What It Takes To Write An eBook
So I recently released my eBook, that honestly took a lot longer for me to write than it should have but, its mainly because I had taken a hiatus from writing it in the middle. I decided to re-write it beginning in August and about 40 days later it was ready to be published on the blog. I know quite a few bloggers that have an eBook and most of them are under a 100 pages, like mine, however, its really not as easy as it sounds. Theres a lot that goes into writing an eBook so I wanted to share some of the things that writing an eBook involves.
Research
Writing an eBook requires research no matter what topic you are writing about. Whether its monetization or blogging or even fitness for that matter. You will have to spend quite a bit of time confirming your facts and researching the topic to avoid skipping over key points or even avoid publishing wrong information.
Time
The time input is tremendous. The research, the actual writing of the book to even editing the book later requires quite a time commitment. You have to realize that you cannot churn out an ebook 50 pages or greater within a week. You could if you have done it before but if you’re a first time eBook writer then it will be a different scenario. It takes time and a lot of effort.
Reviewing
As part of my eBook, I had to review a lot of monetization techniques, blog publishing softwares and even hosting companies. Most eBooks will require you to review products and services and this also contributes to the amount of time you’ll need to write the eBook. Think about it, for a topic like monetization, you will have to look at affiliate marketing networks and several other monetizating sources such as Adsense, InfoLinks, ReviewMe, etc. Even for something like Gardening, you will need to review different plants, plant foods, fertilizers, etc. So basically you will need to review a lot of different products and services to provide the best information to your readers.
Writing Skills
This is probably one of the key points in writing an eBook. You need to make sure that you write your eBook with proper grammar, punctuation and most importantly spelling. This is required because you cannot seem unprofessional otherwise you won’t be taken seriously. Skipping prepositions or using the wrong spelling could not only look unprofessional but could change the meaning of what you intended to say.
Explanation Style
Explanation style basically means that you write your eBook in a manner that will make it easy to understand for your readers. You have to understand that although you and several others will know what you are talking about, there are lots of people that may be new to the topic. This means that you will need to go step-by-step and explain a lot of things in detail to avoid leaving out a segment of your readership.
So, I hope that this information helps you realize what goes into writing an eBook. I will try to do more posts like this as time goes on but I feel that this is a good one to get started with to help you realize what actually goes into writing an eBook. If you want to write an eBook or are currently writing one I’d like to hear from you. Also, those of you who have an eBook, I would like to see whether you agree with the points I’ve mentioned. Hope you guys have a great week ahead!
This article came at a great time now - I am starting to write one for my readers now
I believe that research and writing skills are probably the most important (don’t wanna get the facts wrong or sound uneducated
This comes at the right time, when I am thinking of writing an ebook
oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, let’s have it then sir! I need to get back over to your blog ZK, my bad for being MIA
Good stuff, Enkay!
Congrats on finishing the ebook. Achieving any goal is worthy of a little celebration, so go out and have yourself a KitKat bar today. Bet you haven’t had one of those in a while, huh? LOL!
You are write there is a lot that goes into an ebook. I haven’t written an “ebook” yet, but I have done a few special reports. Ok, special reports are just short ebooks….for people that are too lazy to write an entire ebook. So what!!!
I would add one piece of research for you. Check to see what has already been written on a subject. I guess you could just put out what everyone else is putting out, but if you want your ebook to be special, then you have to educate people on thoughts and ideas that they cannot get anywhere else. Well, at least not until people start reading, researching, and copying your material.
Nevertheless, good stuff, congrats, now start pushing that puppy like there is no tomorrow!
Even i would be coming out with my own book in a couple of months, but its not related to web, in fact its something concerning Islam. Also, i am not sure if i would be releasing an ebook version.
Wish me good luck bro!
Good stuff
After all this talk about ebooks, I am really tempted to write one. I’m just not sure what the topic should be….
It requires good dedication Enkay certainly. Since last 2-3 days I was thinking of eBook while explaining online money making to couple of my friends for almost 4-5 hrs continuously. My God! I felt strong need of an eBook then.
I love quality content e-books, although we see a lot of crap on forums like DP, sitepoint has a good collection!
I think its worth noting that if you’re not ready for a full ebook yet that you could do a report like I have done, its around 25 pages.
Good point! Short reports are good, and sometimes even do better than ebooks. We must remember than many people on the internet have short attention spans!
Either way, it’s all good, have fun, put out the info, and gain more readers. Which will always add to your bottom line.
eBooks are so hard to produce, and you give it out for FREE? *whew*
This is a great article for me right now as i am trying to organise my ebook.