I think for most of us, writing an ebook isn’t nearly as exciting as writing a novel or screenplay, but it can be a lot of fun. Not only do you get to express yourself in a new way, but you also get to reach a new audience. If you think that writing an ebook might be a good option for you, then this guide will help get you started.
Decide Why You’re Writing It
Whether you’ve decided to write a novel, novella, or screenplay – as the name would suggest – you need to have a good idea about what the finished product will be. It’s easy to get distracted by the various tasks that come with writing a book, especially if you’re not used to writing long forms. It’s crucial to set some time aside to write, regardless of what stage you’re at; otherwise, you might find that the novel you’re working on isn’t as good as it could be because you didn’t stick to it consistently. Before you start writing, make sure that you’ve actually sat down to think about the story you want to tell. Otherwise, you might send your manuscript to be printed and never see it again.
Choose A Title
Once you’ve decided on the type of book you’ll write, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, it’s time to choose a title. For fiction, you might want to consider choosing a title that has already been established in popular culture; for non-fiction, you should go for a topic that’s already been written about and that you can expand upon. It’s also a good idea to look for a title that’s relevant to your niche audience, as well as one that will resonate with your potential readers.
Gather Your Research Material
If you’re writing a non-fiction book, you need to do your research. For one, you need to find reliable sources that can help you make the book more accurate. You can also look into the internet for information, as well as talk to people in your local community. With non-fiction, especially if you’re doing research into a specific topic, it’s important to be as accurate as possible; therefore, proper citations are crucial. Your book will be much more valuable to your readers if the information you provide is as objective as possible.
Start With A Short Description
One of the things that can make or break your book is its summary. If you can’t grab the reader’s attention with a few catchy phrases or words, then they’ll likely never make it to the rest of the book. As a general rule of thumb, try to keep your summary to one page, and make sure that it includes all of the necessary information for the reader to know what the book is about. Make sure that your summary is no longer than three paragraphs, and fit as much as possible on one page.
Outline Your Book
Once you’ve collected all of your research material and have a good idea of what the book is going to be about, it’s time to start outlining. The first step in outlining is to make a list of all the tasks that you need to do to complete the book. This might include researching more topics, gathering additional material, or editing what you’ve already written. Start by making a list of 20 – 30 pages of contents, and try to make it as detailed as possible. The more you can do before you start writing, the better you’ll be able to organize yourself once you start creating. The first draft of your book should be detailed and as close to perfect as you can get it before you start making any significant changes.
Plan Your Formatting And Spelling
You need to take into consideration the type of book you’re writing when you plan your formatting and spelling. If you’re writing for kindle then you’ll want to take into account the size of the font and the margins, etc. When you’re writing for the printed page, you can go for a bigger font and less margin space, as you’ll be able to see everything clearly on screen.
Get A Professional Editor
If you’re not a professional writer and are absolutely certain that what you’ve written is correct, then it’s probably a good idea to get a professional edit. This could be an experienced freelancer that you pay a nominal fee to or an editor who specializes in Ebooks within editorial sub-contracting platforms such as NarrativeEd or EditPlus.
There are a lot of advantages to having an editor, not least of which is that they can help you fix any spelling errors or punctuation mistakes that you might have made. They can also give you some tips on how to make your writing more accessible to a wide audience and how to improve the flow of your narrative. Finally, if you’re not a confident enough writer to know what sound like, they can help you find the right words for your character’s voices so that your readers can easily picture them in their minds. In short, having an editor can really help polish your book and give it that extra layer of perfection that makes all the difference.
Revise Often
Writing is a tough process and it’s no doubt that a lot of authors would be happy if they could do it over. Even if you feel that you’ve written the perfect book – which, let’s be realistic, probably isn’t the case – it’s still good practice to go through it again. This is especially important for non-fiction books, where you’re essentially making everything up as you go along. The most basic guideline is to revise at least once a week, if not every day. This will help prevent you from repeating yourself and help produce a much more polished final product.
Sometimes we rush into writing books because we think that they’re going to be easy to complete. Even if you do end up completing the book in less than the original amount of time, it’s important to always remember why you were writing it in the first place. Remember: it’s only when you reach the end that you realize how much work actually went into it.