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Ebooks - Plain or Fancy?

August 2nd, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

When you’re writing and selling ebooks, do you really need all the trimmings? You may think that fancy graphics and ebook templates are vital, but my own research suggests that they’re not. Information is what your buyers want.

I’ve been selling ebooks successfully online for years, and contrary to what some people will tell you, it’s NOT necessary to create or buy fancy graphics and templates for your ebooks. In fact a gaudy template may lead to refund requests because the template makes the ebook impossible to read in comfort.

A couple of my bestsellers are plain PDF files, with text only. The sales pages for these ebooks are equally plain. I created the ebooks when I saw a need, so I wrote them and got them online and selling quickly.

Ebook Templates - the Latest Gaudy Trend - Can Lead to Increased Refunds

There’s currently a trend online for ebook templates. These templates have images on the top and bottom of each page; sometimes they have background images for the page as well. Not only do the images make it hard to read the ebooks, because the graphics are distracting, these gaudy productions look horrible when printed.

It seems I’m not the only person who hates the new ebook templates trend.

One of my students recently published an ebook. I saw a draft of the material and though it was excellent - it provided great information.

However within a couple of weeks of publication I got a frantic email message from the student about her refund rate. I was shocked, because I thought the material was great. I asked her to send me a copy.

I saw what the problem was immediately. She’d used a gaudy template. Someone had told her that using an image laden template was “more professional.”

I advised her to publish the ebook as a plain PDF ebook - without any template at all.

Her results? Once she’d published the new version: not a single refund request.

When you sell an ebook, you’re selling information. Your buyers neither want nor need fancy graphics - all they want is the information you promise in your sales page.

So if you’re new to ebook publishing, you may want to reconsider using graphics-heavy templates. Never use graphics unless they’re an essential part of your offering.

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Ebooks - How to Write Your Ebook Fast

July 20th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Want to write your ebook fast? Here’s a method which will help you - I’ve used it to write over 100 ebooks, and now you can use it too.

If You Can Talk, You Can Write Fast

Writing an ebook seems difficult. If you’re not used to writing, even writing five pages can be a challenge, much less writing 50 or 100. However, since everything you write is written a word at a time, you should feel confident that you can write your ebook, and write it fast too.

Here’s the method I use; it’s based on the Five Ws and one H - Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

1. Write a sentence about Who the ebook is for, and Why they need it

Assuming you have an idea for your ebook, write a sentence about who it’s for, and why they’ll buy it. For example, let’s say you’re writing an ebook about how to avoid foreclosure. You could write: “This ebook is for people with severe money problems about to lose their home.”

Print this sentence out, and paste it onto the side of your monitor.

2. Expand on Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

Now take six plain pieces of paper: the blank, unlined paper you use in your printer is fine. Then write one word - Who, What, Where, When, Why or How on each sheet of paper.

Just fill each sheet of paper with your thoughts and ideas.

It’s often useful to get away from your computer while you do this. Go to a coffee shop, or sit in your backyard or a local park. It’s important that you’re relaxed.

There’s no need to write in complete sentences on your sheets, unless you want to. Just write words, questions, names - anything which comes to you.

You can fill in your sheets over several days. Take as much time as you need.

3. Write an outline, based on your sheets

Your next step is to write an outline. No, this isn’t the kind of outline you wrote in English class - just make a list of chapters, based on the information on your sheets. Six to ten chapters works well for an ebook.

4. Talk your chapters - don’t write

Now comes the writing, but you won’t be writing, you’ll just be talking. You can talk each chapter into a digital or tape recorder, or into your computer if it comes with a microphone.

While you’re talking, just cover the material you wrote on your sheets. You’ll be amazed that as you talk, you get fresh ideas and insights.

Of course, if you wish, you can write your chapters, but talking works best for most people, because they’re used to talking.

Need help? Ask a friend to interview you, creating questions from the information on your sheets, which you answer.

When you’ve finished, have someone transcribe your sound file, or do it yourself.

5. Edit your transcription, and you’re done

Now all that remains is for you to edit your transcription, and your ebook is done.

If you use this method, you should be able to write any ebook within a week or less. It works for me, and it will work for you too.

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More on the importance of marketing your ebook

January 23rd, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Further to “MARKETING YOUR WAY TO EBOOK SUCCESS” here’s an excellent post from Ian Lurie “2 Sure Ways to Launch a New Product Online. And 2 Sure Ways to Blow It.”:

6-12 months before your product launch, start your own blog. Establish your authority in your product’s space. If you’re writing an internet marketing book, blog about that (cough cough). But don’t just talk about how wonderful you are, either. Give them useful information. When your product launches, you’ll have a prefabricated audience.

If you’re a writer, or hire one, creating an ebook is easy. It’s in the marketing that the rubber hits the road, and you must market your ebook, preferably while it’s being written.

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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