Your Ultimate Guide to eBook Writing
Is eBook writing a part of your anticipated bucket list? Then, what are you waiting for? Start today! Though writing a print media book calls for full-length and overhauling time, eBook writing can be your cup of tea. This blog is meant to simplify your overwhelming thoughts and provide you with a complete guide to eBook writing.
Keep reading! Keep Writing! And sway the world with your own eBook!
Read now and write later…
What Is an eBook?
An eBook, short for electronic book, is a non-editable book that is made available via the digital platform. A reader can go through the book on a computer, mobile, or any other eBook reader device like Kindle and Amazon. Often clubbed in a PDF format, an eBook is accessible and easily shareable at the digital stage.
While a printed book needs a proper publication and length followed up by inbound rules, an eBook has comparatively fewer rules and can be self-published as well. Furthermore, instead of carrying a physical book, an eBook comes in handy as it can be read on any portable e-reader device.
Advantages Of eBook Writing
Does this question strike your mind- is writing an eBook worth the time? If you ever conceive second thoughts, walk through the advantages of eBook writing. By which, you will eliminate any skeptical doubts that can impede your one of the most beautiful content creation.
What are the benefits eBook writing has in line for you as a content creator?
- EBook will draw new leads and amp up the conversion rates.
- By embedding links to other posts, you can validate engagements.
- Being present on the digital platform, it becomes more accessible and handy.
- You don’t have to levy additional production charges. It can be easily distributed and shared on the digital platform.
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Not only you, but the eBook is a boon for the target audience as well. Want to know, why? Here, look at the stakes.
According to a survey at a university,
Nineteen percent of students strongly agree and 41% agree that they like eBooks (Appendix 7). There is a strong base of 60% of student respondents who are appreciative of the eBook format. Twelve percent of staff strongly agree and 33% agree that they like eBooks.
Why target audience would prefer to read an eBook?
- It is portable and a reader can store it in the repository of various devices.
- Scouting and scrutinizing becomes easy if one is looking for a specific thing.
- Being present on the digital platform makes it eco-friendly.
- Accessibility comes in handy.
- One can even adjust the font sizes and read aloud with the text-to-speech feature.
Taking into account all the benefits, you can see for yourself an eBook does more good than harm. More than anything, there is no word limit. You can write it for as much shorter or longer as you want.
Is It Possible To Edit An EBook?
With an overwhelming list of benefits comes to a setback. Also, it’s up to you to take it as a boon or a bane. For me, it’s surely a boon.
In the case of a blog post, you always have an option to edit, save, and publish. But an eBook that is once written and formatted can’t be edited. Think of it as a bane? Oh but wait, a minute! In all its beauty, it is a boon. Why? You know it an eBook is shared multiple times between various users over the internet. There are chances of a breach, corruption, and alteration Thus, to uphold the authenticity of an eBook- it can’t be edited.
Agree with me now- it’s a boon!
For those who don’t agree, you can opt for an editable PDF. It’s a feature intrinsic to Adobe Acrobat.
Step-by-step Approach To Ebook Writing
This draws us to our central point- how to write an eBook? For that purpose, we have a cascade of steps that will lead you to the culmination of the eBook. Following each step bit-by-bit, you can map out a plan to write your own eBook.
Roll out now!
Tag A Topic
Akin to a blog post, the first and foremost step is to choose a topic for your eBook writing. Hold on! Don’t just pick up any whimsical topic that pops up in your brain. Conceive your goals- what do you want to establish with your eBook? Do you want to generate more leads or provide more detailed information or promote a product?
Another aspect to scout before landing on a topic is- what your audience wants to know? Ply through the data or survey to comprehend the audience’s needs and demands. A detailed data analysis will lead you to a plethora of results that readers demand and expect from you. Though you would want to answer all the questions at once, resist the temptation. That’s because you don’t want your first eBook to be a hodgepodge, do you?
A conglomeration of both ideals will help you choose a topic that is goal-oriented and audience-oriented. Be firm that it is a specific topic and target’s specific audience. That will make the writing procedure easier. At the same time, it will provide your audience to streamline their focus on a specific thing.
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Carve A Contour (An Outline)
Put your thinking hat on to brainstorm ideas. Alongside, do thorough research and muster all the content that you want to incorporate in your eBook. The reliability and validity of the content wrought high-quality content. Accordingly, be sure to verify the authenticity of the data.
None of the writers ever concocts a book without a laid-out plan. What do I mean by a plan presumably? A detailed plan dissociates into sharp-edged chapters and what goes inside each chapter while interlinking it with the main topic. Namely, each chapter should have a separate subtopic which is overall nerved to the main topic. There is no hard and fast rule as to the number of chapters you have to include. It could be as many as you want or as little as possible (to give it an outlook of an eBook).
Here is a piece of suggestion! The more detailed and profound your plan is, the better you are going to sprint for writing an eBook. There is no point at all running a marathon and overstuffing ideas, which will eventually have to be eliminated at the editing stage. Therefore, entail my lead and give a good amount of time to strategize.
Bit-by-bit Breakthrough
Writing an eBook can be daunting for beginners, isn’t it? Well, don’t be. Conceive it as a blog, as each subtopic is reminiscent of a blog. Just the way you finish off a blog at one go, pick a single unit and get done with it. Driving destination by destination will palpably lead you to your goal without getting fatigued.
But at the same time, there is a risk that you get so engrossed in the subtopic that you overlook the nexus with the main topic. In order to preclude that be firm to keep the main topic in the backdrop all the time. You can even place it with your plan so as to maintain fluency.
Other than that, it is inherent that you don’t let your focus awry. The target audience and their perplexing questions have to be answered. Bolstering graphics, images, and hyperlinks will add more value to your eBook writing content. While wrapping up each chapter assist a Call to Action (CTA) that guides the reader for further mountaineering. Don’t let any of the points being missed inadvertently.
Introduction And Conclusion
Wondering why I have upheld Introduction and Conclusion as separate points? Well, that’s because they are the most rhetorical and imperative aspect of your eBook. The discretion to head forward with the books hinges primarily on the Introduction. In the worst-case scenario, it may be the only thing that a reader reads and plans to skip the rest.
Thus, it would be highly foolish to take these two deciding factors casually. Invest your time in them; I would suggest a lot of time! It has to be flamboyant, immaculate, and intriguing at the same time- to the level that it compels the reader to get immersed in the eBook.
If you ask me, then preferably take up both the potent subtopics after drawing a line at the draft. That is at the culmination of the eBook draft. It has its own benefits. What are they? While an introduction is a peep-through of the entire book, a conclusion is a synopsis of the complete book. That is to say, both of them is a bird view of the whole eBook.
Once you have articulated your eBook, you already know what all you have included. As a consequence, you can pick up the bespoke highlights and wire them in the main heads of your eBook. Don’t forget to assert all the upbeat targets that coax and convince readers to give a shot to your book.
Explicit Edit And Proofread
Follow my lead- no editing until the first draft is over. While you may feel like editing side-by-side, I would say it’s a bad idea! Why? As it can demoralize and diminish your interests to a certain level.
True to its tradition, the first draft is a bit gross. It has to be embellished with an array of edits before emblazonment. While a few chapters would need tangent information to be removed, or rewritten, others may only ask for last-minute touch-ups.
The process of churning has to be specific, that is you can’t check for all errors at once. Move forward step by step with one aspect at a time.
- Begin with structure, scan and skim all the subtopics and headings- is the order correct, are they running parallel to the main topic, and does each heading reflect the inside story of the chapter?
- Any irrelevant paragraph that deflects the reader from the main topic has to be banned. Consequently, remove the superfluous fluff that doesn’t go with the main topic. Skim and scan through each chapter and oust any unwanted information.
- That leads us to check the fluency, which is a substantial point. One sentence should flow into the other seamlessly- paving the way towards the final destination of the eBook. There should be no pressure on the reader to decode the coherence in the eBook.
- Concluding the edit, proofread the book to fish out any spelling, fragmentation, or grammatical mistake that may have slipped through your eyes earlier.
Although, you can take refuge under assistant software like Grammarly for distillation, yet the humanity touch carves complacency to another level. For that, you can hire a professional editor. It will cost you a few bucks, but I believe you wouldn’t want to undermine your excruciating efforts for a few bucks.
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Format Formulation
Once, you are done with the main content, it’s time to optimize the outlook for our audience reading expedition. They say don’t judge a book by its cover, yet people do buy in based on the face value. That is to say, choose the user-friendly format and design it appealingly to catch hold of the audience.
More than any other format, Portable Document Format (PDF) remains the most popular and accessible for the readers. Yet, you can go on with other formats as well that are covered in the upcoming topic (see below).
Talking about the design format, it has to be conspicuous yet simple. Remember, your readers are going to read along with the smart device, provided that there has to be lots of empty white space. Too much hodgepodge or excessive hues will dampen the eyes of the reader, thus negating them from reading further.
Moreover, there should be proper insight pages at the start and end of the e-book. Not to overlook header and footer should be in place to get hold of the pages. Embellish with the graphics, images, and additional media that marries the content well. For validation, you can surely consider hiring a professional web designer. Contrariwise, if you planning to do it yourself, get it assessed by friends and relatives for any improvements.
Push Publish
With the entire overhauling odyssey, your eBook is next to its culmination point. You’ve done a great job this far! And your eBook is ready to be parked in your audience’s minds. At this point, you have two roads to travel, one goes to sell, and the other one is to give away free eBooks. The choice is yours!
In case, you have discerned to sell it, you will need to determine a sales page with a payment gateway procedure for your audience. Luckily, Word Press unwinds this procedure comparatively in a simple manner by the use of some tools. Here are some of them.
- WP eCommerce
- Easy digital downloads
- WOO commerce
Promote And Promulgate
Congratulations! You did a great job! But for your work to pay off, it has to reach the right audience. On the vast digital platform, there is copious data for the onlookers. Amidst all that, how will you promote your eBook writing content to get people to read it?
Here’s how.
Begin with cooking a content marketing strategy in coherence with your content. As you had already done the research and perceived target audience in the first step, this will aid you to cut down time at this step. Being well aware of your target audience, you can envelop a strategy around it.
What could be the possible ways for promulgation?
Some of the proven methods are:
- With the help of blogs and CTAs, direct the audience to the landing page of your e-book.
- Set a build-up announcement on Social Media platforms. Just like movies promote through trailers, you can pipeline your cover page before actual publication.
- You can also create a form and use an ebook as a lead magnet site.
- Promote through social media advertising.
- Send emails to the subscribers.
- If you have a good network, you can also seek aid from social media influencers to market or review your eBook.
For further allurement, share the genuine reviews of the initial readers to laud and authenticate the worth of your book. Nowadays, people are highly dependent on reviews to associate worth with anything. And an honest review makes things so much better! Do try it out!
Myriad Formats Of E-books Writing
If you have read or gone through any lengthy research article or any other eBook, you must have noticed that it comes in a file format, most specifically Portable Document Format (PDF). Can you recall? Yes, great then!
Moving along the same line, your eBook will also be published in one such format. Wondering why can’t you sway it in a Word document or Presentation file? That is because such files are easily editable. Perceiving the fact that your eBook will be shared over the internet multiple times, there are high chances of distortion, amendments, and corruption. For obvious reasons, nobody wants that to happen. Hence, pick an uneditable format to uphold the authenticity of your high-end eBook.
Depending on the needs of your end readers you can choose any format from the following formats.
Here’s the list.
Portable File Format
The most desirable and pleasing for the audience format is PDF. Undoubtedly, this is the best format for eBooks that are meant to be read on computers. Moreover, it is a popular choice among digital marketers.
How can you save an eBook as PDF?
Saving the file in PDF format is quite simple. Either you can check out PDF converter software, or else follow these simple steps:
- Click File- Save As.
- Go to file format.
- Select PDF.
- Save it anywhere on your system.
Epub
EPUB extends for Electronic Publication is a file format that comes in handy in terms of flexibility. Being flexible, it adjusts and adapts to the varied electronic devices. The text reflows itself as per the screen size of the device being read on. In particular, this file format is more beneficial for the Smartphone and tab readers, who otherwise maneuver to acclimate to the text.
Mobi
MOBI file extension is another e-book file format that was originally a Mobipocket reader. Initially, it was purchased by Amazon in 2005 but later put an end to it in 2011. Being lightweight in size, it remains a popular eBook reader, most specifically for mobile e-readers, till today.
Anyway, the MOBI format has its own diminutives. For one, text cannot preside along with images that are greater than one line. Secondly, it doesn’t support audio and visuals. Thirdly, it lacks DRM that guards the copyrighted material against being copied for distribution or viewed illegally. These are a few glitches that come along with this file format and maybe that’s the reason Amazon shut it down soon.
Azw
AZW file extension was an exclusive e-reader format arrayed for Kindle. Nevertheless, end users can also view the format on smartphones, tabs, laptops, and other electronic devices. In a way, it is an extended version of the MOBI extension with DRM protection. There you go!
Odf
ODF stands for Open Document Format, which is an open-source file format. Akin to Microsoft Office, it is an Open office program to save files and content. Files saved under this format are known as Open documents.
This brings us to the end of the blog. I believe you have gained ingenious insights for eBook writing that will guide you along the process. If you have anything to add on or share, please head towards the comment section. I would love to hear your responses.
Wishing you good luck with your eBook!
