Creating an Ebook

An ebook is in essence a real, bookstore-style book, presented in PDF format. In the print world, writers often take months to create a book for sale, more months editing it, and then charge a mere $4 per book at the bookstore. The writer usually only makes 20-30 cents per sale, after the book store, printer, publisher, etc. take their cut.

You need to put in that same effort in order to charge money for a version that doesn´t even include paper and cover. Not only does your visitor have to pay for your ebook, but if they want a printed copy THEY have to pay for their own paper, ink and power to create the printed version. So it costs them even more. You have to justify this higher price with quality content in an easy to use format.

PDF files contain information in an easy to read, easy to use and easy to print format. Unlike web pages, PDF files can be easily printed, read off-line, carried around on PDAs. Even so, visitors can often easily find this same information for free elsewhere on the web. You need to ensure that your works are of the highest quality in order to justify asking for money for this content.

Ebooks are not "quick and easy". You should expect to spend several weeks (at least) on creating an ebook. This might include taking online courses on book writing skills, image design and PDF manipulation. An alternative to courses is to buy how-to books on these topics. These skills are not necessarily easy things to learn - but that is why you are asking your visitors to pay you for the results of your efforts.

Your ebook should be just as perfect in spelling, grammar and format as books in the store.

When I was starting out writing ebooks I picked out a book from my bookshelf that was easy to navigate and used that as my model.

I provide a step by step course on BellaOnline for our editors on how to create and sell an Ebook, but I don't have that available for the general public right now. The real key is to write a "real" book - and to use your Word or other software program to save that as a PDF. You want that same high level of quality.

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