9 Steps How to Write an eBook That Will Sell

If you are yet to be an author, in this post we will dive into how to write an eBook that will sell.

It is no longer news that many authors are self-publishing their books in recent years, according to BOWLER report, it revealed that as at 2018 Self-Publishing Grew by 40 percent and it has continued to since then.

The era of huge book stores are gone, who would have taught that a company like BORDERS which was a huge book store that existed for over 40 years will eventually pipe down as a result of the disruption of the industry by technology (eBook) and other that stores like Banes and Nobles too will be struggling with the trend.

So, what does this tell you? It simply says that the industry is now open to anyone that has the willingness and drive to come in and make a killing without the hassles of the big publishing houses with their sometimes very difficult contract (that’s if they even believe your idea is worth their time and money).

The eBook technology has been a game changer for the rest of us, because we can now conceptualize an idea and go on to write an eBook quickly and hit the market to make money fast.

In this post I have tried to detail in quick steps how you too can write an eBook easily.

Having an eBook positions you as an authority in a particular space and this definitely will open up other opportunities for you as a business person, this is not to even to talk about the financial gains (I will talk about that in another post).

To write an eBook like any other worthy endeavor, it might be a little tasking for some people but it will not be difficult for those who are already used to writing or journaling, because they would have already developed a creative mental muscle in that regards already.

So, without further delays let’s get going:

Pick a niche to write an eBook on

Picking a niche is not just for writing an eBook but also for doing a lot of things, and this is so because it is very important to decide on what you are going to focus your energy on.

No wonder the British Defense Doctrine states that the number one in the principles of war is “selection and maintenance of aim” (and no I’m not a British army).

What this says is that you must be clear from the get go on what area you are going to channel your energy to and also very crucial is the fact that you have to maintain your decision so that you can be more effective and ultimately achieve success.

2. Decide on the topic to write an eBook on

The decision of what topic you are going to talk about is a very important one, because this will in a large way affect your authenticity, drive and extent of your ability to play around facts and figures.

If you decide to write an eBook about something you don’t know much about, you will find out when you start that you will be getting into what is popularly known as “writers block”.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t know about what you are writing, but rather it means that you have to think more to get the concepts and the right words that are required to craft an interesting and engaging piece.

However, if you write from a place of interest and knowingness, you may not even need to start looking around for data and clippings to support your ideas.

If you do this, you will find that you are able to articulate your message concisely in simple terms that your readers can easily digest and in no time be looking out for your next eBook.

Being authentic is the secret here, if you choose a topic that you are not very familiar with you will just end up talking about someone else’s work and not yours.

But if you are grounded in the topic then even if you learnt it from someone else you will in this case be able to adapt it to your own perspective and experience.

This will make your readers feel it is coming from you and your personal experience and you will be able to tell a great story that they will relate to.

Please, note that you don’t necessarily have to know everything about the topic you want to write an eBook about, but when you research and learn, you need to digest it enough for to be able to spew it out in a captivating manner.

3. Craft a title for your eBook

Choosing a title for your eBook is very important because it could easily be the one thing that makes or mars the success of your eBook.

You could have the best written book on a particular subject matter, but if the title of the book doesn’t compel the reader to want to read it, sorry your book might not do well in sales.

It is important that when you are deciding on a title for your eBook that you craft one that is inviting.

A title that could spark a bit of uncertainty (curiosity inspiring) in the mind of whoever that sees it, so that they become eager to read it to confirm their doubts or get more clarification on the subject matter involved.

Some title examples

Let’s take the all-time classic book of Napoleon Hill: Think and Grow Rich as an example, when you first see the book title (asides from you having heard of it before from someone else).

It’s going to move you a bit because you are going to think; how is it possible for someone to just think and then become rich? (I mean I have been thinking my whole life why then am I not a billionaire yet ).

However, what the title doesn’t tell you is that it is not that you will get rich by just thinking, no, you have to act after thinking before you can get the chance of becoming rich!

But the author intentionally left out the part of acting and simply said “think and grow rich”. I mean he could have titled it Think, Act and Grow Rich.

But if he had done so I guess when you see it you are going to be like, well I already know this.

I mean who doesn’t know you have to think and then act by putting in the work and then possibly you will become rich someday (In your mind you have already analyzed the books concept and so there will be no need for you to spend any money buying it).

But since the ‘act’ part was omitted it will prick your mind to want to find out more, because averagely all humans are lazy and if they see whatever that promises good results without putting in much work like ‘taking action in this case’ then they will want to check it out.

Another example of curiosity inspiring title could be; How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie,

This is an inviting title because you will think, who doesn’t want to win great friends and also be able to have an influential status where your opinions will always matter?

Finally, a book title like; The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John M. Gottman and Nan Silver,

This kind of title is important because not only are you saying that I can help you make your marriage work.

Even if you don’t have any issues in your marriage now, at least you want to know how to continue to sustain it) but also very importantly it puts a number to what actionable things you can do!

That’s amazing because people want to be able to count what they have done, it’s a reassurance of the efforts being made and also how close they are to completion.

This is also practiced a lot in blogging that’s why posts like 11 Secrets How To Grow Social Media Following will gets more reader than just how to grow social media following.

I hope you now understand the concept of how to create great titles.

NB. The books I have mentioned are phenomenal books and I encourage you to check them out if you are yet to.

4. Write great content!

The whole point of crafting a great title is actually to get a potential buyer/reader’s foot in the door,

However, if after they have bought or read the book and they didn’t find it interesting then they will not be able to refer it someone else and they will also not bother getting any of your books again.

Remember, your strategy should be to write an eBook that will not just sell a few copies, no! The strategy should be to write an ebook that has a great impact on people enough for them to refer it to others so that you can sell more copies, have a wider reach of influence.

Then you can use the experience to write another book and repeat the process again and again.

This will eventually lead to an opportunity of being called upon as an influencer and an authority in that field where you will make money giving talks about your journey and of course continue to make money online and offline from the sales of the eBooks.

Does that sound interesting to you? If yes then you are doing well already getting the knowledge.

5. Write to inform

It is important that you aim to show the reader something that they might not have known before picking up your book or at least they have not heard it the way you will say it.

This brings up the personality touch, you have to add a bit of your personality to whatever you write so as to create a difference with whatever that might already be in the market. you can achieve this through the following ways;

Write from a point of understanding:

This will help you in the long run because you will find that you will have minimal to no “writers block” as the knowledge is already sitting in your head and all you have to do is to put pen on paper or punch your keyboard endlessly until you are satisfied with your output.

Begin with the end in mind:

When you write, know what you want the reader to take away from the book, what mindset do you want them to have after reading your book?

If you have this information it will go a long way in helping you to shape your language and concept of how to structure the book so that you may in the end achieve the desired goals of the book.

Structure your writing:

Use a structured system when writing your eBook, I can’t emphasize enough how this will help you in the long run in getting your eBooks written with ease.

Remember I talked about writing many more books after the first one and this is simply the concept of having a template or a pattern that you will follow to help you determine what you should talk about next and what you should talk about not at all.

Because not everything you know sometimes will be relevant for a particular subject, it could be for something else in another book that you will write later.

Never force your ideas:

It may happen that at some point that you may just feel overwhelmed and not know what to write about or not have the motivation to write something good, don’t force it but rather let time be your friend.

You need to understand that you don’t necessarily have to finish writing a book in just one sitting, a lot of authors have done that but many more have taking longer periods to complete their works, some even more than a year.

But if you are working based on the above listed strategy then maybe you just need to rest and come back after a day or couple of days or maybe change the environment to somewhere conducive or inspiring enough.

Write when and where you are comfortable:

If your environment is not supportive it can have an enormous impact on your thinking mind and thus affect the rate at which your brain formulates ideas and also it can affect your physical disposition to write properly.

So, do yourself some good by making sure that you are comfortable and that the environment is conducive whenever you decide to write.

Put a time to it:

Giving yourself a deadline can be important sometimes if you are willing to work with by it. Having a deadline is capable of increasing your chances of finishing the book on time, because procrastination is dangerous.

There is this thing about putting a timeframe to your work, because it helps you monitor your progress and we know that what you don’t monitor you can’t measure, so it makes sense to time your work so that you can monitor it and measure your achievements over a certain period.

6. Format your eBook

Reading an eBook that is not properly formatted is not usually interesting, so it is advisable that you get your eBook is well formatted and this also applies to hardcover.

If your book is well formatted then readability will be good and that will encourage the reader to read more and most likely finish the book.

This also is related to the structure that I talked about earlier, but in this case, you have to decide on the type of font i.e. Verdana or Ariel are popular ones you could use and when it comes to size; 12 or 14 is also a good size to work with but this will also be dependent on the font you choose to make use of.

Whatever font you decide to use, just make sure it is readable, because most of the readers these days make use of their mobile phones or tablets to read eBooks.

Use images:

If you think that the message you want to pass across will be easily understood with the help of an image, then by all means use it.

But if you feel you can clearly articulate your message across without an image then don’t use one. The point is not to use images because others are using, but to use it because you need to.

On the other hand, images have a way of spicing up an eBook or an article but it must be relevant or else it will despise the reader.

If for example you are writing a book to teach people how to build something, navigate a software or something else that requires visual aid then by all means use not just images but clear images.

There are lots of places where you can get great images if you need them, I like using UnSplash it is free but there are many paid ones like iStock and others

7. Proofread your eBook:

It is a good practice to always proofread your eBook before publishing it and this is not just you proofreading your work yourself, but rather giving it to someone else.

Someone that will be objective to go through it with a different eye other than yours, that way they can find some mistakes that you might have overlooked as you were busy writing and also, they will be able to tell you if your ideas are well connected to each other.

If you need an online tool that can also help you in this regard, you could try Grammarly.

8. Make an attractive Cover for your eBook

The saying ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ didn’t just become a cliché because people like the sound of it, no! It is actually something big in reality.

Everyday people pass over great books that could potentially change their life for good but they never read them. You know why? Because the cover was not well designed and so it didn’t attract them.

This is not even a case of great title per say, but rather the design of the background where the title is placed. It is always a good idea to check out designs of other eBooks in the space that you are in so as to get a better idea of what works.

But a good advice here will be to always make sure that the eBook title and background are never be the same.

In fact, the colours should have a striking contrast, this will ensure that your title stands out clearly from the background colour and also the characters should be large enough for someone to be able to read it without squinting their eyes.

However, if you need help on this you could easily give the job out to a professional designer on Fiverr to help you or make use of a free online tool like Canva.

9. Publish your eBook

Publishing your eBook literally has to do with converting it to different formats that are readable on various devices.

For instance, Amazon Kindle works with the MOBI format and Apple iBook store, Kobo and Barnes and nobles work with ePub format, while for a lot of people who don’t make use of this platforms, they can easily read it in PDF format on their devices.

So, it is better to have your eBook converted to different formats and available for everyone who wants to read.

If you need a place to easily convert your eBook to different formats you could make use of Kobo platform.

That is all for now, I hope that you find value in this post and that you are motivated enough to write your own eBook today!