Friday, March 2, 2012

Revealed! The Secret To Writing eBooks

The secret to write eBooks is to just start, that can often be the biggest obstacle to overcome when first starting out. Another factor that can hold you back is a lack of confidence in your abilities. Too often we think the right is reserved for the chosen few, the George Bernard Shaw’s or the J.K Rowling’s of this world, but you’re wrong.
In fact the majority of eBooks or even physical books for that matter are made up by the rest of us mere mortals and just because their names may not necessarily be dotted with bright lights on billboards is not to say that they’re writing is of any less value.
Everyone is a wealth of information, we each have something valuable to share based upon our own experiences so don’t undermine your abilities. Practice Makes Perfect: By just practicing writing you can become a better writer. If you want to master a new skill or a talent, it requires an investment of time on your part whether it’s learning a new instrument, a new dance style or learning to drive or juggle, everything requires time and dedication and writing is no different.
Another secret to write eBooks is to read them. Anyone wanting to acquire a new skill must first immerse themselves in it and to compose a great piece of writing you first need to know what makes a great piece of writing. Tone: To write eBooks you should develop your own voice, you can do this by writing honestly.
Write in a conversational tone if you were sitting across the table from your readers, it allows you to connect with them helping to build a bond of trust. Mind Your P’s and Q’s: Writing in a conversational manner is no excuse for your grammar or spelling to slip. Believe it or not, people still do judge by appearances and even if you write the greatest, most insightful and informative content, if it’s fraught with avoidable spelling errors, it can be a big turn off.
Unfortunately it’s the only perception people have of you since they’ve never met you. Always proof read your eBook content before unleashing it on the public. PLR: To create great content on the fly but you find that you’re deficient in the time department, you can skip the heavy lifting of content creation and purchase existing Private Label Rights content on your chosen topic instead.
These are products that were created for the purpose of resale and re-editing. Check the rights before you purchase because this ultimately determines what you can do with the content. If you purchase PLR with unrestricted rights, you can essentially alter the content and sell it as your own. The majority of the work has already been done for you; all that’s left to do is to add extra value to it by updating it and making it over with some new graphics.
If you want to write eBooks, you now have enough information to get you started.  To take it to the next level and remove the guesswork out of product development, then go to http://www.newproductdevelopmentsecrets.com/

Learn To Write Your Own eBook Without Writing A Single Word!

There are so many ways on how to make an eBook these days that anyone can write one and if you feel the written word isn’t necessarily your forte that doesn’t have to be a barrier anymore.  These days if you don’t want to write, you can outsource the task to someone else.
Fancy that, the hard yards of eBook creation done by somebody other than you.  Don’t feel guilty; you seriously don’t think that every single author writes every piece of text in their own books now do you?
Several well known authors and let’s face it, some celebrities who and lets be honest aren’t always the sharpest tools in the shed are writing well-written, insightful soul searching books.  Don’t think for a second that they sat down at a computer and poured over it themselves.  This is what a ghostwriter is for.  The story is still theirs but they didn’t write a stitch of it.  More likely, they were interviewed by the ghostwriter who then oversaw the task of breathing life into it with their written word.
A ghostwriter is just that, they work silently behind the scenes, does all of the work but gets none of the credit because they are financially well compensated to do so.
So you can make an eBook without having to make an eBook.  Just like the celebrities you can outsource that task to someone else but at a fraction of the cost.
When you outsource your eBook you can promote it as if you wrote every word yourself, when you make payment you essentially own all rights to the work, again as if you’ve created it yourself.
This is a great way to get an eBook made if the thought of writing it yourself doesn’t appeal to you or if you feel a little self conscious about your writing skills.
To find ghostwriters, you can try sites like http://www.elance.com/ or the http://www.warriorforum.com/, these are two of my favorites because I find writers there that consistently produce content of a high standard.
Elance has an escrow service which protects your money and ensures that both parties are happy with the agreed upon arrangement.  The warrior forum is a trust based forum, in either case you should always perform your due diligence first, look at their sample portfolio and read what prior customers are saying about them.  When you feel confident to award the provider the job, dip your toe in for a smaller project first working your way to more substantial ones.
A 30 page eBook can cost you anywhere from $175 to $500 plus dollars and price isn’t always a solid indicator of quality.  Just go with your gut, proceed with caution and award future work based upon results.
Another way to make an eBook without writing a word is to dictate it and save it as an mp3 file. There are companies who can transcribe your audio mp3 into written text.  Some people have had 50 page eBooks produced for around $100, which is a steal.  You can look for transcription services online, just drop them an email to enquire of their prices.
Dragon Naturally Speaking is voice recognition software that will transcribe what you dictate to it.  Your spoken word is transcribed directly into a word document in real time.  This is another great way to make an eBook without writing a word yourself.  It requires a little training to recognize speech patterns and accents as every user is different, but it learns and accuracy improves with time.  You can pick yourself up a copy at http://www.amazon.com/ if this is something you’re interested in.
So there you have it, 3 great ways to make an eBook without writing a word, you have no excuses to start writing yours, or not if you catch my drift.  Happy non-writing.  To find out more about writing your own eBook visit http://www.newproductdevelopmentsecrets.com/

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

How To Make Your Own eBooks From The Grass Roots Up

It can be lucrative to make your own eBooks, which is why so many people are opting to go that route these days.  No longer is it a privilege for the select few but is now an open forum for anyone with an opinion to express.

When you make your own eBooks, the sky is the limit.  You can create your eBook on every topic imaginable from crochet to fly-fishing; the Internet is a diverse place with literally a market out there for everyone, if you know how to pick your market right, that is.

When it comes time to make your own eBooks you need to find out what people want and then give it to them. 

We can do this by visiting:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Just enter in any niche topic and the relevant search results are returned.  There you can determine if there is enough valid genuine interest in your particular niche.  If there is enough healthy search volume, say at least 1,000 searches per month then it’s shaping up to be a potentially profitable niche.

The next phase of our research is to determine if people are spending money on our niche.  We can do this by visiting http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.magazines.com/.  If there are books and magazines centering on our chosen niche then it’s a good sign there’s money to be made.

The next thing to do is to visit forums to get a feel for any frustrations or problems people in your niche face.  Your aim is to relieve these problems with the information you will offer in your product.

So take special note of these questions, write them down and then find the answers to these questions.

Map out your eBook and create it in a word document.  Start with your table of contents and spend at least half or a whole page answering each question.  Use your research to guide the writing process and to answer questions, you’ll find that when you work systematically like this the process is organic and lends itself to intuition.

Once you’ve completed your eBook you need to convert it to a format that’s widely accessible to your whole market, which in most cases is PDF.

You can either purchase a PDF application through Adobe, which tends to be on the pricey side.  If you’re a little strapped for cash there are perfectly good free versions available online such as http://www.zamzar.com/ you can convert file sizes of up to 100MB, which should handle any eBook you might throw at it.  When I created my first eBook, it was just 7 MB in size and there weren’t too many free online converters that were able to cope with an eBook of that magnitude, funny how things change. 

And there you have It your first ever eBook all that’s left to do is share it and make money.  A great place to start is the forum that inspired its creation in the first place.  Place a link to your website in your forum signature file which will garner plenty of interest.

If you want to make your own eBooks, there’s no time like the present.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

EBook Writing Skills That Will Enable You To Churn Out eBooks In Little Time

If you want to cut your teeth in the realm of eBook writing, you’ll need to develop and fine tune your eBook writing skills, here are few pointers to get started in no time flat.

EBook writing skills are no different from writing in the real world, the only difference is the medium and the availability of it.  These days anyone can become an author with the boundaries that were previously imposed by geographical constraints quickly melting away. 

With the Internet we now live in a borderless society where the commodity, information is widely accessible to a global market regardless of where you live.  Even if you decide to take the route of publishing your work online, it by no means devalues its quality, all that’s changed is the vehicle for delivery being in a digital medium and you’re not lumped with the same printing and distribution costs associated with traditional print media, these are all bonuses in my opinion.

Here are some quick tips to beef up your eBook writing skills:

Research – always know to whom you are writing so that you know how to appropriately address your market, for example, you wouldn’t write in the same manner to mature women learning how to crochet as you would to teenagers learning how to deal with their anger issues?  One is more technical whereas the other centers on subject matter of a more sensitive nature.  So just as you drive to the conditions when it rains, write to the conditions with respect to your market.

If you are little unsure of your writing skills, read from the best and pick up some of their techniques like conversational tone, personality and language.  Again, use techniques that are best suited to your market.

When it comes to writing, it’s so easy to get overwhelmed, especially in the beginning when it’s often difficult to see the end in sight.  This is when writing systematically works in your favor.  My belief from writing lots of eBooks is that every eBook whether it’s 10 pages or 500 pages gets written, a page at a time.

Set yourself 30 minutes to an hour each day to just write.  If you don’t make that time, your eBook will never get created.  Be realistic.  If you can only manage to turn out one page in an hour, than that’s fine too.  You’re not racing against the clock, only yourself so this is a very personal thing that only you can decide for yourself.  Figure out how much time you can dedicate and then do it.

I know it’s hard for the first few days and it does take discipline, but I promise if you work consistently in the time you designate yourself and you will see great things happen.

So pace yourself, it’s not a sprint race but an endurance run.

Another important of the eBook writing skills is writing speed.  If you want to turn out content like a machine then be spontaneous.  My advice is to write as fast as you’re able to.  Don’t over think the process, we tend to over complicate things the minute reason and rationality step in, don’t doubt or hesitate yourself.  Writing fast doesn’t necessarily mean that you compromise quality either.  I’m writing this as it comes to mind because this is a topic I have plenty of background experience in.  I find that when I over think anything and re-edit as I write, reading over it later it feels stilted and has lost its sense of flow as well as the impact that I had originally intended.

So use these techniques to tune your eBook writing skills and you’ll be writing like a pro in no time.

EBook Creation Made Simple

Back in the day it used to be pretty tough to become an author and was a privilege reserved for the select few.  Nowadays, thanks to the brilliant development of the eBook and the power of the Internet, the ability to become a popular author has become accessible to anyone with a computer and a little motivation.

Because eBooks are electronic creations, there’s no printing costs associated with their production and since they are emailed or downloaded, there are no shipping or handling costs either.  Although anyone can potentially become an eBook author, you can’t just simply throw any old thing together and expect it to sell. Specific steps are required to ensure that your finished product is of the highest quality so when it comes to eBook creation it’s important not to cut corners and sacrifice quality.

If you want to embark on creating your own eBook, there are a couple of things you need to know.

At the basis of any successful eBook creation is organization.  Rather than to randomly write the first thing that pops into your head, jot down some topics on which you wish to write.

Perform a Google search to gather research and visit your local library.  These are great sources of information that will enable you to flesh out your eBook.

When you’re sure of your topic and you’ve collected all of the necessary research, formulate your table of contents.  This simplifies the writing process immensely, not only does it put the information into organized and manageable segments but it also enables you to fully cover all aspects of your eBook creation.  When you know what needs to go into your table of contents, you’re taking steps to ensure you have all of the relevant information you need to create a well-rounded and thorough eBook.

There is software programs on the market, some of which are free that will automatically format your eBook and removes the headache of having to do it
yourself.

These programs take you through systematically step-by-step; it’s a simple fill in the blanks, paint by numbers system.  The format is already enabled you just add the content and voila, you have a readymade eBook at the touch of a button.  It really is a time saver and takes the hassle out of the whole eBook formatting process, that’s not to say that you can slack off on the quality of your content, just because the software produces a professional looking product is no compensation for high quality and informative content.  Remember, ultimately your eBook needs to appeal to reader’s; it’s not out there to win any beauty pageants.

If eBook formatting software isn’t your thing, format it yourself using the table of contents feature in Microsoft word or the Mac equivalent, you can then simply convert this word file to PDF which is the most universally recognized format accessible to your readers the world over.  Again, there are free PDF converters online that can handle weighty projects of up to 100MB.  Just do a quick search for “online PDF converters” and you’re away.

So there you have it, eBook creation in its simplest form.

Grab a paper and pen, get writing and get creating.

Venturing into EBook Creation? Here A Few Simple Tips To Get You Started.

So you want to venture into the waters of eBook creation?  The hardest part of eBook creation is just getting started.

Pick a topic then learn all that you can about it.  This will give you a strong basis of knowledge to work with and will help with the writing process.

So what do you need for eBook creation?

You need a quiet place where you can collect your thoughts and where you can write, uninterrupted.  Let your family and friends know what you’re doing so that they’ll respect your time.  Switch off your cell phone and apart from research, resist the temptation to surf the web; you won’t believe how much of a distraction Face-Booking or just checking your emails can be.  When you write, dedicate time for that and nothing else.

If you feel more comfortable writing with a pad and pen to begin with, feel free to, this is a great technique for getting the creative juices flowing and to kick start the writing process.

When it comes to eBook creation, it’s easy to get intimidated when faced with the prospect of writing your first eBook.  Let me tell you it does get easier with time but the first word is often the most difficult to write. 

Whenever faced with an insurmountable task you should approach it in the same manner as you would any daunting task, by tackling it bit by bit.  Break it down into bite sized, manageable pieces and you will find your eBook materialize and take shape with a little time.

So get over your fear and just write.  You never get to experience the cool, refreshing feel of the water if you don’t first dip your toe in.  So make a splash.  Write something, anything. The first few paragraphs are often the most uninspiring because they are the test ones, your mind’s just firing up.  The great stuff comes after that initial bump in the road.  Incredible if most people were to give up writing after the few first crummy sentences, we wouldn’t have any books at all.

The more you type, the more the hand to brain connection is formed and you will actually find that your writing style will change and improve with time. 

If you ever find yourself in the predicament of writer’s block, here are a couple of pointers that will help you break through.  Just as with starting out, the best way to rid yourself of writer’s block should you hit the figurative wall is to take a break for a day or two and then return to your project with a fresh pair of eyes.  If you’re still struggling to write, then write anyway.  Again you’ll find that the first few paragraphs or even pages meander but you’ll eventually reconnect that flow and find your writing rhythm again.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to eBook creation, you just have to start and with a little time and practice, you’ll be churning out eBooks quickly and with total confidence.  Now get to it.

Basic Steps To Creating EBooks

When it comes to creating eBooks there is no such thing as luck.  Creating eBooks requires research, thought and planning to make happen.

For starters you need a topic to write about.  The easiest place to start would be your own hobbies and interests.  Does that mean that you have to confine yourself to only those two things? no.  In fact you can become a knowledgeable expert in almost any field that you undertake research in, that way you’re not limiting yourself to the scores of other profitable niches simply because they may not be your passion.

Pick your topic and before you invest too much time or effort into developing it into an eBook you need to know if there’s a market for it.  It’s no good spending time and money creating an eBook around the Patagonian Bat if there’s not enough market demand to justify the effort invested.

The best strategy to employ when researching your niche is to pick something, determine if there’s a market for it, if there is, delve deeper.  If not, move onto the next niche on your list. 

You can also take approach where you let your market dictate your next product by researching what sells.  Unless you can churn out content lightning fast I would avoid the “fad” type markets that fizzle with time.  Sticking with the predictable, traditional evergreen niches are always the safest way to go, niches though in different incarnations would have still been popular 50 years ago.  Niche’s like health and beauty, love and money are and always will be popular. 
Hobbies are still great too; those that spend money on their hobby usually have the disposable income at their fingertips to do it.  Evergreen hobbies like fishing, golf, knitting, scrapbooking, camping, dancing, crafts, traveling, pets, cooking, writing, hiking, eating, gardening, horse grooming, bird rearing and lots more.

These all are potential moneymakers and will never be short of a market.

Choose your niche and visit http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.magazines.com/ to see if there are books and magazines in your chosen niche, see what people are saying, have they left reviews? is the product popular?

The next step in creating eBooks is to find out what people are talking about. Visit forums to get an idea of the discussions taking place in your niche.  http://www.big-boards.com/ provides the most comprehensive collection of forums under one roof and you shouldn’t have too much difficulty finding your niche hosted there.

Take note of any opinions, frustrations, positives or negatives around your niche topic and use these to create your eBook with.

Start with your table of contents and assign at least half to a whole page to each frustration along with its solution.  Beginning with the table of contents lays a solid foundation to build your eBook around.

The final step in creating eBooks is to ensure that it’s free or error.  After your final proof read and spell check, convert to PDF.  If you don’t have Adobe to covert your word document, there are several free online programs that will perform the task for you.  Just do a quick Google search for “free online PDF converter” and you should be able to find plenty at your disposal.

There you have it, creating eBooks from A to B.  If you’re interested in creating eBooks, feel free to get the complete, step-by-step process from start to finish here.