3 Tips for Writing a Successful E-book

This is a guest post by Mary from A Merry Life.  You can read more from Mary at her weight loss blog and her healthy food blog.

E-books can be an amazing way to share your knowledge and make money to support your blog. They can also be a total time suck that earns you nothing, which is probably the most likely outcome for many people. The key to e-books is making sure you create one that lands you in the first category, not the second. I'm going to share a few tips to help you make that happen.

Successful E-book Writing Tip #1: Make sure there is a market. After a few years of blogging, when I finally figured out what I was doing, I decided to write an e-book about health blogging. I'd been receiving "how to blog" questions consistently for a while and I decided instead of responding in depth to each email I could possibly package all the information to share with people. My intentions were honorable – I wanted to help people learn how to create a great blog. But more importantly, I knew there was a market for the e-book because of all the e-mails with questions I received. I knew that people new to weight loss and healthy living blogging wanted someone to help them get started creating a great blog, and my e-book fulfilled that need.

The first tip for anyone who wants to write an e-book: make sure there are people who want the information you have. If you are writing an e-book you like but no one wants you move back into the time suck category.

Successful E-book Writing Tip #2: Write it and write it well. If you've got an e-book idea and you know people will be interested, the first thing you have to do is write it. Writing an e-book is no different than writing any other long paper, thesis, or book. The only difference is that you have total control over the content.

It's up to you to create the e-book from the ground up and it's important to give yourself enough time to do this well. I originally set my launch date too soon and had to back down twice because during the writing process I realized there was a lot more that I want to write about than I originally considered. My launch date was pushed back a whole month because it took me longer than I thought to write my e-book. In the end that was worth it because the e-book content is important and needs to be the best it possibly can be. Make sure you give yourself enough time to write the e-book well and provide value no matter how long that takes you.

Those are some basic tips for success with writing and selling an e-book. It's a long, hard process to create and sell an e-book but it can be worth it with continued sales each month. Even if you don't have as many sales as you had hoped for you will still learn from the process so that your next product is a success.