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Write an ebook: the easiest way to find an idea for an ebook

September 21st, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Looking for an idea for an information product?

There are many ways you can locate ideas, but here’s the one that works for me every time:

* Find a problem

* Solve the problem

The result is an ebook or a report.

Since I’m a writer and writing teacher, the problems in my bailiwick tend to be writing-related problems, so that’s what I write and sell ebooks about.

However, I’ve written ebooks on topics as disparate as dieting and dog breeding, because I know  something about those topics.

Make it doubly easy on yourself - write what you know

When you write about what you know, whether it’s education or finance or whatever, the research is easy.

Although over the years I’ve researched books on many topics (I even wrote a book for Prentice Hall on how to do quick and easy research), these days I confine myself to writing about what I know. You can do it too. Write about topics YOU know, and challenges you’ve experienced. This saves research time, although you’ll still need to do some research.

Ask yourself what problems you see people struggling with every day, and then write an ebook which solves that problem.

Write And Sell An Ebook Online: Avoid These Two Traps For The Unwary

May 14th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Writing and selling your own ebooks is one of the easiest ways to make money online. However, there are a couple of pitfalls that you should be aware of before you start writing an ebook.

If you stumble into one of these traps, you won’t have the success you should have.

The traps are simple. Here they are, with tips on how to avoid them.

Trap One: Not Checking That There’s A Market For Your Ebook Before You Start Writing

The old saw: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” applies here. Unless there are people who are hungry for the information you provide, no one (or very few people) will buy your ebook.

There are thousands of topics on which you could write. However, to write successful ebooks, focus on the topics which solve problems - and for which people will pay for solutions. For example, when I switched from a Windows computer to a Mac, I was desperate for a simple ebook which would help me to become familiar with the Mac interface. After much searching, I found ONE. Only one ebook, and yet thousands of Windows users are switching to Macs, so it’s a hungry market.

The easiest way to check that there’s a market for your ebook is to type “topic +ebook” into a search engine (without quotes.) If there are lots of ebooks, assess them. The fact that there are many ebooks need not put you off - it shows that people are willing to pay for information on this topic. Make your ebook a little better, and your ebook will sell.

Trap Two: Failing To Promote Your Ebook

You’re not done when you’ve written your ebook. In a sense, that’s when the fun begins - the fun of promoting your ebook.

Ideally, you’ll start promoting your ebook (by advertising, with a press release, or with any other marketing strategy you please) before your ebook is complete. If you choose to promote your ebook with a Web site, that site takes time before it’s indexed via the search engines, so create the site as soon as you start writing, and developing a mailing list so that interested buyers can sign up for notification when you publish the ebook.

Promotion is vital for your ebooks, so start promoting early, and keep promoting the ebook after it’s released.

When you combine a hungry market with consistent marketing efforts, your new ebook will be a roaring success.

Want to add a great income stream to your writing career? Consider writing ebooks, and you’ll never run out of eager buyers. Angela Booth’s “Write and Sell an eBook: Every Writer’s Quick-Action Guide To Writing Ebooks” shows you how to write ebooks quickly and professionally.

How to Write An Ebook And Conquer Procrastination Too

April 20th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

How do you write an ebook, if all you’ve written is articles? An ebook can loom like a huge unscalable mountain. You find all sorts of things to do when you should be writing: mowing the lawn, taking the kids to the mall, doing research.

Research is a wonderful way to procrastinate, because you can tell yourself you’re working on the project - you can’t possibly start without knowing all about your topic, can you? But deep down, you realize that you ARE procrastinating.

You write an ebook the same way you write anything else - a word at a time

Here’s a process for writing an ebook:

* Develop a theme/ slant/ central focus. The central focus is VITAL. This is the promise you make to the reader - how to pay off a mortgage in five years, or how to lose 40 pounds in 28 days, or achieve a natural face lift without surgery;

* Write ten working titles. A working title is a title which encapsulates your theme. “How To Pay off A Mortgage In Five Years”, for example. Force yourself to come up with ten, because this title is the seed from which your ebook will grow;

* Write an outline (we’ll get to how you write an outline for an ebook even if you hate outlines in a moment);

* Write a chapter a day as if you were writing an article a day;

* Revise;

* Write the final draft;

* Final formatting, then save the ebook as a PDF file;

* Done!

The Ebook Secret: Your Outline Helps You To Get It Done

There are two kinds of writers: those who outline, and those who don’t. I used to be a writer who didn’t outline. However, I soon realized that the only way I could function and meet my deadlines was to outline each project. Then I received an amazing insight: my writing improved when I outlined.

An outline is just a list. You need to outline your ebook, because ebooks can and do change as you work on them. Without an outline, you’ll find yourself struggling to complete the project, because it morphs as you work on it.

Just write a simple list of the chapters of your ebook. Look on each chapter as an article. You can write an article a day, even if you only have a couple of hours in which to write.

Chunk Each Chapter As You Write It

If the ebook still looks intimidating, chunk each chapter as you write it - that is, write it a paragraph at a time. Write 50 words each time you turn on your computer. This is doable for anyone. And you’ll find that if you take this ultra-slow route, by the time you’ve completed 500 words, you’ll speed up. The words will start to flow, and you’ll complete the ebook quickly.

So there you have it - you CAN write an ebook, and conquer procrastination too.

Read all my secrets to writing ebooks in “Write and Sell an eBook: Every Writer’s Quick-Action Guide To Writing Ebooks”.

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Angela Booth, Veteran Writer And Author

Copyright © 2007 Top Ebook Writer

Credits: Angela Booth's Writing Blog | Fab Freelance Writing Blog | Fab Web Writer Blog | Matteo Turchetto | Andreas Viklund