Jentrepreneur

My last segment of my Chick Tech Talk BlogTalkRadio show was on writing and marketing e-books. As an extension on that topic, I’ve decided to post a brief outline of my own personal e-book writing process that I used when writing Press Releases Made Easy. Now, my process won’t work for everyone, but if you’re just starting out and looking at an example of how it can be done, hopefully this e-book writing outline will help. Here’s my step-by-step process for writing an e-book:

1. Decide on a general niche. Make it something that you’re knowledgeable about if you plan to write the e-book yourself. Then, narrow down the niche. In my case it was easy, because I had several requests to write an e-book on press release writing that would appeal to webmasters. My niche was already laid out for me, and within my area of expertise, meaning less research needed and a faster writing process.

2. Outline your table of contents. You could outline the entire e-book if you’d prefer. My e-book was short, so figuring out the TOC was enough to give me a working outline. This will be something you’ll reference as you’re writing, to keep a general flow to the information.

3. Write your title page. This is a simple step, but an important one. Your title can have a great effect on whether or not your e-book sells. Choose a working title. You can always adjust it later. When creating the title page, it’s also a good time to think about writing up any disclaimers or usage rights.

4. Write the bulk of your content. Don’t worry too much now about making it “pretty.” Just get your primary content areas written. Remember that with e-books, you should follow some general Web writing principles, like using lists and bold subheadings when possible.

5. Add sidebar content, addenda (charts, graphs, external resource lists, etc.), and images if you plan to use them. Don’t obsess over positioning just yet.

6. Adjust your font size, margins, and graphical layouts. Here’s where you neaten up the appearance of the e-book to improve its readability and organization.

7. Add your page numbers to the table of contents. Once the layout of the content is finalized, you’ll be able to figure out the correct page numbers for each section. You can also add a header to each page with your name and e-book title with the page number if you’d like.

8. Proofread! Proofread and edit the entire e-book, from your title to your terms of use. If you didn’t write the e-book in your native language, have a native speaker proofread it for you as well. Try to wait a day or two between writing and editing your e-book, so you’ll be looking at it with “fresh eyes.”

9. Create your e-book cover. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just make sure it gets the point across if you plan to use one.

10. Convert to PDF. You can convert your e-book from your word processor to a .pdf file, and set your protection settings based on your preferences.

Following those steps will give you a finished e-book just waiting to be marketed. When you’re ready, create a sales page or website to host the e-book and promote it.

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