Ebook Business Essentials - How To Write An Ebook The Goal-Oriented Way
View PDF | Print View
by: Anne J. Mahon
Total views: 24
Word Count: 675
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 Time: 11:34 AM
0 comments
Writing Ebooks, and books in general, is something that doesn't come easily to everybody. The truth of the matter is that authoring requires hard graft to put in enough hours each day to build up the word count. Keeping the head down working on chapters does have the potential for losing sight of the eBooks' core goal.
It is far easier to treat your eBook business like creating a tangible product (such as a car). In doing so, the 'product' should have an early prototyping phase where ideas, ideation (the creation of more ideas) and innovation (the commercializing of inventions) can be nurtured. Prototyping eBook ideas can include activities such as creating mind-maps, drawing up story line arcs, writing rough drawing storyboards (high level chapters or stages of your book), etc.
After prototyping your eBook ideas you are ready to start into the execution phase of producing and writing your eBook. The stages mentioned below are formed in such a way that the overall goal of your eBook filters down into each activity.
Spell out the book's goal.
Writing eBooks that put across a well defined goal will always prove better than a book that appears to be a mish-mash of posts/articles from your website. Set the goal(s) and stick to them.
Specify all the tasks involved in writing the book.
You could start with defining each of the chapters (finishing a chapter can be a good milestone). Add tasks for designing the book, proof-reading, research, etc. You'll know best what tasks authoring a book will involve. Define a level of effort for each job, preferably in man-days or half-day units.
Analyze the list for external dependencies (third parties) and arrange this work early on.
Planning to use a personal assist to do some research for your book? Intending interview some industry leaders to add some real world insight? Well, then you'll need to front load booking their time and add this to your list of jobs/schedule.
Add in contingency for things that may go wrong.
You'll know better than I what percentage you should give here. Once you write a couple of books you'll have a better gauge of how many days you run over (or under). Adding 10% to 20% is being prudent.
By this stage you now have a list of all the work to be done. You could use project management software to plan this out and establish the duration of all your work. Alternately, use a whiteboard with the days of the week and add post-it notes for each action to be completed. Or just keep it simple by adding the actions to your diary along with any planned holidays you wish to take (so you know to work around them).
Work the plan.
As you start to write your eBook, refer back to your planned list of jobs (on the whiteboard/diary/PM software) and track if you are on time or falling behind. Deal with setbacks/changes as they arise and use your contingency if needed.
Track major and minor milestones in a report for yourself.
A milestone report is intended 'for your eyes-only'. It is a motivational technique to show you how much progress you have made. When looking at the work ahead focus on the upcoming milestones. Consider it like climbing a mountain and aim for the next base camp. Focusing on the summit from the foothills is too daunting.
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Last thing to do is a post-mortem.
Congratulations on getting to the end. One last thing to do is a post-mortem on your plan to highlight delays, unforeseen task/issues, inaccuracies in defined level of effort and how much contingency was used. These can feed into plans for future books and help you grow your fledgling eBook business to greater heights.
About the Author
Writing your own ebooks or software and want to sell them yourself? Then read my DLGuard review online - the one-stop solution for selling digital downloads.
Rating: Not yet rated
Login to vote
