they are. Each chapter should have an introductory paragraph which tells the reader what this chapter is about and why they need to know this. How does this chapter tie into your main idea?
4) List out your subtopics for each chapter. If you’re used to writing articles, then think of each subtopic as just that – an article. Try to write at least 500-750 words under each subtopic heading. You can include data and pictures, create graphs, etc., but the majority of your work should be helpful information and useful tips. In other words, make sure you have substance, and not just fillers.
5) As you research information and interview experts, don’t forget to site your resources. This is one of the most important parts of your book since it will keep you from getting in any legal trouble. Also, even though it’s not necessary, it is nice to let people know that you have sited their work. While this is not always true when citing work from research done by corporations, it is good manners when citing quotes and data from an author’s book, blog, article or website. It’s also a great way to network!
6) Set goals for writing everyday and stick to them. This is absolutely the HARDEST and most NECESSARY part of writing. It’s not unreasonable to write 5-10 pages a day and set a deadline for the rough draft in 30 days. Mark it off on the calendar so it’s “official”.
7) Okay so now you should have a working title, Chapters and subtopics under each chapter. This is a good time to write an introduction, conclusion, table of contents, and recheck your reference list.
a) An introduction is just that. You introduce yourself and state why you wrote this book. What is the purpose? What should people get out of it? What is the main idea that you want readers to keep in mind while they are reading? Write a paragraph that touches upon the main idea of each chapter so the readers know what to expect. This doesn’t have to be long. Introductions can be one page or several pages. It depends on how much you want to write.
b) Your conclusion should be a summary of everything you have written. If you could summarize your book in two or three paragraphs, what would you write? Much like the introduction, your conclusion can be one page or several pages depending on how long your book is and how much you have to say. Conclusions can poise questions about topics that your book hasn’t covered because there’s either a lack of research being done on the topic, or maybe you want to save that for another book. This will help to peak the readers interest in any further writing that you do. This is also a great place to give readers information on resources (besides the ones you’ve cited for your work) that will help them to discover more about the subject.
c) A table of contents is super easy to create if you have written your eBook in MS Word. Go to “Insert” then “Reference” then “Index and Tables”. I’m not going to write a big tutorial on this since MS Word’s help option is pretty sufficient if you get confused. It’s pretty easy though.
8 ) Before you call it a day, you may also want to consider inserting some kind of vocabulary index into your book. This is especially true if you are writing for an audience who knows practically nothing about your field of expertise. Take into consideration the fact that you may be using words that your audience has either never heard of, or may not know the real definition of. You can either insert your vocabulary index after the introduction as part of the text, or after your conclusion as an appendix.
9) Revise your Draft. If you don’t have the money to hire an editor, then put the book down for a day and look at it tomorrow with a fresh set of eyes. Try to catch errors that spell check may not have gotten. Remember that spell check often does not catch missing words, or words that are spelled correctly but misused in a sentence. Check, recheck, and then recheck again. If you have a friend whose grammar is slightly better than yours, then see if they will help you out as a favor, or offer to pay them when the book starts to sell.
YOU ARE NOW READY TO PUBLISH AND SELL YOUR E-BOOK! We’ll go over this part next time. I promise not to take so long between posts!
Posted in Writer Suggestions
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