If you’ve made the decision to create an eBook, you’re likely feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of you. Most eBooks are made of tens of thousands of words, and it’s difficult to know how to move through the process. That’s why we assembled some helpful tips to walk you through the process and help you go from deciding the specifics of your book to writing down the content.
Choosing a Topic
The first and most important step is to decide on the topic for your eBook. It should be something that you’re passionate about, but also something that you feel qualified to write about. You can choose to make a fiction book about anything at all, but if you’re planning a non-fiction book, you should start with research to help you get familiar with what you’re going to write about and help you brainstorm ideas of what to include in your book.
Creating an Outline
Once you have an idea for your book, it’s time to give that idea structure. Spend time making an in-depth outline that goes over all the different features of the book that you want to include. To make an effective outline, start by summarizing your book and what you want to cover in it. Follow your summary with a list of main topics you’ll cover in your book. Add lots of sub-topics below each of the main points in your outline, and you’ll have a rough starting point to work from. As you research your book and work on different ideas for it, your outline will change, but you can look at your outline as a roadmap for your creation that will give you confidence and help you continue moving forward.
Deciding on the Right Size
Many people ask how long is an eBook? only to be hit by a wide range of different sizes. Some eBooks are as short as 5,000 words, while others are hundreds of thousands of words. It’s up to you to decide what size is right for your creation. One of the best ways to do this is to start writing a single chapter of your outline. Begin covering the information you want to cover, and you can get an idea of how many words you’ll need to put together the rest of your book. With a chapter, or even a portion of a chapter finished, you can estimate the total words you’ll utilize for your book. This estimate won’t be accurate, but it will give you an idea of how many words will make up your book, which can help you plan out your writing schedule for the book.
Writing the Book
Now you have your outline put together; you know approximately how long the book will be, and you’re ready to start writing it. This is the most important step overall because you can’t have a book without writing it! The trick to making it happen is to choose a word processor you enjoy using and to spend a set amount of time working on your book every single day. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the project, just commit to a short writing period of between 15 and 60 minutes a day. Select an amount that you’re comfortable with to get you going, and consider upping the daily time investment gradually if you find yourself wanting to keep going when you stop. To keep yourself motivated to work on your book, don’t work on it for too long each day, and stop writing the book when you reach your scheduled finish time. Edit your book the following day and then go back to writing once again to help you create your new eBook efficiently.
Formatting and Submitting Your Book
Finally, once you’ve finished your eBook, it’s time to format it into an actual eBook and get it ready for sale. You can format it into MOBI, EPUB, PDF, or AZW file extensions, and from there, you’ll be ready to sell your book on different platforms. Get familiar with the different formats and which book marketplaces accept what formats. Once you know the formats you want, you can invest in tools to do the formatting yourself or work with a professional service to format your book for you.
Each of these steps is an important part of creating an eBook, and you should go through all of them along the way to making a finished product. Take things one step at a time, try not to get overwhelmed, or overthink your eBook, and you’ll finish your first book before you know it.
