With the ability to package your content into digital format, put up a great looking website in less than 1-hour, collect payment from any number of online payment options such as Paypal or Clickbank right through to the ability to deliver your digital product to anyone, anywhere…it’s no wonder so many of you are looking at writing your own ebook.
In fact, we have worked with thousands of people from all walks of life, operating in almost any market imaginable and advise you STRONGLY to put together your own training program, guide, ebook or course.
Not only is this a terrific way to start a new profit stream and expand globally, it is a great way to help brand yourself and improve your position in your market – whether than be as an employee, entrepreneur or simply a dude who has a passion for a specific topic.
I’ve put together a list of the TOP 3 questions I get asked about writing your own ebook…if your question is not here, then leave us a comment and we’ll be happy to answer that one too.
3 MOST COMMON EBOOK WRITING & PUBLISHING QUESTIONS
1. What Do I Use To Create And Publish My Ebooks
Well, this one’s fairly easy. In the vein of keeping it simple, you can write your ebook in MS Word or Open Office which are both very flexible in terms of rendering into any other format required when you actually publish your final version. The most common is to convert your ebook document into a PDF file, but you can also convert it to HTML or even use simple, inexpensive tools to convert your Word or Open Office format into Kindle format (for instance).
Here’s the process I use when I put together our ebooks:
- I first outline my chapters in MS Word working backward from the endpoint of the course or ebook. If my intent is to help people become a better parent by the end of the ebook, then I outline each chapter as one major area they need to improve to reach that ultimate objective. So I might have chapters on: Where You Are Today, Support Versus Discipline, Quality vs Quantity – The Time Dilemma, Raising a Self-Confident Child, Teaching Your Child How To Be More Social, etc…
- Next, I further outline each Chapter into a series of 8-10 questions that directly relate to the objective of that Chapter…notice, this is the same process as outlining the Chapters, but at a more detailed level for the specific objective of that Chapter. So, for the chapter on Raising a Self-Confident Child I may have: At what age can you influence a child’s self confidence? What techniques would you use to improve a child’s confidence under 5-years old? How can you discipline a child without ruining their self-confidence….
- Once the outline is completed I decide if I will write all of the content myself or perhaps I will either hire out some of the content development or interview experts if I need additional research
- At this point, I format the ebook with a table of contents, pagination, a header and footer and some quality images/illustrations/graphics that enhance the content
- Finally, when the content is finished, I revisit (or develop) a Title that reflects both the pain and benefit targeted with my ebook and have a cover professionally developed (costing anywhere from $47 to >$100 depending on the design and talent)
- Now, save your ebook as a PDF and you have yourself a product that can fetch you anywhere from $27 for a basic ebook to > $97 if you bundle it with other components such as workbooks, templates, coaching, webinar invitations, etc…
2. Do I Need To Be An Expert On My Topic
Of all the questions, this one probably causes the most angst.
The fact is that you do NOT have to be an expert in your topic to put together a high quality, in-demand, hot-selling ebook.
As long as your non-fiction ebook targets a desperate demand to transform one’s life and the information contained within helps them achieve that desired outcome, you have yourself a winning ebook.
Of course, if you are not an expert in your market (or at least have some degree of awareness or knowledge), the questions become:
- How do you know what their most pressing desires are?
- Can you develop enough of an understanding to outline the key steps?
- Where can you find some examples and case studies that are necessary for top selling ebooks?
- How will you get the content?
Your answer to all of these could be “outsource” – and yes that IS possible.
However, remember that to be truly successful selling ebooks you need to actively market that ebook, attract partners, drum up publicity and excitement, take persistent and massive action.
Would you really be able (or want to) do any of this unless you had at least a real interest or passion in learning more about your topic and market…not likely.
3. How And Where Do I Sell My Ebook
We work with our members over at InfoMarketer’sZone on their entire ebook strategy which includes the launch plan and product roll-out strategy.
The only hard-and-fast rule is that you want to plan to have some of your products selling from your own website (for increased profit and control) and you *may* want to place one or more of your products into online retailers such as Amazon, Google Play, etc…
In my own case, 90% of our products are sold directly from our sites, fully under our control. In certain markets we have put basic-level or intro-level programs together for sale on Amazon – but the intent there is really to gain reach and brand ourselves so more people buy the products from our own website.
So, if you are hell-bent on developing ebooks for Kindle, my suggestion is to go ahead, but also think about a strategy where you have other back-end products or services you can market in that Kindle ebook where your customer will come back and spend more money directly with you.
Do you have a questions about writing your own ebooks that wasn’t addressed here?
Leave us a comment.
