ACE Inspire

What is the biggest problem most people experience when planning to write an
eBook? It isn’t wrangling with the technical logistics of getting your eBook
up online: there are plenty of step by step guides to help with that. No,
the most common problem for potential eBook authors is how to get the right
words on the right topic on the page in the first place. Read on for author
Antonia Chitty’s tips on turning your ideas and expertise in a book that
will sell.

Writing an eBook can seem impossibly difficult if you are more used to
making business decisions, but approach writing your book like you work on
your business and you’ll find it is easier than you think. Here are my five
steps to help you ensure that your eBook is packed with great content that
hits the spot for your clients, solves their problems and will sell.

1. Pick your problem.
When planning your eBook, if you want it to sell, don’t just rely on your
own intuition as to what subjects to cover. Instead, note down all the
questions your clients ask you, then go out and do even more research,
asking people what they need to know in your area of expertise. The clearer
you are that there is a need for yr eBook the more likely it is to sell. The
more focused your eBook is on clients real life questions, the more sales
you will make.

2. Focus your content.
Once you have a clear idea of the questions that your clients are asking,
make a list. Note down which questions come up most often, and whether any
cover similar issues. Group your questions to address in your eBook, then
pick just one group of questions to answer. Don’t attempt to cover
everything you know in your first eBook. Your clients won’t thank you for
it: people are looking for clear focussed solutions to specific problems,
not lengthy books where it is hard to find the information that they need.
What’s more, if you are writing your eBook as a business venture, you’ll
find it much more profitable to create a series of affordable short guides
that you can issue every few months and keep people coming back for more,
than trying to sell one ‘great work’ for the rest of your career.

3. Where’s the pain?
Before you start writing, I want you to look at those groups of questions
again. Alongside considering which questions come up more frequently, you
also need to think about how pressing each set of problems is for your
potential readers. Pick problems with a low level of pain, and you won’t
make many sales. Select issues that are causing real and significant pain
for people and you are much more likely to sel your eBook in big numbers.
Consider what people really need in life: happiness and health. Will your
eBook help them become happier or healthier? Will it help them make more
money, which is a goal in itself but also gives people the freedom they want
to achieve their goals. Can you show someone the shortcuts to create more
time to do the things they love? Consider the problems and pain people are
facing, consider the big benefits your eBook can bring, and pick your topic
accordingly.

4. Check your niche.
We’re nearly there now! If you have followed the steps in this article you
should be much closer to finding the perfect topic for your eBook, one that
will make really good sales when you launch, and go on selling! But, before
you put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, do one further check. You
wouldn’t launch a business if there was an identical enterprise already set
up next door, would you? So, take a couple of hours to look for other books,
eBooks and training materials on the same topic as you are considering.
Look at the strengths and weaknesses of potential competitors and test your
eBook ideas against them. How can you make your book more relevant to
readers, more attractive, and more marketable? At this stage if you find
that there is a killer eBook out there already, buy it, learn from it, and
go back to the beginning of the process. You’ll be armed with more knowledge
of both your topic and what the market wants. If you can’t find anything
that competes with your eBook idea, you are ready to go on to the final
step.

5. Create your plan.
This step is one that will make it so much easier for you to write your
book. Take the questions you want to address, and break them down into
different areas that you can write on. Then break each topic down into sub
topics. Keep on doing this until you have a list of all the possible ideas
that you could address. You might want to do this like a mind map or spider
chart. Why does this make it so much easier to write your book? Once you
have broken your bok down into sections and subsections, you will only need
to write a few hundred words on each part. You can build up your eBook
section by section. You can write for half an hour or an hour each day,
addressing one section at a time, but with a clear overall vision and
direction. You will also be able to work out just how long it will take you
to create your eBook. You might need to write 25 short sections of a few
hundred words, writing one section every working day, and know that you’ll
have the first draft of your book in 5 weeks.

I hope that this has made it much easier for you to find the perfect topic
for your first eBook, and take the first steps to writing it.

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