How to write Your own E-book
Selling information products is the most profitable venture on the internet.. this is a known fact.
However, there are some problems that web marketers must face in order to create a truly valuable e-book. Not everyone has these problems, but many people do (I certainly did when starting out).
Without a doubt, the biggest, meanest and most vile of these problems is not knowing how to write.
Writing, for some of us, can be as hard as trying to swim upstream in chocolate pudding. But I learned that by following some simple steps, you can create wonderful information products in a snap.
Here are a few tips I've learned that have helped me create books, reports, sales letters, etc.
DAY 1. Before you begin a long trip, you have to decide where you want to go. You have a destination in mind. Otherwise, you'd be wandering all over the place, maybe you'd see some interesting places, but you'd never arrive anywhere you would truly want to be.
The same happens when writing. The first thing you have to do is decide what you are about to write and jot it down on a piece of paper. State your goals.
DAY 2. Now do some research and thinking about your work. What do you want the e-book to say? What are the key points you want to make by writing this? What are the stories you want to tell? Who are the people that will read this e-book (target market)?
Do not write the e-book yet. Just think about it and scribble your thoughts. Put them on index cards or in a small notebook - this will help you keep the path of your journey. This is called the 'idea-gathering' stage. Think... Talk... Daydream... And then take notes on all that you have in your mind. If you don't, you may forget a bright idea.
DAYS 3 & 4. These are the days when all the actual writing is going to happen. Relax, sit at your computer (or typewriter), unplug the telephone and WRITE!
Write non-stop. What you have to do here is write without thinking at all. The greatest obstruction to creative and effortless writing is thinking. This may sound like a paradox but it's not. We've all become too paranoid about the rules of grammar and proper English usage. For this step of the process: forget the rules! Forget ALL the rules.
Write! Don't stop to punctuate or check your spelling or look up a fact. Just write. Get as much on the screen (or on paper) as you can handle. Be enthusiastic about it.
If you don't know what to write, write "I don't know what to write. I don't know what to write..." until you DO know what to write. Just keep writing, keep your fingers moving. Don't care what your writing looks like or how it sounds. You are not going to hand this material to anyone, this is for your eyes only and it will be edited.
DAY 5. This is the day when all the editing will take place. Editing can be a lot of fun, all you have to do is be ruthless about your writing and clip out (delete) anything that doesn't help you convey your messages. Punctuate. Check your grammar and your spelling.
After you are done, go to a copy shop and make a couple of copies of your work; then hand it to 5 friends. Ask for their opinions and for their suggestions. Ask them to write them down and scribble on the copy you handed them. They will help.
Get the copies back and change what you feel needs to be changed. Not every single thing they tell you needs to be fixed, but if four or five of your friends tell you about the same error... correct it.
Leave your work alone for a couple of days and then come back to it, read it as if someone else wrote it. Stuff will jump to your face. Correct that too.
Voila! Your e-book is now written. Now all you have to do is format it nicely and start marketing it.
Posted in: on Saturday 19 April 2008 at at 11:05
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