Want to start selling your specialized knowledge on the internet with an ebook but can't get started. Here are some tips for getting that ebook project off the ground.
Start with a topic that you know well and are passionate about
If you are not excited about your topic then I doubt you will get far in writing your ebook. You may complete it but I doubt it will be interesting to the reader. If you are passionate about the topic you are writing on then you will be able to write most of the book fairly quickly. You'll still run into some rough patches on perhaps areas you don't know as well as you thought, but your excitement should carry you through those areas. If you are excited about your topic but don't know it very well at all, then that could become more problematic - but again the momentum of your excitement may carry you through to completion. Don't try to write something just to make money! Write because you are passionate about your topic.
I don't know where to start!?
Take a piece of paper and starting jotting down all the areas you want to cover in your ebook. Don't try to organize it yet, just brainstorm. As indicated above, if you are excited about your topic, you should fill up both sides of the paper with ideas. If, hopefully, most of the ideas come from your personal experience then jot down anecdotes that go with the ideas. After you have done this you may consider organizing your random thoughts into an outline or you may not. You may consider choosing the most burning idea you jotted down and start developing it into a paragraph, a page, or a chapter. Take your next hot idea and do the same. You may see organization as your begin writing. If so, then make your outline. If none of this works then reconsider whether your topic is as exciting to you as you thought or if you knew the topic as well as you imagined. Don't try to write something just to make money!
Use criticism to fuel your fire and not extinguish it
Years ago, a friend and I had the idea to sell our landlord tenant publication on the internet. We were going to create a web site and sell our printed publication on the web site. We were so excited, you would have thought we had discovered gold in our backyards. In our exuberance, we announced our grand plan to a few other lawyers that I shared office space with at the time. One of the lawyers - we'll call her Carla - her immediate reaction to our triumphant news was to coldly remark, "Why would you want to waste your time selling books over the internet?" Ohhh, her words cut like a knife, deep into our huge energy reserves, deflating them momentarily. I can still hear that nasal voice forcing out those ridiculous words today and it still chaps my ass. But our fire was only extinguished for a moment! We recovered with double the momentum as we now had the motivation of making her eat her inconsiderate words. As my buddy always says, "The best revenge is living a good life!" So if you overhear two grown men on some beach in Maui gleefully giggling like elementary schoolkids and toasting in Carla's honor, you'll know the source of our amusement.
Don't seek perfection immediately!
Don't make the mistake of trying to write the perfect ebook from the first sentence on. Revision is part of the process. My philosophy is to get something, anything near completion and get it out there. I affectionately refer to it as my Microsoft Product Launch Philosophy. I can imagine Bill Gates saying, "Who cares if it doesn't work yet just slap a label and some shrinkwrap on it and let's get it in the stores! We'll update it later." That may sound a little severe but Mr. Gates' bank account doesn't appear to be suffering.
Article Tags: Passionate About, Excited About, Don't Know
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