How Much Effort Does an eBook Require?
I finally released my first premium eBook last week. I had been interested in this idea for the longest time. Ever since I first heard of Pat Flynn and Smart Passive Income to be honest. It took me forever to go through with actually launching an eBook. I’m not sure if it was the fear of failure or if it seemed like too much of a daunting task. I just took forever.
After finally releasing my first paid eBook project on deciding if you should buy or rent a home in your 20s, I wanted to reflect on the whole process and all of the work that’s involved.
How much work goes into putting out an eBook?
The writing.
This is as far as most people get usually. I’m not going to lie, it’s easy to start writing an eBook. The challenge comes in actually finishing the final product and putting all of the final touches together. This is where I’ve gotten stuck many times before. The funny thing is that most bloggers type up at least a few thousand words a week. Why can’t we put together an eBook?
A few tips to deal with writing an eBook:
- Brainstorm. I find that it helps to map out all of the different topics and ideas that you want to include in your project. This will allow you to organize things much easier.
- Use content from old blog posts. You don’t have to use all new content. If you’re strapped for time you can always pull out pieces of writing from your blog archive.
- Write a little at a time. You don’t have to pump out 10,000 words in one day. That sounds really scary. I believe in breaking down the writing into chapters, or even sub-chapters. Writing a few hundred words a day can easily land you with a solid eBook in a few weeks.
I already have about 7,000 words for my next project. The problem now revolves around actually focusing long enough to finish up this document!
The formatting/editing.
This is where things get interesting. It’s really easy to get discourage when you see how fancy some eBooks are out there. This especially hurts when you realize that you have no graphic skills (me!). There’s one simple solution for formatting your product. What is it? PAY SOMEONE TO DO IT. It’s really that easy. I don’t want to get into the idea of formatting an eBook yourself because it will make it seem like a daunting task for most of us that have zero artistic talent. You’ll save yourself lots of stress and time by paying a reputable designer to make your eBook look super slick. All you need to do is send over the word file. Oh and pay up of course.
The promotion.
This is actually the most challenging part in my opinion. Why? Because Elvis can come to your local mall from the dead tomorrow and nobody will know if it’s not promoted well. You need to work your ass off to promote your eBook. You need to tap into your network. You need to reach out to everyone you know to help you spread the word.
How can you promote an eBook?
- Offer affiliates. Bloggers will be more likely to promote your product if they can make some money from it. This is why it helps to offer a 50-50 affiliate deal.
- Guest post like crazy. This is what I tried to do. I reached out to many bloggers and offered guest posts. I ended up putting out three guest pieces on the day of the release. I have a few more posts ready to send over.
- Beg for links. Yep I did lots of this. I went into forums and emailed my blogging friends begging for links. You might have to beg for links if you want to promote the release of your new product.
As you can tell an eBook requires tons of work. The idea of releasing a premium product is often glorified by successful bloggers and those that have made a killing doing so.
Is the eBook process worth it? For me the first time around it wasn’t. This is time that I could have spent on writing quality blog posts for my free audience. For now it’s time for me to go back to the drawing board to see what exactly went wrong. I’m not giving up yet.
Have you put out your own eBook yet? Are you thinking about it? What’s holding you back?
(photo credit: mia3mom)
