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What's involved in eBook writing?
Time; time to think, to plan and to write. I have recently started to write, not one, but two such books. I believe I need twelve to fifteen thousand words per book, enough to keep a reader interested during a lunch break or similar time period. Why two at one time?
I have found writing articles, ranging between five and eight hundred words fairly easy now. An idea, or news item, maybe even an observation, enough to get the thoughts flowing. I seek first a good title, one that describes my idea, and from there my brain takes over. If called to lunch, the phone or I'm interrupted, I can leave the article where it is, even if in mid-sentence. The title and a quick read is enough to start where I had left off.
However, eBook writing, totally different, you need a good title, one that will attract attention of a potential buyer, then a start, something that immediately grabs the reader. A middle, the body of the book, the meat of the meal, the real reason the person buys the book, and then the end, bringing closure to the body of the book, either in such a way as to attract a reader to a follow-up book, or to close the eBook knowing that the subject has reached a conclusion.
Time to think!
You have to make time to think about your construction of the book, the points you wish to make. Make notes about the subject, research your facts, think about what has attracted you to it, a lack of passion for the subject will result in a failure. Be correct in the ideas and statements your to make, people unsure will do further research and credibility lost if yours don't stand up to inspection. So think before you write the author's name is yours.
Time to plan!
This is the make or break time of your eBook. The notes you've made now need sorting, what goes where? The structure of your start, middle and end, need final planning. This is the time to inspect your subject and notes and to plan the book in your mind. How to lead the reader, to encompass them in the body and how to let them down at the end. Planning the most important, if there is too little content at planning, the result a too short book, no amount of filling will help when you discover you're two thousand words short. An article that is ten percent short, needs but forty words, an eBook equivalent will need fifteen hundred words. To amble through fifteen hundred words written as fillers, will make sure you lose the reader as well as future sales.
Time to write!
Getting started, the first line, the hook baited with the worm, the punch line attractor, what to write? If this question your beginning, then rather start in the middle or the end, and return to the beginning. The other areas may help develop the start, the core flows with ease, in a direction you intended, whilst writing, the beginning may develop in a different way to how you planned. There is no rule saying you must begin with the first word, first line or chapter. Many writers, when asked how they write their books, will tell you they have written the body text as well as the end before the lead in, or start, develops.
Making time to write requires a discipline more definitive than articles, once begun you cannot stop, and return, articles need thinking ahead, but only for the following few sentences. Book writing needs you to think a few chapters ahead, the flow of the story depends on this, constant stop and start can, and likely will, destroy a good story.
Is it for you? Is it for me? I'm not sure, but to answer the question, why two at one time? I find that I can easily lose concentration, and writers block sets in. Take a walk they say, clear your head, relax and think of something else. Easily recommended, not easy to follow, what I find is that I can keep my mind concentrating so much easier if I jump from one to the other. Sounds like double Dutch, but it works for me.
Have managed to find a very useful tool for aiding in writing eBook s, something I need in any case called freemind, I have written an article about it hope it is approved today.
I think each and everyone has a book inside of them somewhere, its the discipline and dedication of getting it out and on paper that is the difficulty. I have started so many and never completed one in the distant pass, I'm talking before computers, but with these aids and there capability to store has made it easier. For years I walked around with a file containing a book I had been working on, and in a drunken rage at some time of self doubt I tossed it into a fire. Years of work and research gone in a flash. it was no good in any case but a lot of work had gone into it. Today I feel right and ready to write and that is my reason for trying. If i complete the task and never sell a single copy, yet happy with the result, I will have a sense of achievement.
Good article! My husband, Thomas L. Townsend II, has now published two books--United Earth: The Revelation, and The Harvest.
Hi Hollie, a seasoned writer is he, and how are sales going? Is he marketing himself or using an agent?
I'm working on one too. Is yours fiction or non fiction? A habit I've borrowed from my designing days is, I like to make vignettes. In my work as a designer, it's visual vignettes. When writing, of course it's words and ideas. When I get enough interesting vignettes together, I develop them and weave them into a long article, book, or a design for textiles. It seems to work for me. I look forward to reading your eBooks.
I have one going on our trips to the Park that is getting maybe too long, but it is a combination of shorter pieces, with a lot more of my own photos. The other is a comical look at what a Green Keeper is up to, for golfers. During my career I was stopped by so many with the question "What the hell are you doing and why" so it is a factual with humour for a golfer hoping he will understand the goings on better.
Are you going to test them as digital first, then do a hard cover bound? The one about the park with all your photography sounds like a keeper and candidate for " hard bound" stardom. You can do that yourself. Doesn't cost that much. The golfing one sounds very interesting too. Golf and humor, maybe I'll learn something about golf from you.
I'm going to try digital first and a limited print hard copy, trying to convince my son-in-law to add photos to the book, already partners in the computer program his company is encoding for me, so a book together just another extension of the business. Been looking at cost for a self print not that bad, the problem will be the marketing which we will in any case be doing for the program. So many options, the golfing one goes with the program as it is for use on Golf Courses, the Park is slightly off line, from that but learning all about marketing web sites links and back links etc.
Thanks for this article Rob. Writing an ebook is on my mind every day and I don't know what I REALLY want to say yet. Need time and space to consolidate where I'm at maybe?? I liked your idea and experience that is so helpful. I hear what you say about knowing where you're going and not coming up short! Expect ideas to be bounced off you in the future... ;-)
No problem Heather, hope I can be of help, done so much research yet wonder if any the wiser.
Do you write in word as your base Rob? That's where I do my articles. I'm a member of create space too but haven't looked into it further. Maybe I should take my questions to FB...
I write in word and convert to PDF, I am looking into purchasing a program that covers all necessary tools for self marketing and selling, I am still not sure in what direction I intend to go. either to sell through commission based institutions or self marketing.
How about "From Here to There" or "Between Here and There" :-) So often you talk about what the plans were and where you were going and what happened on the way... Then I link over to the Park website and try to find the map and the landmarks you mention. When you mention a time locator, I try to put it in sequence with other of your articles (ie. "my son and his wife" and I don't even know what your book is about... and I am throughing in my 2 cents worth.
Thanks Dear, with you all the way. My time lines come and go as the mood grabs me. My eBook on the Park is based on a time line of 20 + years, and that, I am trying to follow, the kids keep reminding me of incidents that occurred that almost cause a rewrite. So my stories of the park come and go as I share tit-bits to tickle the fancy of others. The other eBook is for golfers to, in a funny way, understand what their Green Keeper is up to and why, far easier to write with no time line. Hope I'm not too confusing in my articles Sorry if I am.
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