Are you passionate about a certain subject or topic? Do you want to write about something you know a lot about? If so, you can start by writing an amazing e-book! As the name suggests, an e-book is an electronic book, which can be accessed and read from a computer or mobile device. This is a perfect option if you want to share your expertise with the world, or if you want to create a resource that you can access anytime, anywhere! It is also the perfect option if you want to become a freelance writer and earn some extra money from home.
Why Write an E-Book?
Since the dawn of the digital age, the e-book has become an indispensable part of anyone’s literary diet. This is mainly because of the flexibility e-books offer in terms of layout and content. When compared to a physical book, an e-book can be completely customized to suit the reader’s needs and preferences. For these reasons, if you want to learn how to write an amazing e-book, you can follow the steps outlined below.
Choose A Niche
The first and most critical step in the process of writing an e-book is to narrow down your chosen subject area to a more manageable size. Even though you may have enough knowledge in a broad area, breaking it down into a more specific area makes all the difference in terms of both the difficulty of the task and the potential rewards involved. Choose a subject area that you are passionate about, or that has the potential to be extremely rewarding from a financial standpoint. Once you have your niche, begin researching the state of the art in your chosen field.
Build A Prototype
Once you have your niche and are well-versed in the relevant state of the art, you can begin to build a prototype of the e-book that you are going to write. This prototype can be something as simple as a word doc, or a notebook containing all your notes and inspirations. What is important is that it has all the essential elements of a complete and functioning e-book. These elements include an abstract, an author bio, a table of contents, an index, and most importantly, a comprehensive outline.
Get Feedback
Now that you have a functional prototype of your e-book, you can begin seeking feedback from professionals in your chosen field. Although it is not at all necessary to enlist the help of others, getting feedback from professionals in your field can help you identify existing issues and weaknesses in your work. They can also point out areas in which you can further your educational and professional trajectory. Ultimately, getting feedback from experts is essential for the writer, in order to improve their work and make it the best it can be. Without it, you are flying blind, and potentially harming your work in the process.
Edit
Once you have obtained some critical feedback and fixed any major issues, you can begin editing the e-book. Bear in mind that this is a crucial step, and one that cannot be overlooked. Even experts can make serious errors if they are not careful enough, so make sure that you leave no stone unturned in your editing process. Once you have secured a polished and perfect e-book, you can feel confident in presenting it to the world!
Publish
Once you have edited and polished your e-book to the desired level of perfection, it is time to publish it and let the world know about your brilliant work! What is important is that you follow the correct procedure to go about doing so. The first and most important step is to register your e-book on Createspace, or one of its compatible platforms. Next, you will want to build a back-link website for your e-book. More information on back-linking can be found below.
Backlink
A back-link is an external link, which references an existing website, with the goal of promoting a brand or product. When someone clicks on a back-link, they are directed to a website that has something in common with the website they are currently on. Back-linking can be an extremely powerful tool in an e-marketing campaign, and it is a critical step in any e-book publishing process. Backlinks allow you to track the organic growth of your e-book, and help establish your authority in your field. They also help guide the search engine rankings of your website and e-book, potentially leading to increased visibility and sales.
Rewrite
If you have decided to go the self-publishing route and do all the work yourself, you can always go back and edit your e-book. However, since you already went through the trouble of editing it, the least you can do is to rewrite it from the ground up, so to speak. Rewriting a previously published work can be an extremely profitable endeavor, especially if you have obtained a satisfactory level of feedback across the board. Rewriting also allows you to fix any major errors that you may have made in the original version.
Format
After you have rewritten and edited your e-book to the desired level of quality, it is time to format it for electronic reading device consumption. Since this is your last and critical step, make sure that you follow the correct procedures to format your e-book for the electronic reading devices (e.r.d.s) of your choice. Different e.r.d.s vary in terms of both the sizes and the page arrangements of the documents they support. Once you have followed the correct procedures, you can rest assured that your e-book will read perfectly on the devices you have chosen. Be sure to test your e-book on as many different devices and reading platforms as possible, so that you do not end up with a version that does not work on any of them. Remember to also include proper instructions on how to download and use any necessary plugins, or tools, for the e-book reading devices that you have tested your book on. This is especially important if you are using a tool, like Calibri, for the eBook formatting process, as Calibri requires you to input instructions manually, rather than using the default settings. This can save you a great amount of time, should you decide to go this route and self-publish your e-book.
Conclusion
If you want to write an e-book, you can follow the steps outlined above, and soon you will have an amazing piece of literature, or a very useful, industry-specific tool! Remember, though, that writing an e-book is not as easy as it seems, and it requires a certain level of expertise, talent, and commitment. Still, if you follow the above steps, you are sure to end up with a finished product that you can be proud of, and that will serve its purpose.