How To Create and Market Your own E-Book

The Internet presents an amazing opportunity for anyone who knows how to research and write.

Theres masses of free information on the Web - all you have to do is gather it together and package it, and you have an E-Book that people will pay for.

"But if theres so much free information on the Web, why would anyone pay for my E-Book", you may be wondering.

The answer Convenience!

Theyd rather buy your E-Book and save themselves the hours, days and weeks that you spent researching it and putting it all together.

STEP 1: Writing Your E-Book

Pick a Topic. It could be How to accept Credit Cards on the Web without having a Merchant Account. Or it could be 25 Free Resources For Getting More Traffic, or it could be about Cooking, Gardening, Dog Breeding, etc.

Write down the Title of your E-Book in the center of a blank page and circle it. If you cant think of a title yet, just write down the subject that your E-Book will be about e.g. Dog Breeding.

Then jot down 8 or 10 Basic Ordering Ideas BOIs in a radius around your E-Book title or concept.

If youre having trouble coming up with BOIs, hold in your mind the title or concept of your E-Book and then ask yourself these questions: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW and WHEN.

Now connect the Basic Ordering Ideas to the E-Book title with outward-pointing arrows, like the spokes of a wheel.

Under each BOI, draw a vertical line and against that line, jot down the sub-ideas that belong under that Basic Ordering Idea.

Now turn your Mind Map into an outline. Take the Basic Ordering Ideas from your Mind Map and order them, 1 to 10 or 1 to 8, 1 to 12 etc; These are your Chapter headings. Now take the sub-ideas and write them down under each BOI; these are your Chapter sections.

I recommend you write the text of your E-Book as a single Microsoft Word document. This allows you to get a feel for the overall structure of your E-Book, and it also makes spell-checking much easier.

STEP 2: Creating Your E-Book

Now divide your Word document into single pages; these will become the HTML pages of your E-Book.

There are well over a dozen different E-Book compilers on the market.

Here are two compilers that are free:

• SbookBuilder: http://www.jansfreeware.com/jftools.htm#sbookbuilder
• eBookIt: http://www.cottagemicro.com/ebooks/

However, if you want to make a good impression with your customers, I highly recommend that you use a commercial E-Book compiler.

Here is a list of commercial E-Book compilers:

• Activ EBook Compiler: http://www.ebookcompiler.com
• Document Publisher: http://www.fuguesoftware.com
• EBook Pro Compiler: http://www.ebookpro.com
• E-Book Publishing Wizard: http://www.successarsenal.com/
• EbookPaper: http://www.ebookpaper.com
• E-Publisher Gold: http://www.ebook-software.com
• ePublish Now: http://www.ebookgraphics.com
• FlipBrowser V. 1.0: http://www.flipbrowser.com
• ExeBook: http://www.exebook.com
• HTML2EXE: http://www.html2exe.com
• HyperMaker HTML 2000: http://www.bersoft.com
• Illuminatus v4.51: http://www.digitalworkshop.co.uk
• Infinite Ink: Blinkx Video Search