You may think you don’t have a unique talent, but that’s completely wrong. And the easiest way to prove this wrong is to start writing an ebook. Any ebook. You pick the topic. It might be something you already know or just something you want to learn about. Just write it. It’s fun.
An ebook is different than a blog. It’s like a story about something you really know. Maybe your only talent is cooking. By all means, write a book about cooking. Oh, there are also 1 other million books on cooking? So what?
There is no end to human creativity and your presence on this earth is the biggest proof. You’re unique, you’re special. Even if you think you don’t have anything to offer, you have. Just think at the one thing you know to do best and start writing about it. The rest will follow.
An ebook is a very easy way to let other people know you exist and have something to offer. Something as unique as you.
How To Write An Ebook
It would be utterly unfair to write about how to write an ebook without any consistent proof that I previously did this myself. So, before unfolding this small guide, let me tell you that I wrote and published 9 ebooks so far. Two of them got translated in other languages and are currently selling on those markets too. The languages are Korean and Farsi (Persian). Taking into account that I’m Romanian and that the books are written in English, it makes for quite a head spin. But the core message here is that it’s possible. It can really happen.
So, how to write an ebook? Let’s start by acknowledging the fact that there are tons of information freely available on the internet (and at the end of this very article you’ll also find a couple of links where I’m putting together a few resources for you to learn and practice). But before embarking in such a long journey (because writing a book is a completely different beast than keeping a blog), let’s see if I can entice you to write an ebook in just 800 words. What follow may be known from now on as “the utterly incomplete, yet highly motivational guide on how and why to write an ebook”.
1. Write Daily
Set a goal and stick to it. A certain number of words per day would do it. Some people set up a certain amount of time, like half an hour, even if at the end of this half an hour all they’ll have is one word. Personally, I’m more for the number of words, like 500 a day. If this sounds like much, start lower, like 200 or 300 words. But stick to it.
And don’t evaluate until you have at least one month doing this. There is a tendency to look for immediate results which is very harmful. Nothing is happening instantly. Especially the creation of a book.
So, do this every day. Period.
2. Edit Weekly
Once you have the first habit in place, set aside some time to edit what you’ve wrote. Don’t evaluate where you go, don’t think “this is going in the right direction, or this is going in the wrong direction”. Just clean up the text.
When you write daily, don’t cut. Just go with the flow. Allow yourself to make mistakes, to forget punctuation signs. But when you edit, do it thoroughly. Be ruthless. Rewrite as much as you want.
But do it every other 7 days.
Editing and writing are two very different activities.
3. Delete Massively
Once you have a month of writing and editing, allow yourself to delete massive parts of what you have. If you don’t feel comfortable with deleting forever, just cut it out and put it aside. Make a “stash” of words.
In my experience, the first parts of the books are lousy and they are usually cut out. There is a certain number of words after which I begin to feel in the flow and write at a constant pace, with just the right amount of words. But it takes quite some time to get there. And, usually, all that I wrote until that point is pretty much useless.
So, don’t be scarce. Get rid of the garbage.
4. Get Feedback Early
If you have someone with whom you can discuss your writing, it’s great. It’s a huge gift. Use it. Get feedback and get it early. You may be so caught in your own fantasy thing that you don’t realize how good or how bad your writing is.
Having a second opinion (or more than one opinion) it’s very useful.
There is a caveat here, though. If you’re going to ask for feedback, ask the other person to focus on your writing, not on you. It’s a basic rule of giving feedback, where you evaluate the opinion, not the person.
If you don’t have somebody close to you to help you with that you can still join some writing groups. Go out and try to find somebody in your circle of friends who is part of something like this. Search for writing classes in universities and try to join them.
Feedback is very, very useful.
5. Publish. Self-Publish
And then, when you feel you’re ready, just publish. I’m not going into the technical details, which can be quite tedious, from the color of the cover, up to the ISBN number or distribution channels, but I will stress the fact that you won’t have a book until you publish it. If you’re not publishing it, you have a manuscript.
Of course, it’s a big achievement in itself too, but a book is something else. Do yourself a service and let your book float. From the moment you finished it, your book has a life of its own.
Don’t cut it out.
further reading
