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Everything You Need To Know To Write, Publish & Sell eBooks Seamlessly

guide to write publish and distribute an ebook

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When it comes to online digital publishing, it is actually a constant struggle for authors, publishers and publishing agencies trying to make things work and launching and selling the eBooks successfully without any roadblocks. Read on to know how you can go about writing, publishing as well as distributing your eBooks effectively without any hassles and enjoy more sales.

Let us start with how you should go about writing an eBook.

How To Write An eBook

Before getting your eBook published, it is imperative that you focus on writing it well because this process would take a great deal of hard work and perseverance. Obviously, you don’t want to create an eBook that no one intends to buy. So, take your own sweet time and craft a captivating draft and perfect it by reviewing and re-reviewing it. After all, you plan to maximize your sales through this eBook, right?

Grab this opportunity to give a structure to your eBook and stipulate a deadline for rather a realistic goal achievement. Divide your eBook into divisions in the form of chapters and sections, set your targets to accomplish a section or chapter, and stick to it.

Writing might seem to be the easiest part for you, but for some, it isn’t. Whatever the case may be, you can easily accelerate the process of writing an eBook by quickly following the below-mentioned steps:

  • Start off by writing your first draft. The amount of time this will take will largely depend upon your life commitments. It might take some time – a couple of months, a year, or even more than that! Don’t fret about it! Just grab a pen and start writing!
  • After writing the first draft, try and get genuine feedback from your close ones including your family members – they are your best critiques! Do not try to mend the draft as and when you feel like it. Seek authentic and impartial views and ask around to read your draft and give bona fide responses. Dedicate around one to two weeks for this and start working on your draft based on the feedback received thereafter.
  • After getting feedback for your eBook draft, it is important that you make all the necessary editing required to transform it into a masterpiece.
  • The last but most vital step is proofreading. Make sure you read the entire eBook thoroughly before finalizing the draft for eBook publishing. Take out time to remove inaccurate facts or typographical errors if any. If need be, you can hire a professional editor to take care of it.

Once the final draft of your eBook is ready, it is time for you to publish with an online publishing platform and hit the shelves.

How To Come Up With The Perfect eBook Idea

Picking the right topic for your eBook will actually bring you one step closer to success. All your hard work and conviction will go to waste if you don’t select an exceptional eBook topic.

Creating an eBook takes a great deal of time and effort. If done the right way, it can boost engagement and sales. So, how can you come up with a perfect idea for your eBook? Here are some of the essential things you must do:

  • Ask or observe what your audience is actually looking for. To be sure, you can also write a promotional email on the topic you intend to choose and see the responses.
  • Research and come up with a collection of high-performing content topics that you can choose from.
  • Conduct extensive research on your top 10 competitors and find out which ones are using eBooks in their content strategy. Keep an eye on what topics they have used and how they approach the audience.

By doing all this, you can actually decide on a rather impactful eBook topic and leverage it for gaining more traffic as well as revenue.

How To Publish, Launch and Distribute Your First eBook

publish and distribute an ebook

Although there is no right way to do it, even then, you should be aware of the entire process before taking that path.

Without any delay, let us walk you through the process of publishing, launching, and selling your first eBook. But first, let me share the process in brief:

How To Publish Your eBook

Once you are done writing your eBook, it is time for you to publish it. So here a few steps that you should follow:

1. Formatting

The first and foremost thing that you need to do is format your eBook. You would have edited and proofread the eBook while writing, but that isn’t sufficient. In this step, you will have to create an easy-to-understand document template and bring consistency to the whole eBook by synchronizing the styles and fonts. For instance, you may want to use Monotype Corsiva font and a ‘Bold’ style for headings, Times New Roman for the main content, and so on.

You can frequently use your pre-defined styles and reduce the overall formatting job significantly. Decide on a file type you wish to use for your eBook or get it converted into your desired format later on. For example, if you intend to convert pdf eBook to ePUB, you can definitely do that later. Opt for professional content conversion services to get the digital content conversion done the right way. Also, the best part is that you can always update your digital content as and when you intend to.

2. Designing An eBook Cover

It would be wrong to say that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Everybody does, all the time! Though you don’t have to be a Picasso for that. You can easily design something captivating by following a few guidelines on the layout, size of the cover. Make the cover eye-catchy, yet easy-to-read. Take a cue from the best-selling eBooks that are already there in the market. If you find it difficult to do it yourself, there are many eBook publishing companies offering eBook cover designing services you can opt for.

3. Adding relevant details of your eBook

There are a few things that you need to add before releasing your eBook. These include:

  • Author’s name
  • Title of your eBook
  • Name of the publisher
  • Price
  • Rights
  • Language in which your eBook is written
  • An engaging description
  • Adult content disclaimer
  • Category your eBook falls in like fiction, non-fiction (be specific)
  • Keywords

4. Deciding on a publishing date for your eBook

Choose a publication date for your eBook and plan all the things accordingly. Some publishing platforms will allow you to pick a month well in advance. You can leverage that time to create a buzz about your eBook before it is actually launched. After all, online book publishing is a rather seamless task if done the right way.

5. The final step

Hit the ‘Publish’ button once you are ready to make your eBook live!

There are many self-publishing platforms like OneRead that offer an immersive reading experience to the audience by creating engaging and interactive content for eBooks and rendering a white label feature for building a unique brand identity. So, rather than going to different publishers and not wasting much of your precious time, you can directly go to such platforms and publish your eBooks yourself at any point of time.

How To Launch Your eBook

Here’s a handy to-do list for you to carry out the launch of your eBook the right way:

  • Create a buzz: Let everyone know that you are on the verge of launching an eBook. Create an email list and blow the trumpet. Announce on social media channels and let your audience know about it!
  • Give early bird offers: Another job you have to do before launching is to generate interest by offering an early bird offer to your potential audience. It does help!
  • Spread the news through shoutouts: If you have any blogging friends, you can definitely ask them for a favor. They can give you shoutouts and post about your eBook in their stories and posts for maximum reach.
  • Engage the reader base with compelling emails: You can use exciting themes to attract readers to your emails, and consequently your ready-to-be-launched eBook.
  • Boost engagement through social media: Post on your social media channels on a regular basis. For better reach, you can also try Instagram and Facebook Live, and host a free webinar for the audience as well.

How to Sell Or Distribute Your eBook

How can you sell or market your eBook effectively? Here are a few things you can do:

  • Set up your own website
  • Enter into competitions
  • Host a Q&A session with your potential readers
  • Get in touch with schools or libraries for eBook pertaining to kids
  • Connect with some popular online book clubs

Your marketing campaign should start at least a month prior to the launch. Make sure you leverage that time to the fullest. Nowadays, a plethora of content distribution platforms is prevalent to create interactive content that can be accessed across multiple devices including tablet, mobile, and desktop.

You can check out this guide to choose the right ebook distribution platform

In fact, many digital content distribution companies are providing authors and publishers with their own reader app with the desired features and functionalities like offline reading, user-friendly interface, annotation tools, book download, and so on. You can opt for them too!

Wrapping Up

OneRead is a one-stop shop for all your digital publishing needs. Our experts provide effective eBook DRM security, corporate eLearning solutions, white-label publishing, and so much more. Get in touch with us at info@one-read.com to know more about our value-driven services.