Lessons I Learned From Writing My First Ebook
Introduction
Now that I've published my first ebook and it's started getting some downloads, I wanted to share some lessons I learned as I went through the process of writing this first ebook. If you haven't written your first ebook yet, I hope you'll keep these things in mind as you start writing your first ebook.
Make it a priority
If you're determined to write an ebook, you need to set aside time to actually work on the process. If you work full t ime, this means you may have to get early or stay up late so you can put in a little time on your ebook. I often got up at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning so I could work on writing or researching my ebook , or doing other things related to my ebook.
Have a to-do list
I always try to make a to-do list of what I want to accomplish on my ebook for the day - that could be writing or outlining a chapter, researching a chapter, brainstorming ideas, or anything else that I need to do that's related to my ebook. Then I would at least try to make a dent in those tasks during the time I set aside for writing.
Don't be afraid to ask for help
Don't be afraid to ask for help - If your goal is not only to write an ebook, but actually make money off of it, there's a lot more to the process of writing an ebook than just writing it. You also have to design a book cover and find ways to market your ebook. Not everyone knows how to do all these things well though, nor do they have the time to do it, so it's ok to enlist the help of others you might know. When I was writing my ebook, I asked a friend of mine if she could use her graphic design skills to modify a graphic that I had downloaded and was considering using in my ebook cover. I also had people help me with editing my ebook as well as my ebook description, and putting the ebook description into the proper format so it would look good on my book's sales page.
If you don't already have one, build a following while you're working on your ebook
When I first started writing my ebook back in 2012, I did have a little bit of a following because I had been a contributing writer on Work at Home Adventures for a little over a year at that time, but I also decided to start a free blog on wordpress.com so I could let people know about the progress I was making on my ebook. Later when I had the money, I converted the free blog to a self-hosted website on Wordpress.org.
Write as much as you can about your ebook's subject so you can get the word out about your ebook
You can write guest posts for blogs about your ebook's subject, or even write articles for sites like Hubpages and Yahoo Contributor Network. If you have a blog or website, be sure to mention it in your article or blog post.
Get the word out about the articles you write
You can do this by connecting with others on the sites you write on, and you can also share your articles on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Create a mailing list that people can sign up for
If you want to let people know when your ebook is published, or when you're running a free promo, in addition to posting on social networks you'll want to create a mailing list. Mailchimp is great for this. You can sign up for a free account and you'll be able to send 12,000 emails a month to a list of 2,000 subscribers. If your list ends up being larger than that, you may want to consider upgrading to a paid account. Once you create a mailing list, you can copy and paste the code for the mailing list widget right into your Wordpress website, or post a link on different social networking sites.
