Without any shadow of doubt, if you ask any writer what is the hardest part of what they do, they are likely to tell you that writing the first sentence is the most difficult bit.
Before you start, when you are looking at the whole project, it’s like sitting at the bottom of a very tall mountain. But, the fact is that the mountain is there to be climbed and, no matter how tough it is, it CAN be climbed, step by step.
Writing an eBook is no different. A daunting, perhaps even scary task before you set out on your journey, but one that will get progressively easier as you become more and more skilled at dealing with the task in hand. Like the mountain, it’s a step by step process, sometimes laborious, sometimes inspiring, until one day you arrive and the “summit” and write your last word!
The first thing that you need to do before you attempt to write one single word is to get organized.
Start out by coming up with a few potential ideas for the title of your book. Simply write down everything that comes into your head an eventually, you’ll find what you are looking for.
One thing that helps me with titles is to try and think of them when I am NOT at my computer. If you try to think of titles when driving your car, taking the train or digging the garden, the different perspective of your surroundings will often generate title ideas that are really original!
Aim for a title that tells your potential reader what the book is about, whilst also being intriguing enough to make him or her want to know more. For example, use words like “secrets” or “hidden”, to imply that there is more than the title is telling them.
Have a clear picture in mind of who your target audience for the book is and try to “connect” with that audience in your title.
For example, if your eBook is about gardening, which tends to be a more mature persons hobby, a title like “Yo, dude, dig that lawn” whilst undoubtedly pretty “trick” and clever, would be a complete waste of time!
Next, write a two to three sentence outline for you eBook. What is the problem and how your book will solve it is basically what you are after here.
The purpose of this is to keep you focused. At all times, make sure that everything that you are writing supports the ideas and proposition that you are putting forward in your book.
Also, this outline will stop you wandering off down “blind alleys”, writing about stuff that, whilst it may be very interesting or informative, in fact, it does nothing to support what you are writing about.
Such “off topic” meanderings in eBooks are very common, and are often known as “fluff, “filler” or (more succinctly) “BS”! Fill your eBook with this stuff, and the reader will pretty quickly cotton on to the fact that you don’t really have much to say, and the amount of people asking for their money back will be depressingly high!
This brings us to the most crucial question that you must ask yourself, as unemotionally and in as detached manner as you can possibly manage.
Is it really worth writing your eBook at all?
Is your idea big enough to fill a book, or is it just an article stretched out to the maximum? Are you genuinely imparting new knowledge or perhaps old knowledge presented in a new and refreshing way?
In other words, will someone who bys your eBook get value from it?
Only you can decide this before you write the book but you must be self-critical to the max, because, as sure as eggs is eggs, the people who buy your book will be!
Will your book contain genuinely useful information and is that information right up to date. It’s amazing the number of eBooks that come to the market spouting stuff that was working last year as “the latest thing”!
Can your book positively affect the lives of your readers? If so, how, and how easy or difficult is it to act on your ideas and suggestions?
Is your book a good read, one that will retain the attention of the reader?
If you can, with hand on heart, answer yes to these questions, then you sound like you have something worth getting out there, so start writing!
Remember what we said earlier about the title? Aim it as specifically as possible at your target market? The same goes for every word of your eBook. Do NOT try to aim your book at “everyman” – target your market, never lose sight of who that person is and aim every word you write at them.
For example, going back to our earlier example, your eBook is about gardening. Try to think of someone you know who enjoys their garden and aim every word at that specific person. In fact, give them the first copy to read when the eBooks finished – I’ll guarantee that they will come up with many useful additions for you!
Think about why you are writing the book in the first place. What is it that you want to achieve by doing so? Are you planning to sell it from a website, or give it away as a free gift, trying to collect names for a list? Are you planning to split it up into separate modules to give away as an e-course?
Perhaps you just want to use it to help establish your credentials as an expert in your chosen field?
Only you can answer this one.
Aim at all times to make your writing as engaging and interesting as possible.
Use real life examples, stories, anecdotes, testimonials, illustrations and pictures to break up your “message” into bite-sized hunks. Keep our sentences short, and aim to write reasonably informally and in a friendly manner. You are not attempting to write a classic of literature and an informal, relaxed style tends to work best.
Don’t expect to be a great writer straight out of the box. Many people approach writing their first eBook never having written anything more than emails since they left school, and writing needs practice.
Once you begin writing, try to target a minimum amount of writing that you will do every day, so that you can get into a rhythm. Personally, I would strongly suggest that you do not begin every day by going back and reading what you did yesterday. Doing this, you end up wasting your time “editing” your work and this is a job that you should leave until the first full drat of your book is complete.
Remember that I just suggested that you should not aim to write a literary masterpiece?
Bear this in mind when you are formatting your book. Whilst written books often tend to have a fairly high percentage of the page covered in type, your eBook will sometimes be read onscreen, and therefore there have to be plenty of white areas to avoid straining the reader’s eyes!
Use plenty of bulleted lists. This highlights the points that you are trying to make in a way that is particularly easy to absorb and comprehend.
Pick an easy to read font (I tend to use Verdana) and make sure that the spacing between lines make the pages of your eBook comfortable to read, even on the smallest PC screen.
Spell check the whole thing, but don’t rely on it totally. Type in “an” when you meant “and” and the spellchecker may well miss it (it is a word, after all) but it could make your sentence nonsensical, and lead your reader off in completely the wrong direction!
Proof read it at least a couple of times, and then get someone else to do the same. Absolutely, totally guaranteed that they will pick up errors that you missed (I used to proof read for a leading English school in Japan, so I know what I am talking about!)
Finally, compile the book itself. The most widely accepted format for such publications are PDF files, and these also allow you to publish your book with in-built security features, so that people cannot, for example, copy and past your work.
If you need a great free tool for creating PDF files, do a search for PrimoPDF. I use their PDF creator tool all he time, and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.
Once it’s in PDF format, that’s it, you’re done.
Great job – you are now a full fledged member of the eBook writer’s guild (or, you would be, if I hadn’t just made that up!).
Steve has much more free advice about writing and many other topics related to the internet on his blog site at http://webbiz99.com
