How to Make $12,246 in a Day*, Part Two: Writing Your Ebook

OK, so you’ve decided that there’s a market for your ebook, that the idea is not crap, and that there is an outside chance people will pay perfectly good vodka money for it. Rock on. This post is really, really long so I’m just going to start with no smooth transition. All choppy like.

When I started writing this lesson, I realized that the result will end up being about 4000 words long. Since nobody needs 4000 words in their inbox or feed reader, I’m deliberately being as brief as possible. This means you’ll probably have questions. If so, you can ask them in the comments or you can email me. It’s probably better if you ask in the comments because if you have the question, odds are so does someone else.

I’ve split this lesson up into three parts. First is preparation. Second is a bunch of tips. Third is what to do when you’re done. Let’s rock.

1. Preparing to write your ebook.

I have been involved in writing for a really, really long time. (Interesting Naomi factoid: I started writing for pay at 12. No, they didn’t know I was 12. Yes, that violates our fine nation’s labour laws.) I’ve learned that there are some pretty basic steps involved in getting ready to write something, no matter what the length.

Start with a mind map.

Mind maps are a better way to start than outlines because outlines are linear and you’ll always forget a bunch of stuff and it’ll totally ruin your outline. Then you have to make another one and another one and it wastes a shitload of time. Ideally, your mind map should be done about two days before you plan to start writing your outline. Your outline should be done about one day before you start writing your ebook. Long enough that you can jot down the stuff you remember over the next few days, not so long that you overthink it.

If you’re not familiar with mind maps, here’s the Readers’ Digest version: Take your topic and write it in the middle of a horizontal piece of paper. (“Ebook”, for example.) You’re doing it horizontally to break the association with writing on the lines. Lines are linear. That’s why they’re called lines. Now, slap whatever crap down that comes to your head in point form. Be as messy as possible. (The more it bothers you to do this, the more important it is.)

Basically you want to write down every major and minor point you plan to include. Write little, write big, scribble, doodle, whatever. Just get it down. Yes, you will forget stuff. No, it doesn’t matter. Add it later. That’s why you’re giving yourself a few days for this step.

Turn your mind map into an outline.

When you’re pretty sure you’ve covered everything you want to cover in the mind map, it’s time to convert it into an outline. Create order from the mind map chaos by vaguely numbering the points on the map in the order in which you want them to appear in the book. (“What is a mind map?”, for example, is number one. “Outline” is number two.) When they’re all pretty much organized, put it into a numbered list. That’s your starter outline. How detailed should your outline be? Read on.

Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser”?

In the field of romance novels, about which I know a frankly embarrassing amount, there are two accepted ways of writing your novel. Plotters are meticulously detailed. Their rough outline becomes a detailed outline, and their detailed outline becomes a blueprint. Every detail of their book is organized before they start on chapter one.

Pantsers, on the other hand, fly by the seat of their pants. (I did NOT make up this term, so lay off.) They see where the wind takes them.

In fiction, you can be a total pantser and get away with it. In non-fiction, not so much. You have to have some direction or your book will suck. However, don’t let anyone tell you that you need to be uber-plotter. You don’t. Just get it in order. Know what level of planning details you’re comfortable with and just do it.

Figure out your deadlines?

This is another different-strokes-for-different-folks thing. Some people like to sit down and plan to write 3 pages a day until the book is done and they dig that kind of thing. Some people work best with, “Holy fuck, I promised three thousand people I’d release this book by Wednesday and it is now Monday.”

My only piece of advice here is to know who you are and plan accordingly. I would rather shoot myself than write a few pages a day every day. Other people would look at my writing schedule and reach for the nearest bottle of Valium from the stress of it all. Just make sure you account for your deadline personality.

Leave time for screw-ups.

You will screw it up. I have been doing stuff like this for fifteen years and I was still on IM with Harry McLeod saying, “IF I DON’T GET THIS INTO PDF BY TOMORROW MY ENTIRE PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION IS RUINED!!!!”

You’ll fuck up. It’s fine. Just give yourself a few days between estimated completion and release to smooth over the bumps. If you are one of those work-best-under-pressure types, you will totally ignore this and that’s fine. I will say “I told you so” and you will say “I know”.

E-book Writing Tips

For this section, I am going to assume you are not retarded and that you know your subject. I’m not going to waste your time telling you to research your topic. If you don’t already know that, well, you’re an idiot.

What level of expertise do your readers have? Total newbies? A little knowledge? Are they experts? The answer to this question will determine pretty much every thing you write in your ebook. Everything you put in your ebook should keep the answer to this question in mind.

Write like you speak. Pretend you’re explaining the topic to somebody in person. What words would you use? How would you phrase things? If you have trouble with the actual writing, talk into a voice recorder and transcribe it. If you’re rolling in cash, get a transcription service to do it for you.

Make your language appropriate to your audience. You think dropping a bunch of acronyms makes you sound like an expert. Everybody else thinks it makes you sound like an asshole. Explain any acronyms or technical/industry terms you use the first time you use them. If your topic is particularly technical, provide a glossary at the end, not a definition of terms at the beginning. That way people who already know the terms don’t have to scroll through it.

Mentally divide your points into interesting, important, and critical. Then tell your readers which is which. Ideally, you should have a fairly even distribution of points in each category. Too much critical and your readers get overwhelmed and exhausted. Too much interesting and they’re bored. In SEO School, I identified certain parts that readers could skip. This is a nice idea — it gives people a chance to catch their breath, and it doesn’t take up too much of their time.

Consider sidebars for asides. Sidebars and information boxes are sexy if you have the money or talent for the design elements involved. I had neither, so I didn’t use them, but they’re a nice touch and they break up the text.

Break up your text. E-books are not books. E-books are web copy. Web copy is hard on the eyes. Try to keep your paragraphs to five lines or less — more than that and people skim.

Do you need screenshots? Screenshots are insanely contentious in the ebook world. Some love, some hate. There are a few general rules to at least know about, even if you choose to break them:

- The more beginner your audience, the more they will tolerate screenshots. Desperate Buyers Only is for a fairly savvy audience, and the author assumes you know how to sign up for a forum or create an account. Super Affiliate Handbook is for total newbies, and it walks you through EVERY FUCKING STEP with half page screenshots for each.

- Within the ebook industry, screenshots are viewed as a way to pad your length. Book looks pathetically short? Add some screenshots! Be aware that this really pisses some people off. Like a lot.

- Think of the value of the shot. If you’re explaining something really detailed or technical, the shot is a nice touch. If you’re showing me the login screen for PayPal, you seem like you’re condescending or padding your content.

How long should your book be? As long as you don’t withhold vital information, you can assume that the more advanced your readers’ knowledge, the shorter the book can be. Total and absolute newbies feel more comfortable with a longer book. Experts generally go for shorter because it’s less likely you’re going to waste their time and their hard-drive space with crap they already know.

Avoid reader overwhelm. Unless you are in a field with absolutely no variations in process, you’re going to have to give some options at some point. If your readers are beginners, give as many as are necessary, but make a final recommendation for them. (i.e. “Here are a few content management systems but I recommend Wordpress and here’s why.”) If they are advanced, just lay out their options and let them figure out what they want for themselves. If there are more options than it’s reasonable to explain, direct them to a resources section at the end of your book.

Get rid of the clutter. Speaking of a resources section, in many cases, there are a lot of necessary resources that, if explained within the body of your ebook, will be bulky and interrupt the flow of the copy. This is the place for sidebars or a link to your resources page at the end. Most people will read your book from beginning to end before needing extreme detail, like where to go to sign up for something. Stick it at the end so they don’t get bogged down.

When the ebook is done.

Yay, you’re done. Well, you’re done your first draft, which is pretty awesome. What now?

Give your book to a fellow expert to read. I cannot stress enough how important it is that the fellow expert is the first real person to read your ebook. Why? Because they will tell you what you’ve left out and what you’ve screwed up. After they’re done, you’re going to have to go and fix some stuff, so do this first.

Give your book to the dumbest person you can find. Find someone who knows nothing about the topic at hand at this level. Obviously, if you’re writing an expert level book you can’t give it to a seven-year-old. The objective here is to see if they get it. Not to see if they LIKE it. To see if they GET it. See why you wanted to give it to the expert first? Because if you give it to the moron and THEN give it to the expert, you have to give it to the moron twice or you have to find another moron.

Think of future products. Your future reputation is dependent on how people feel about this product. Give this a lot of thought.

A lot of people write ebooks as cash grabs. “Hey, I’ll write an ebook and make a bunch of money!” While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, it shouldn’t show in your final product. You think you know how important this is but you don’t.

Most people think that if Product One isn’t great, the 100 people who buy it might be mildly disappointed. This is true. However, you have no way of knowing how far that information travels. I wrote a short and scathing review of Rich Jerk. Maybe you read it. Now, what’s going to happen if someone you like says, “I’m thinking of buying Rich Jerk”? You’re going to tell them not to waste their money.

I bought Rich Jerk and hated it. That’s first hand hating. I told you. That’s second hand hating. You’re telling your friend. That’s third hand hating. That’s a lot of hating.

You can make mistakes in your grammar and spelling. You can make mistakes in the order of your points. You can create a book with shitty or no graphics. You can have a few broken links. You can have a low-tech table of contents with no hyperlinks to other parts of the book. (I did this and got emails. Oh, the emails.) But people will forgive you all of these things.

Cue big ass red text.

They will NEVER forgive you for a product that is short on content.

They trusted you, you broke the trust, you lose. And I promise you, you will never even realize how much you lost. They won’t buy your products later. They won’t buy your affiliate crap. They won’t do you favors. They sure as hell won’t send you fan socks. If you take nothing else away from this series, at least take that.

If you’re all raring to go and want to get into how to make it look pretty, I’ll touch on that briefly here. Unless you have someone willing to do your graphics for free, you need eCoverGenerator and eBookGenerator. I’ll talk more about them in Other Ebook Stuff. If you decide to go there now before I talk about them later, turn your speakers down.

Tomorrow we talk about how to sell this sucker.

By Naomi Dunford - 24 Comments