Am I lucky or what? When I finally ventured into ebook publishing and scraped together the courage to write my first digital ebook, I had a creative web site designer collegue with a wealth of editing skills, who was able to come up with the perfect ebook cover design for my effort! The layout was perfect, links to my web business were included and the finishing touches were professional and classy. I was pleased as punch when I saw the end product for the first time.
Writing and publishing your first book can seem like a daunting task. However, if you approach it systematically and piecemeal, it really isn't that impossible. With this kind of book, you don't have to think about writing 400 pages. Start small and progress from there. If you have written articles for a website, you can write a book.
In fact, don't even think in terms of a book to start with. Concentrate on writing a series of reports or longer articles about different aspects of your topic. Make sure that you start out with a detailed, broad outline, so that there is a natural flow from one report to the next. Do your normal research and note-taking. Aim to finish one report every week. Make sure that you proof read it thoroughly and check the spelling. Within three months you will have twelve full length reports. These can become twelve chapters in your book. Surely you can do this?
By the time you plan your first book, you will have a clear picture of your target audience. Try to imagine the kinds of questions people are asking about your topic and try to answer these in a straight forward manner. Write in the same style you use on your website and in your emails. Don't use long, complicated sentences or words. Keep it as simple as possible. Make the paragraphs short. Include enough white space, so that the book will be easy to read. You can add images or photographs to liven things up.
The main motivation for writing and publishing the book will probably be to generate more traffic for your web business. Begin to jot down ebook marketing ideas while your work is in progress. Look into relevant ezines, newsletters and related websites as possible marketing vehicles. There are thousands of websites where these books can be placed free of charge. As long as you have links to your website or products in the book, you will have a powerful, continuous marketing tool. If the contents are interesting enough, and the ebook cover design professional, it can have viral powers, meaning people will pass it on to friends and family. This is exactly what you are looking for. If you want to sell your book, you can also consider a website such as Lulu.com. Here you can list your writings and they handle the whole process for you. They can even print out hard copies on request.
Publishing your first effort can be very inexpensive. The only expense will be around the ebook cover design. You don't need a whole bunch of ebook software tools and, up to the cover stage, the technical skills needed are minimal. You can use a free program such as Open Office to write the book. You can then use the same program to convert it to PDF ebook format. At the same time, the tool will create the hyperlinks you need in the book. That's really all there is to it. Of course, you can go out and spend $300 on snazzy programs, but when you start out this really isn't necessary. It is possible to create a professional-looking product on a shoe string budget.
It is said that you don't judge a book by its cover. However, starting out I knew that there are thousands upon thousands of free books out there. The ebook cover design creates the first impression and may very well be what leads to that click your web business needs. I decided that I want my book to stand out. There are free ebook cover templates available, but they just don't look tempting. I invested many hours in the writing of the book. I wasn't about to create a so-so cover that looked totally amateurish. I also didn't want to spend money on ebook cover design software. I don't have the technical skills to use it optimally. I figured that it will be much simpler to give the job to a knowledgeable person and ensure a professional end product. Why should I break my poor, overworked little head over the art of how to make a book cover?
So, I got on the telephone to Neels of WebAdjust.com, e-mailed him the book, and voila! A no-hassle, perfectly designed ebook cover lovingly hugged my hard work. Best of all, his rates are extremely reasonable (only $14.95 per cover!). Take a look at what he came up with further down this page. I must tell you, nothing beats the feeling of seeing your first book for the first time!
Neels has years of website design and hosting behind him. He worked at a number of newspapers before that, so he has loads of editing skills and experience. He is creative and practical and somehow has the knack to translate requests into pictures, colors and an overall pleasing package. You can get hold of him here...
So, there you have it. No more excuses now. Get cracking with publishing that first volume and start to day-dream about the perfect ebook cover design for it.
SAMPLE COVERS BELOW...:
