To become a professional eBook writer it is not what you do matters but, it’s what you don’t do that decides whether you are about to make or break your work. I hope you’d have read my previous blog about converting your blog into an ebook. And, if you have experience as a blogger I’m sorry to disappoint you but, it has nothing to do with publishing your own eBook.
On the contrary, while publishing your own eBook you have to be a bit more substantial. And, you also have to make it a point that you shouldn’t commit any mistake. This becomes possible when you get to know what you should not do in the first place.
To put it, in a nutshell, an ebook writer who ‘doesn’t know’ what ‘he doesn’t know’ will not have a clue on how to write an ebook. And, there is no denying the fact that most of you writers are afraid to hire a ghostwriter to express your thoughts. So, this made me compile this blog. Therefore, this blog will completely focus only on what an eBook should avoid while compiling or working on his ebook.
1.Don’t try to guess what your audience needs
If you are a blogger and you are about to write your ebook then never start assuming what your reader needs? This is the common blunder committed by most blogger-turned ebook writers. Most of these writers tend to believe that they are about to write that one perfect book that is going to genuinely help their followers. They would always be overconfident about this because as a
blogger they may know what their readers enjoy. Though the idea sounds great the fact is that one doesn’t know what the other actually needs. So, what you’ve sensed as an ebook writer has got more chances to become topsy turvy.
This could be avoided by working to give your audience what they know they want instead of what you think they want.
To get this done right you have to run insights and polls to ask them to decide what your eBook should be on. By doing this you would also get a perception of what they prefer and for what they would be willing to pay.
2.Don’t focus only on writing
Never start your ebook without planning. And, when I say planning it is not just about deciding what you are going to write but, what your ebook is going to focus on. So, if you focus on writing an ebook without proper planning it will for sure make it impossible for you to effectively present what your readers look for.
In addition to this, don’t try to ignore the crucial factor that you have not just taken up the task of writing but marketing too.
You’d neither sell your ebooks nor the concept to your readers if you fail to plan your writing and marketing strategy beforehand. This could be avoided when you have pre-planned to make both the content and the way it is presented attractive and also other ways to promote your ebook once it gets published.
3.DOn’t quIT!
Let us assume that you have been working on your eBook for weeks and months. Yet, you may feel that you haven’t made the progress you hoped to make. This is when as an ebook writer you need to be clear of the reality that it is quite normal for every writer to run into writer’s block. What is not right in deciding to drop the entire process of writing when you haven’t even reached halfway through your plot. Instead, it is the exact moment when you have to force and push yourself until everything falls in its place. So, when you lack that motivation and tend to give up writing your ebook easily, remember the cause that made you write your ebook and the way you would end up disappointing your readers if you drop it at this point.
4.Don’t try to be the Jack of all Trades
Another blunder every book writer would do is, focus on the minor mistakes, and overlooking the major mistakes. Yet, in this case, you have to be clear about what you consider as those minor and major mistakes.
Let us say you as concentrating on the silly specifications like, chapter 3 is longer than chapter 4 or not all chapters are of the same length, etc. By micromanaging your content you will miss the things that are very important like, how the text looks, is the e-book in the preferred format, trimming the margins and the lines, etc.
And this can be easily overruled by the writer taking responsibility for the minor mistakes and transferring the responsibility out of rectifying the major mistakes to a well-trained eye. Trust me! Only a professional editor can see things far better than a writer of the text. Therefore it is always advisable to rely on a professional when you are about to get your ebook published.
5.Don’t assume you have spotlessly formatted your ebook
This is the most overlooked mistake every writer makes. Yet, this is of prime importance. As an ebook writer, you would have been for sure working with your text for more than a month. So, finding out all your mistakes and rectifying them on your own is something really tough. That mistake may be either big or small but, it is not easy to handle it all by yourself. It’s obvious to overlook a misplaced apostrophe or a comma.
Especially this happens with nearly all of the budding eBook book writers. So, understand the importance of formatting your text. It is unavoidable and you have to get it done to make your readers understand what you are trying to say. Even though if you are sure that you have done the editing to perfection, you’ve made all the changes based on the suggestions mentioned by your followers, and you are about to publish your book, every book or a book has to go through one last complete reading that is done by a fresh pair of eyes.
6.Don’t take up the task of designing your ebook’s cover.
This is another silly mistake only an ebook writer would commit. And, every writer of a print book luckily will escape from making this mistake. It is, designing your own cover. In ebook writing designing your own cover is something that the book writer should never carry out on his own.
Many ebook writers go by the phrase, don’t judge the book by its cover which would never apply to an ebook. If you are not a professional designer creating your own ebook cover will be the biggest damage you could cause to your ebook. Without a doubt, your ebook will look amateurish and your readers would never feel like pulling it into the cart.
Asides from this, if this is your first ebook and you are planning to sell it through Amazon, then absolutely your cover matters the most. The reason is quite logical as most of the new readers wouldn’t know who you are. So, in such cases, it is the cover of your book that speaks. Therefore, it is high time you hire an illustrator or a professional designer with years of experience in this field to get your eBook’s cover done fantabulously to attract more readers.
Finally! having given enough insights into the most often committed mistakes while compiling your ebook. Hope you would now be aware of the mistakes that would trip you up on the process of publishing your first eBook. So, I’m sure that you’ve gained that confidence and will avoid making these mistakes.
Of the few mistakes I’ve mentioned above, there is one that tops above. That is, not even trying or telling yourself that you will write an ebook sometime in the future.
It is not the mistakes you make but it is not knowing what mistake you would make that matters. And, to know what mistake you would make you have to start doing things instead of dreaming about them. Undoubtedly, in just a month or two, you can easily complete the ebook you have begun but, if you’ve not started it then, your eBook will be something that exists only in your imagination and only you can see it no one else.
Thus, as Walt Disney once said, stop dreaming and start doing! My best wishes on your upcoming new venture as a budding writer.