How to Create and Write Your Business’s First E-Book

How to create your first e-book

Ready to author your first e-book? Follow the steps below.

1. Research your target market.

How well do you know your audience? Research your target market so you can create content suited to their needs. It’s important to gather ample information about your target readers to ensure your e-book is relevant to their interests. If you write about a topic that doesn’t matter to your audience, you won’t get people to read it and thus won’t reach your objectives.

When you’re researching your target audience, it’s crucial to create customer personas that give you the necessary information about your readers. These buyer profiles will help you create an e-book that collects email addresses and builds a loyal following. Include details such as demographics, purchasing behaviors, income, education and pain points. Every piece of information helps to create an e-book that caters to your customers.

Social media helps you connect with your target audience. Search relevant, industry-related hashtags, and create a list of phrases and questions users have. If they overlap, you’ll know those topics are popular and need extra attention. [Follow this step-by-step guide to social media marketing to help your business grow.]

2. Pick a relevant topic.

There are likely multiple topics your audience wants to learn more about, but your e-book needs to focus on only one theme. When you concentrate on one subject, you can provide more in-depth information.

Half the struggle is figuring out your market’s problems and interests so you can create content tailored to these needs. Once you’ve done your research, it will not be difficult to pick a topic that’s relevant to your audience.

Ask yourself the following:

• What do I want readers to learn from this?
• How can I help them accomplish this goal?

When you keep your goals in mind, it’s easier to come up with ideas. “If you’re just starting to write an e-book, get crystal clear on the book’s purpose and audience,” said Annie Cole, founder of Money Essentials for Women and an e-book author. “Do you hope to sell a lot of books, or use the books to do a tour of events? Do you want publicity, more leads, more credibility? Know what you’re trying to get out of writing a book.”

Research popular search keywords your audience uses. In addition, ask your existing customers what they’d like to learn more about. If they’re on your email list, they’re more likely to respond because they’re already familiar with your brand and its content. If not, set up a survey or form on your website to ask users what they would like to see next. [Learn about the many ways you can build an online presence.]

3. Create an outline.

Before you dive in headfirst, create a framework for your e-book that details each chapter and how you’ll provide information under each subtopic. Planning saves you time, money and resources because you’ll know what you need to focus on before you begin. It also gives you a clear look at the e-book as a whole so you stick to the topic and refrain from repetition.

“Open a Google Doc and write down the title,” Cole said. “Then, write down a list of things you want to talk about in the book. Then, organize them into chapters.”

Jot down the main points you want to cover. From there, add subtopics for each point until you have enough to form chapters. Once you create each chapter, note what it will entail. For example, if you’re writing an e-book about how to find remote work as a freelance writer, you might indicate in one of your book’s early chapters that you need to cover all of the job boards available. In another chapter, you might outline the signs of a quality job post. 

4. Write your e-book.

Once you have an outline that makes sense and provides structure, you get to start writing. 

As you write, separate your main points into subheads within chapters so it’s easily skimmable. People don’t want to read walls of text that are difficult to scan. Make it easy for your readers by removing this obstacle. Break down your main points into several paragraphs, and use bullet points to list information.

Keep your branding in mind while writing. Your tone, voice and language should match your brand effortlessly so readers know your writing comes from you. Write with a conversational tone so the e-book is easy to understand. Avoid clumsy, wordy sentences, and use editing software such as Grammarly to refine your e-book. 

5. Design your e-book.

If you aren’t a designer or if you’re unfamiliar with how to make your e-book visually appealing, hire someone to do it. You can write high-quality content that offers valuable insights, but if it’s ill-designed or doesn’t match your branding, few people will read it. Every element of your e-book needs to speak to its quality and the effort you put into it.

If you decide to design your e-book yourself, keep these tips in mind:

• Create a visually appealing cover. The right cover adds value to your e-book and tells people it’s worth reading. A dull title page will turn people away.
• Add images. Photos and graphics make content more engaging, break up walls of text and give readers something interesting to see.
• Use legible fonts. The wrong font will cause your readers to exit the e-book. Avoid illegible or tiny fonts.
• Choose a simple color scheme. You don’t want readers to be too distracted by your e-book’s color palette to pay attention to what it says. The main focus should be on the content itself and how useful it is to your audience.

6. Distribute your e-book.

After the design is complete, convert your e-book into a readable format, such as a PDF. This ensures no one will edit or tamper with it. It will also provide a smooth reading experience for your audience. All devices can read PDF files, and the e-book will appear the same to everyone regardless of the device they use.

The best avenues for distributing your e-book are online retailers and publishing platforms that specialize in selling e-books. Here are some popular e-book publishing platforms:

• Kindle Direct Publishing
• B&N Press
• iTunes Connect
• Kobo Writing Life
• Google Play Books

Each publishing platform comes with its own features and advantages, so determine which one will work best for your business’s e-book. 

There are three popular e-book distribution strategies: 

• Publishing only on Amazon and enrolling in KDP Select for additional benefits
• Uploading your e-book to multiple retailers yourself, which will guarantee you the royalties 
• Using an aggregator to upload your e-book, which will save time and energy. 

E-book aggregators are companies that upload your book to various retailers on your behalf for a flat fee or a portion of the royalties. Popular aggregators include Draft2Digital, Smashwords, PublishDrive, StreetLib and XinXii.

7. Market your e-book.

Once you’ve finalized your e-book, use marketing strategies to spread the word about it. As Joshua Lisec, a New York Times bestselling co-author who has ghostwritten more than 80 books since 2011, said, “Publication day is one day, but a book launch period is 18 full months.”

Marketing will lead potential customers to your business and demonstrate your brand’s credibility and industry knowledge. There are several marketing strategies you can use, such as social media posts and email marketing campaigns. Whichever strategy you choose, the key is to be consistent in your promotions. 

“Dedicate the first year and a half of publication to talk about your book every day in every way so your market will associate you with the authority you now have since becoming an author,” Lisec advised.

E-books are a helpful resource for your audience and a valuable method of building a loyal following and generating leads for your business. It’s important to acknowledge the time, effort and resources it takes to create an e-book, but when you craft one with your audience in mind, it’s well worth your time.

The benefits of creating an e-book for your business

Writing an e-book offers advantages beyond personal gains; it can also have a lasting effect on your business’s success. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should consider writing an e-book.

An e-book improves lead generation.

An e-book can help generate leads for your business. It’s easier to grow your email list and grab users’ attention when you offer them valuable information for free. That shows you want to educate your audience so they can succeed in their endeavors. Lead generation is among businesses’ top content marketing goals, and e-books are a crucial part of a successful inbound marketing strategy.

An e-book boosts brand credibility.

It’s especially challenging for new businesses and websites to prove themselves when they don’t have large followings yet. It takes time to grow your brand and attract the right audience. However, when you provide readers with knowledge and foster their learning, it boosts your credibility and positions you as an industry expert.

“The more you can invest in marketing your book, the better chances you’ll have of it reaching your goals and building your business reputation,” said Sandra Nomoto, an author and the founder of Sandra Nomoto Enterprises, a firm that offers marketing and PR services for businesses and authors.

An e-book builds brand loyalty.

To profit from your e-book, you must garner loyal readers. It’s easier to turn them into paying customers once you have their attention, but you need to make sure you’re providing valuable information first. Quality content can drive traffic to your website, which fosters brand loyalty. 

An e-book generates sales.

Even if you offer your e-book for free, it still moves users down the sales funnel so they become more familiar with your brand and its content. Align your content with your audience’s buying journey so they feel ready to purchase. A healthy email list mixed with valuable lead generation tools is a recipe for generating sales. 

Miranda Fraraccio and Sean Peek contributed to this article.