Today's Woman Guest Author: Shelley Lowery

Ebooks -- Self-Publishing Your Way to Internet Success Part 1 Writing A Successful Ebook

With today's advanced technology, it has never been any easier for anyone to self-publish their own ebook. What's more, you can create and market your own ebook (electronic book) for an unbelievably low price. Once you purchase an ebook compiler and create your ebook, you'll automatically have an entire stock of inventory on hand continuously. In addition, when you begin selling your ebook, you'll pocket nearly 100% of your profits for each sale.

 

As you probably know, the Internet is all about information and automation. Internet users want information and they want it right now. That's why ebooks are considered to be the "perfect" online product. They provide Internet users with the information they desire and can be instantly downloaded.

The key to writing a successful ebook is to write for your potential customer. In other words, you must provide your potential customers with the information they desire. I know, you're probably thinking, "how on earth do I know what my potential customers want?" Well, there are a number of ways you can learn exactly what they want. For example, visit some online discussion groups in the area of your expertise. Go through all of the posts and read all of the questions. If you see the same questions posted on several groups, then this should give you a good idea as to what your potential customers want. Visit forums, message boards, and newsgroups -- subscribe to email discussion lists -- visit Amazon.com to see the top selling books and see if you can develop your ebook accordingly.

Once you've determined the focus of your ebook, your next step will be to break your subject down into about 10 - 12 different areas. Each area will represent a chapter. For example, if your ebook is focusing on dog grooming, your chapters might look something like this:

Introduction to Dog Grooming
Dog Anatomy
Medical & Skin Problems
Bathing & Brushing techniques
Proper use and care of Equipment
Clipper & Scissoring techniques
Specific Breed Trims
Mixed Breed Trims
Safe Handling and Restraints
Rare Breed Recognition

Once you have created your chapter titles, you can begin writing each individual chapter. When you begin writing, keep in mind, reading on a computer screen is much more difficult than reading from paper. It not only causes eyestrain, but it is also a much slower read. With this in mind, keep your writing to the point and avoid any filler information that really isn't necessary. Provide your readers with all of the information required for each chapter, but keep it as simple as possible.

Write your text in small blocks and leave a space between each paragraph. Use an easy-to-read font such as Arial or Verdana and use black text on a white background. In addition, make sure you use plenty of white space. White space is the empty space between your paragraphs and around your text. You certainly don't want to overwhelm your readers with a solid page of black text. Not only does it look bad, but it certainly won't keep their interest.

It is very important that you do everything you can to make your readers as comfortable as possible. If your text is difficult to read, your readers will not only become frustrated, but it will also make your ebook appear to be unprofessional. Your ebook should be well organized and enable your readers to easily locate important information.

To spice up your ebook's appearance, you may want to add a colorful border, subject dividers and relevant images. In addition, enlarge your subtitles to enable your readers to easily recognize the beginning of each new section. By adding these extra touches to your ebook, you will not only improve your ebook's appearance, but it will also keep your reader interested.

In part two of this series, we will focus on Ebook formats.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery