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If you’ve ever gone on Amazon.com, undoubtedly you have come across the ebook section. It’s a massive collection of books covering almost every topic you can imagine. So who’s writing all those ebooks?
People like you, or hopefully sooner than later – you. Though the trend of buying ebooks has been growing for a long time, there probably hasn’t been as much interest in writing them as it is now. Many people are ready and eager to jump into the ebook market, but they don’t have a clue where to start.
That’s okay. If you want to know how to write and publish and ebook, you’re in the right place.
Before you take the ebook market by storm, you first have to have something to publish, so let’s start there. Here’s a breakdown of the things you’ll need to do before you get to the publishing stage.
CHOOSE A TOPIC
This is a great place to start. What do you want to write? A romance novel for the young adult market? A how to guide? An ebook about how to write an ebook? You pick, it’s entirely up to you. Whether you want to cater to a specific audience or you just want to write from the heart, pick a topic that you’re passionate about.
Picking a topic that truly interest you will help you push through those tough moments of writer’s block, or stagnation that every writer experiences.
ORGANIZE THE CHAOS
Okay, you have the topic. Now it’s time to break your big idea into a series of little ideas. Write down all the subjects you want to cover in your book, then separate them into chapters. If you’re writing a story, the same process applies. Think about how you are going to begin the story, and of course how you’re going to end it. Then have a list of major events that will eventually lead to the climax of the story. This applies to fiction or non-fiction, you want to start strong and end strong.
Once you have your big idea broken down into more realistic and digestible pieces, it should be easier to proceed from there.
GET STARTED
There is no better time to get started than now. Analysis paralysis, has kept many people on the sidelines and prevented them from jumping into the arena of life.
Just start writing. If you’re writing is good, great, keep going. If you’re writing is bad, great, think about what makes it bad, fix it, and keep going. You can only mold clay if you have some clay to work with. Once you start writing, you can always edit, rewrite, and shape your sentences in order to make your content better. But in order to do that, you have to get started – so start writing now.
BECOME THE CARING CRITIC
Now that your work is complete, it’s time to take off the writers cap and put on the editors cap. Go through your ebook with a fine toothed comb and look for any spelling and grammatical errors. After that, read through your ebook from start to finish. Does it flow from sentence to sentence? From topic to topic?
Keep in mind, since you wrote your ebook, you’ll be very familiar with it. Really think to yourself, if you were a first time reader of this material, would you get it? Does it make sense? Are there any holes in the story? Are the explanations complete? Helpful?
Also, don’t be afraid to use a program like Grammarly to edit your ebook. It may catch errors that you have overlooked, and as of right now, the program is free.
Though it’s not a necessity, we recommend that you send your ebook to an editor. You can find a reasonably priced editor on Fiverr.com or you can search for an editor online. Aside from grammar corrections, an editor may give you suggestions on sentence structure, information missing from your plot or subject matter, and about the overall layout of your content.
Maybe you’ve written an excellent paragraph but it’s just too big. It may be more pleasurable for the reader if that massive paragraph was broken down into much smaller ones. Among many other things, an editor can help you with these issues.
OWN IT
Before you send your ebook to an editor, it may be a good idea to get your work copyrighted. The last thing you want after all your months or years of hard work is to have someone come and steal your material. You can go to www.copyright.gov fill out the necessary forms, pay the fee, and gain some protection for your written work.
VISUALIZE IT
Now that your body of work is complete, you’re quickly closing in on the final steps of creating an ebook. Start thinking about what you want your ebook cover to look like.
No matter how amazing the content of an ebook may be, if the cover is boring, people may skip past it and move on to the next ebook that has a more eye catching cover. If you are in need of a graphic designer to create the cover art for your eBook, look no further than Fiverr. There are literally hundreds of artists from all over the world that you can choose from to create the exact cover art you’re looking for.
FORMAT AND STRUCTURE
Make sure the ebook is formatted correctly. We have come across many ebooks that are loaded with unbelievably useful information but the organization of the material is a bit chaotic to say the least. There are several programs out there that can assist with formatting. Whether your ebook will viewed on an Amazon Kindle, iPad or an android device, ensure the formatting is correct so the material will look the way you envisioned it.
If you want to find a program that can help you with your ebook structure and formatting along with easy to use templates, you can find a great one here.
FIND A HOME FOR YOUR BOOK
If you you think you’re ready to share your ebook with the public, you’ll have a tough time finding a market bigger than Amazon.com. Though there is more competition on Amazon, if you’re content is unique enough, you shouldn’t have a problem standing out from the rest of the crowd.
You can set up your ebook account to publish on Amazon here – kdp.amazon.com
Once you’ve entered in all of your information, you’ll be ready to publish and make money from your ebook.
TELL THE WORLD
Once you’ve published your ebook on Amazon.com, you can wait for people to come across it by chance, but it may be a better idea to tell the world where to find your ebook.
Here are a few things you can do to direct the masses toward your ebook, so that it will get the attention it deserves:
- Create a Facebook page – there are millions upon millions of people on Facebook. Start a page, make friends, join groups, and start telling everyone about your ebook.
- Create a website or blog – having a dedicated site for your ebook is a great marketing tool. You can share information about your ebook, yourself, and of course use it to direct people to where they can buy your ebook.
- Create a marketing plan – if you don’t want to randomly advertise your ebook, it may be a good idea to come up with a plan first. Do some research online about marketing plans or get a program that will show you how to grow your fanbase on social media.
There are several programs that can assist you with online marketing, but if you want a great program that will help you build a social media presence on Facebook, you can find one here.
Once you have a dedicated audience online, especially on Facebook, the next step is simply directing them to your ebook.
THE PLAN
We’ve covered a lot of content, so here is a quick checklist that will help you on your ebook creation journey:
- Choose a topic to write about and then break it down into smaller topics
- Start writing immediately
- Critique your work – get help from experienced editors online
- Copyright your work
- Format your ebook
- Publish your ebook
- Tell the world about it
- Market your ebook on social media
Writing an ebook may not happen overnight but if you stick to it, you can bring your passion into reality sooner than you think.
You’re venturing to do what many people only dream about doing. In order to make it happen, you have to get started, don’t hesitate, get started today.