Selling Ebook online is one of the most effective ways to turn your hobby or passion for writing into a business and making money. It can be life-changing and can bring you a steady stream of income if done right. If you’re not sure whether to do it or not, consider this a sign and get started now.

You can offer an Ebook to your visitors for signing up to your email newsletter or generate revenue, here is a step-by-step guide for you to write and publish your first Ebook. Here at TemplateToaster blog, I’d show you how to write Ebook and showcase your talents in a more simplified and budget-friendly way.

How to Write an Ebook – Tutorial for beginners

Here are simple steps to write an ebook

       Step 1: Pick a topic in your niche to write an ebook

Before you get started, take your time and look for a perfect topic that is knowledgeable and passionate. The topic you pick should be informative and profitable to your targeted audience. You should try listing out the topic and eliminating the less-interesting one. You can also look for some inspiration from your competitors. Make sure the topic you pick is something you expertise in and can offer some useful insights to your readers. Decide what niche you want to target, gather requirements of your audiences, and decide the topic that meets the set of requirements. If your Ebook idea seems specific and useful, start working on it. You can also tweet out a question to your audience and you will be surprised by the possibilities to choose from.

       Step 2: Create a layout

There is no ‘right’ way to layout the roadmap for your Ebook. However, here are some tips for you to create a layout for your Ebook that can help to not create chaos while writing your Ebook. One or more of following might work well for you-

  • Start with a mind map by writing the topic or Ebook title in the center, followed by further ideas, connected by arrows and pointers. Put everything  down, big or small, and refine the entire thing later.
  • Work backwards by starting at the end. Create the format first by putting up title, headers and other things to create a rough idea of how you want your Ebook to look in the end. Then start working on what you want to do before that and so on.
  • Take inspiration from other Ebooks and note down the ideas and trending stuff like a quotation in the beginning, a mid-way example, a practical exercise at the end, some CTAs here and there, and so much more.

        Step 3: Craft a Title

This part is going to be crucial. Your title is what’s going to sell your Ebook. The Ebook market is a competitive one. Therefore, make sure you draft a title that stands out. If you are going with an unattractive title like ‘5 great movies to watch’, it is unlikely to make any exceptional imprint. However, going for something like ‘5 must watch before you settle for your life’ is definitely going to make people curious. It particularly targets people aging 20-40 who are thinking about settling down or at least looking for opportunities to settle down. There is no way to accurately measure the profit made by a creative title but it does make a huge difference.

        Step 4: Start writing ebook

Now the actual work starts. As mentioned before, this is a competitive market and your exceptional content and useful insights are the way to the ultimate success of your Ebook. Write well-researched and unique content. Start with an introduction, offer descriptive information in the main body, and wrap it up with a clear and non-diplomatic conclusion. Lastly, don’t forget the ‘About Author’ page, applicable ‘copyright information’ and ‘table of contents.’ Create a title that makes a promise about what they will get and live up to the promise you made by offering useful and unique content.

          Step 5: Format your Ebook

No matter which text-editor you use for writing your Ebook, save your work in the PDF format. Converting the word file into PDF format can be troublesome and can end up messing up the entire outline of your Ebook. If you want to avoid the cost of hiring an expensive designer, start saving up your work after one or two lines. It will avoid losing the hard work you’ve done so far. For printing convenient, format your Ebook to a standard 8 1/2″ x 11″ page.

          Step 6: Proof-read and edit

You don’t want your readers to spot grammatical or spelling errors. Therefore, proofread your Ebook at least 2-3 times before publishing it. I would personally recommend you to edit your Ebook at least a couple times before finalizing the final look. Keep making edits unless it becomes impossible to make anymore edits. You want to offer an almost-perfect Ebook to your readers without any spelling or grammatical error. Even the smallest of mistakes can make the reader feel that the author was sloppy or that the content itself may be inaccurate.

          Step 7: Design the cover of Ebook

Hard to swallow pill: Many readers do judge a book by its cover. After you finish writing your Ebook, you need to produce an attractive cover design. You want to design a professional cover that says unique and well-researched content inside. Even the less-than-professional cover design can become the reason for not reaching your audience. You can hire a professional designer or design your cover yourself online. You can design free and paid cover designs on Canva. I’d recommend you to get a premium cover template because there are chances that a free one is already being used by others and seen by your readers already. A unique cover is required to make the impression of unique content.

 

 

After writing ebook – Marketing and selling an Ebook

          1. Assess your targeted audience

Don’t try to sell your eBook to everyone. If you want to make a difference with your Ebook, just sell to the people who are looking for it. Focus on a smaller subset of people and customize your marketing approach around them. For instance, if your Ebook is about website designing, there is no point in approaching medical students. Therefore, look for the places you can approach website designers, like LinkedIn or designing blog sites and promote your product in the right place instead of all the places.

         2. Competitive pricing

Considering it is your first Ebook, go for a competitive price. Try to save the costs wherever you can and keep the pricing as low as possible. You are going to make bare profit from this one. However, if it succeeds, you can start charging more, later. One great marketing strategy is to sell your Ebook for less than a dollar, which can shoot up the number of sales and reviews on your product, making it under the list of best sellers, ultimately increasing the potential for word-of-mouth marketing.

         3. Craft an attention-grabbing landing page

If you are advertising your Ebook, you need to create an attention-grabbing landing page. A successful landing page should be professional and obvious enough to convert the lead into sales. It should be highly focused on the product itself, so that the visitor doesn’t have to look for it. It should be highly targeted by offering all the information your visitor needs to get the Ebook with clear and specific instructions on how to purchase the Ebook.

         4. Online marketing efforts

There are various ways to market and sell your Ebook. Here is a list of widely used and most effective online marketing approaches to sell your Ebook-

  • Start your own blog

Start your own blog, post consistent blog articles, build a stable audience, and launch your Ebook on your blog site. If you don’t already have a blog site already, learn how to start a blog here. This article explains the step-by-step process of starting a blog to make it easier for you.

  • Social media platforms

Take advantage of your social media presence. Promote your Ebook on various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, and others. I’d recommend you to shift your focus to two or three platforms only. Assess where your targeted audience is and promote your product there.

  • Word-of-mouth marketing

Contact your friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, and offer them a free copy of your Ebook and ask them to spread the word in return. Encourage your visitors and customers to review your work by sending them an email asking them to rate your work after they make the purchase. This is a great strategy, which can help you reach out to potential buyers through the people they already trust and word-of-mouth is a pretty great marketing strategy.

  • SEO practices

To reach more potential buyers, you want to be more visible. There are some pretty great SEO practices that can help you rank higher on the search engines to make you visible to more users. Try these SEO practices-

  • Research keywords and use keywords in the title
  • Use keywords in the permalinks(URL) of the landing page
  • Add meta titles, meta tags, and meta description

          5. Assess the best places to sell your Ebook

Some of the most popular places to sell your Ebook are-

  • Free Ebooks: On this platform you can’t sell your Ebook but you can ask for donations from your readers. The donated money will be directly deposited in your linked PayPal account. It is a great way to start and you can get some pretty generous donations if your readers like what they read.
  • Craigslist: Create a list here and link back to your website or landing page easy and for free. Not the best, but a pretty great platform to sell your Ebook. Although you can only list the city you live in, it can still increase your sales significantly.
  • PayLoads: It doesn’t only offer you a platform to sell your Ebook but also offers useful tips on subject matter, marketing, pricing, and more. You can create a basic account for $14.95 a month and a transaction fee of $0.05 to 4-9% of selling price, for every purchase.
  • Amazon: Undoubtedly, the most popular and widely used platform for selling Ebooks. Moreover, with Kindle Direct Publication, you also have the option of self-publishing your Ebook on the Amazon Kindle store. You will be eligible for 70% of the royalties from your sales and your book will be available for sale on all Amazon and Kindle stores.

How to write ebook – conclusion

Whether you are writing Ebook to make money or promote your blog, it is always a good idea, as long as you do it right. After reading this article, at least you are familiar with the basics. In case you find yourself staring at the screen and not knowing what to do, please comment below. I’d love to answer your queries, offer some tips, and share my personal experience with you. In case if you’ve got any tips of your own, feel free to share in the comment section below.