Written on September 16th, 2009 at 01:09 am by Darren Rowse

Thirteen Steps to Write and Publish a Free Ebook In Thirteen Hours

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 108 comments

Have you ever considered producing an ebook for your blog readers? In this comprehensive post Ali Hale breaks down the process of how to do it.

There’s never enough time. In an ideal world, you’d be posting to your blog frequently, writing great guest posts, building relationships with other bloggers, and responding to every single comment … and all that’s more than you can manage. You might have considered writing an ebook as a companion to your blog, but you just can’t find the time or the energy for it.

You already know all the reasons to do it: you’ve downloaded your share of free ebooks from other blogs, and you’ve seen that:

  • Free ebooks can be used as what Sonia Simone calls “cookie content”, to entice newsletter sign-ups
  • Free ebooks can be a great traffic draw: they get twittered about and linked to
  • Just having a free ebook available on your site will subtly shift readers’ perceptions: they’ll see you as one of the “big guys” of the blogging world

But, of course, an ebook is harder to create than a blog post. A 25-page ebook is 4,000 words or more; you have to edit and proof-read carefully (once people are emailing that ebook to one another, you can’t fix that embarrassing typo or broken link); you’ll need PDF and ebook cover software if you want it to look professional; you have to launch it with a bang…

Writing an ebook isn’t an easy undertaking, and it’s something a lot of bloggers never do. That’s why, if you do write a high-quality free ebook, you’re going to stand out.

Here’s how I wrote, published and launched my free ebook in just thirteen hours and how you could do the same. My time broke down like this:

  • Writing an outline: 30 minutes
  • First draft of content: 4 hours
  • Adding some graphics: 1 hour 30 mins (mostly my boyfriend’s work!)
  • Redrafting and editing, inserting all links: 3 hours
  • Appendix of resources: 1 hour
  • Creating a cover: 1 hour 30 mins
  • Converting to pdf: almost instant!
  • Final proof-read and link-checking: 15 minutes
  • Launching and spreading the word: 1 hour 15 minutes

I spread the tasks above across four days: I’m a freelancer so my schedule’s quite flexible, but I do have to do a bit of paying work once in a while!

And here’s your 13-step guide to doing the same:

Step 1: Get an Idea

You need a clear concept for your ebook. An ebook isn’t a blog post – but it’s not a blog either: don’t make it a general overview of your niche (especially if it’s quite broad). Pick one category from your blog, or a topic which would make a series of blog posts.

I’d wanted to create a free ebook for a while, but it was one of those things I thought I’d get around to “when I have a bit more time”. Then I came up with an idea for a mini-series of two linked posts (Reframing Work #1: Ditching Drudgery and the Conventional View of “Work” and Reframing Work #2: Min Hours, Max Cash – or Do What You Love?) which would lead very naturally to the ebook (Quit Your Day Job). I decided I was going to go ahead and launch it, a week after the first post in the series. This led to…

  

Step 2: Tell Your Readers

Tell your readers that you’ll be bringing out a free ebook in a week or two weeks’ time. It’s amazing how a deadline – and public accountability – can motivate you!

You might want to make the announcement in a post, on Twitter, or to your newsletter list. Communicate a sense of excitement: tell readers you have a “treat” or “goodies” coming up. This is part of the pre-launch process of getting a buzz going. I personally find the word “freebie” can have a bit of a connotation of something cheap and rubbishy – but you might think differently!

 

Step 3: Write the Outline

If you write long blog posts, you might already be in the habit of outlining before you begin. With an ebook, this is crucial: you don’t want to write for hours only to find you’ve wandered far off-topic. Neither do you want to sit staring at a blank screen, wondering what you’re going to say next.

Open up a blank document or sit down with a piece of paper and write an outline before you go any further with your ebook. Everyone has different ways of doing this, but one which works well for me is:

  • Spend five minutes mind-mapping: write down your ebook’s title or theme in the centre of a piece of paper, then jot down all the points that come to mind
  • Eliminate any points which are too broad for the ebook’s scope. Order the rest in a logical sequence (I just jot a number next to each)
  • Type or write out the list in order. These are your subsections or chapters in the ebook.
  • Jot down at least two bullet points for each section, or a couple of sentences: these are the main points you’re going to make. Sometimes, you’ll want subheadings within each section.
  • If you think of a great idea for a graphic, or a resource (book, blog, etc) to recommend, write that down here too.

 

It might sound complicated, but if you sit down for an uninterrupted half-hour, you can easily get a complete outline written.

Once you’ve got a list of sections and subsections, think about roughly how long each will need to be. Aim for a total of around 4,000 words: this is about right for a 25-page ebook set in a large font: I like 14 pt Calibri (Word 2007) or 11 pt Verdana.

 

Step 4: Draft the Content

This step is the one which many bloggers find daunting – writing enough words to fill an ebook. If it seems overwhelming, try thinking about your ebook as a series of linked blog posts (with each subheading starting off a new post). Your outline really helps here, because it breaks writing your ebook into manageable chunks.

And these four tips should help too:

First: Get Rid of Distractions

It’s crucial that you avoid distractions while you’re writing. That means keeping away from emails, Twitter and Facebook till you’re done. You don’t need to write the whole ebook in one go – but try to give yourself a block of at least two hours to work on it, or set yourself the goal of drafting a certain number of sections.

If your family or housemates are likely to interrupt you, try heading off to a coffee shop or library for a few hours.

If you find it hard to concentrate, try using a full screen text program (I like Dark Room), or switch off your internet connection!

Second: Don’t Edit As You Write

This is your first draft, so forget any worries about the quality of your writing. Don’t keep editing sentences to try to make them perfect – just move on. You can come back and rewrite later: your current task is simply to get a complete draft down.

Third: Don’t Stop to Look Things Up

Don’t stop to look up links, quotes or statistics that you want to include. Just make a note to yourself in the body of the text. I tend to enclose these in square brackets [like this]. Stopping part-way through a paragraph or sentence breaks your flow … and it’s very easy to start looking up one quote and get distracted!

Fourth: Don’t Format While Drafting

Your finished ebook is going to be a visual masterpiece, with a cover page, section headings, subsection headings, bold text, italic text, lists, maybe tables and specially-formatted blockquotes…

Your first draft, however, should have few or none of these. It’s easy to get distracted with formatting, and it’s also inefficient to format before all the text’s written – you’ll find yourself changing a lot of things around.

Keep your formatting to a bare minimum while you’re drafting. You might find it useful to format headers and subheaders (make sure you know how to use styles in Word – don’t edit each header separately) – but the rest can wait.

 

Step 5: Add Any Graphics

Once the draft is complete, add any graphics that you want to include in your ebook. The type of graphics you use will depend on the topic of your ebook, but you might want to consider:

  • Charts to show statistics in a visual, instant way
  • Diagrams to explain complex concepts
  • Illustrations or photographs to complement the text
  • Small graphics to highlight tips, warnings or quotes

 

Don’t make the mistake of just using pictures to break up the text. If you use a large font size and use design elements well (just as you would in a blog post), then you don’t need to stuff your ebook with pictures. Graphics used for the sake of it don’t add much to the reading experience, and finding or creating suitable images can use up a lot of your time.

When you’re looking for graphics, be mindful of copyright laws. If you’re using images from Flickr licensed under Creative Commons, make sure you credit and link to the owner in the ebook. If you have a small budget for the ebook, you might consider buying stock photos from istockphoto or fotolia.

You should get your graphics in place at this stage because you may want to change around some of the text to explain or to tie in with the images you’ve chosen.

 

Step 6: Redraft and Edit Your Text

You’ve got your first draft done – the hardest part’s over. Now it’s time to revise, edit and polish your ebook until it shines!

As with the first draft, you need to find some uninterrupted time and space for this: it’s all too easy to make mistakes or forget to remove those “[notes to self]” when you’re getting interrupted.

It also helps if you follow a step-by-step method, working on one aspect of the redrafting and editing throughout the whole document, rather than trying to perfect each page as you go along.

My process for redrafting and editing is as follows:

  • Edit for Structure
  • Edit to Add Quotes, Examples and Links
  • Edit for Flow and Tone

First: Edit for Structure

Your first round of edits deal with the “big picture”: making sure that your chapters or sections are in the right order and cover all the points you wanted to make. Start at page one and read, fairly quickly, through the whole ebook. Look out for:

  • Sections which would work better in a different order
  • Places where you’ve repeated yourself in two different sections
  • Sections which are too short (you may need to expand and give more detail)
  • Sections which are too long (cut any waffle!)

 

Second: Edit to Add Quotes, Examples and Links

Once you’ve got the broad structure right, you can decide where best to enter quotes and examples. This will depend on the format of your ebook, but some things you may want to consider are:

  • Using an example, quote, tips box or case study to break up a long section of text
  • Creating a pattern: eg. opening or ending each section with a quote or case study
  • Putting all the links at the end of each sections for easy reference (even if you also link in the body of the text)

 

You may find that you need to move around a few sentences or paragraphs in order to make the quote, example or case study work well.

Third: Edit for Flow and Tone

Rewrite any sentences which sound clumsy or which are ambiguous. You might like to try reading your ebook aloud: this often highlights any over-long or complicated sentences!

This is also a good point to check that you’ve used a consistent tone of voice throughout your ebook. Did you start off chatty but then drop into a more formal style? If you’re not a naturally humorous writer, make sure that any jokes or puns you’ve included really are funny.

Step 7: Format Your Ebook

Now that the text is complete, go through and get everything into the right format. Set all your headers and subheaders, making sure that you use the “Styles and Formatting” feature of Word (or your chosen word processing program). Don’t set the font size and style each heading manually. It’s not only inefficient, it stops you making an automatic table of contents – more on that in a moment!

(You might want to read up on Styles and Formatting, if you’re not sure how to use this feature.)

Choose a modern, easy-to-read font for your text and for your headings. Make both text and headings quite large – bigger than you’d use in a document for work or school. As I mentioned in Step 3, I like 14 pt Calibri (Word 2007) or 11 pt Verdana.

As well as formatting your section headings, you’ll also want to use some of the formatting options that you’re familiar with from blogging. This might include:

  • Using bold to emphasise key points, and italics for emphasised words
  • Setting out quotes in a different style (eg. indented, or in a box) from the main text
  • Using a magazine-style “pull box” for quick tips
  • Breaking some paragraphs into lists, to help keep the reader’s attention

 

You’ll also want to put a header or footer on each page with, at the very least, the page number. Consider including the title of the ebook in the header/footer on each page (in case readers print it out). You could also put your name, your copyright notice, or the URL of your blog.

Note that if you’re including a cover (and I recommend that you do), you can tell Word to use a different header and footer on the first page.

 

Step 8: Add a Table of Contents and Appendix

An easy way to make your ebook instantly stand out from the crowd is to add a table of contents and/or an appendix. Professional ebooks (and paper books!) have these – so why shouldn’t yours?

Table of Contents

If you’ve used Word’s Styles and Formatting feature to set up your headers, it’s really easy to add a table of contents. Just insert a new page at the start of your ebook, and (in Word 2007), go to the “References” tab, then click “Table of Contents” on the far left.

Word will automatically lay out the table with the headings, subheadings and page numbers. If you change the ebook after creating the table of contents, simply right-click on it and “update”. This is the table of contents from my ebook:

table-of-contents.jpg

Appendix

In my ebook, I wanted to supply some ideas for further reading at the end. These didn’t fit with the body of the text, so I created an appendix.

Depending on your ebook’s subject, your appendix could be:

  • A quick tutorial on something which some of your readers will understand but others won’t (you don’t want to put this in the middle of your ebook as those who “get it” will start skipping)
  • A list of recommended resources, like websites, blogs, books, products, services…
  • A “cheat sheet” for readers to print out – popular in technical fields
  • A list of notes and references for each section – often in more scientific books

 

Creating an appendix is simply a matter of starting a new page and putting the header “Appendix” (or, if you want multiple appendices, “Appendix 1”, “Appendix 2” etc.)

Step 9: Create Your Front Cover – And a Graphic

All the hard work of writing and formatting the text is done: here’s the fun part – creating your ebook cover!

I’d recommend spending a couple of dollars when creating your cover. Look through istockphoto or fotolia for a great, eye-catching image. Ideally, you want something without too much detail (as you’ll be using a thumbnail of the cover pic on your blog, to advertise the ebook).

I’m no designer, and it took me some time to make a cover that didn’t look hopelessly amateur! You might want to enlist a friend with a good eye for design, though some quick tips are:

  • Use a big, clear font for the title of your ebook
  • Consider having a subtitle or strapline in a smaller font
  • Stick to just two or three colours
  • Come up with a few designs or layouts and pick the one you like best

 

Once you’ve put your cover in as the first page as your ebook, take a screenshot and save it as a .jpg. If you can afford to spend a bit more (currently $27), I highly recommend a piece of software called eCover Software Pro, which I’ve reviewed here. It allows you to “drop” that image onto a book-shaped template, so that it looks something like this:

front-cover.jpg

It’s very straightforward and intuitive to use, and it’s a powerful way to send readers the signal that you’re a serious problogger.

Step 10: Convert Your Ebook to a PDF

When I first started creating ebooks, I tried out a lot of different free options for turning Word documents into PDF files. The problem was, they didn’t keep links unless the links were written out as a full URL – so www.aliventures.com would remain as a link, but Aliventures wouldn’t! This also meant that they didn’t keep in the links that “jump” the reader from the contents page to the entry that they’ve clicked on.

A few months ago, I bought version 8 of Adobe’s Acrobat software – which cost over $100. I realised that spending hours trying to put the links back in manually each time would cost me a lot more, in the long term. It is a big outlay when you’re starting out as a ProBlogger, so I’d recommend doing what I did – look on ebay for a slightly older version of Adobe (as I write this, 9 is the current version, so look for 8 or 7). This will be just as good for your purposes, and will cost a bit less than the latest.

You could also see if your workplace or college has Adobe Acrobat. Or ask on Twitter to see if a willing friend can convert it for you! (You’re welcome to send me a Tweet if I can lend a hand.)

The best free option I’ve used was pdf995, so if all else fails, give that a try!

Note: If you have Word 2007, you can use the “Publish as PDF” feature. I’ve not used this myself (since I have Adobe Acrobat) so I can’t vouch for how good it is or whether it will include all links. If anyone knows, do tell us in the comments!

Step 11: Final Proof-Read and Link Check

Once you’ve got your PDF file, go through and do one last check for typos. Try not to get tempted to do much editing at this stage … you could carry on tweaking for ever. Just check for anything that’s obviously wrong.

This is a good point to double-check that all the links are working – just in case anything hasn’t converted properly, or in case you put a link in wrong.

Step 12: Publish and Publicise

Publishing the ebook on your blog is easy, compared with all the work of creating it! You can either upload it using your blog software’s “upload” function (go to Media->Add New in Wordpress), or you can use an FTP program to do so.

Create a new post telling people about your ebook, using the cover image that you created (either with eCover Software Pro or as a “flat” looking image).

Then get the word out! Tweet about it, ask for retweets, send emails to blogger friends – though do make sure your ebook will be on-topic for their blog. You might even consider writing a press release to send to your local paper.

I decided to run a competition in connection with the free ebook launch, which helped to gather retweets and a bit of a “buzz”.

 

Step 13: Relax!

Finally, give yourself a well-earned break! Your ebook’s out there, and your blog’s getting a lot of new visitors. Get yourself a glass of wine, a beer or a mug of great coffee … and start thinking about your next ebook.

As well as writing ebooks, Ali Hale writes a blog on “getting more from life” at www.aliventures.com: you can get her twice-weekly posts straight to your feed reader.

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108 Responses to “Thirteen Steps to Write and Publish a Free Ebook In Thirteen Hours” - Add Yours

  • Nate @ Debt-free Scholar

    September 16th, 2009 1:16 am

    I have used MS Word 2007 for my ebooks, and its “Publish to PDF” feature works great!

    All the links transfer to PDF, and you can even make the Table of Contents linked and “clickable”!

  • James Chartrand - Men with Pens

    September 16th, 2009 1:19 am

    Oh hot damn, this almost reads like a challenge to see if I can crank that out in 13 hours… hm, hm! I just may take you up on that :)

    Thanks for the mention, too!

  • Denise @ howmommakesmoneyonline

    September 16th, 2009 1:27 am

    Excellent information… I love how it is all broken down into chewable bites that become immediately doable. I’m scheduling this in for a topic on making time blogging and being a mom… hmmm, thanks for the nudge and the roadmap!

  • Rhys

    September 16th, 2009 1:33 am

    Great post! I’m half way through two separate ebooks, so need to finish writing them. Distractions is the main issue for me.

  • Jeffrey Tang

    September 16th, 2009 1:33 am

    It does sound like a bit of a challenge, doesn’t it? “I double-dog dare you to write an ebook in 13 hours or less!” or something to that effect.

    I suppose this is the universe (or just the internet, I suppose) telling me to get a move on and write that ebook I’ve been planning to write for the last month.

    And you’re building quite a presence here, Ali :)

  • Blake @ Props Blog

    September 16th, 2009 1:34 am

    This is an amazingly helpful post. I’ve been wanting to get an ebook together, but didn’t have any idea where to start or how to go about doing it. Breaking the ebook writing process down step by step makes the task seem so much more manageable.

    I just wish my wife would the graphics for me ;-)

  • Joyce McKee

    September 16th, 2009 1:35 am

    This is perfect timing!! And I thank you for taking the time to provide me with this outline. Just this morning I secured a new URL for my eBook idea and have been considering how to get started.

    You have handed me a gift and I truly appreciate it!!

  • Rafael Marquez

    September 16th, 2009 1:40 am

    Open Office will convert the document to PDF and preserve the links etc. within the doc. The beauty of Open Office is that it’s free.

  • Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome

    September 16th, 2009 1:42 am

    Just about to start a short e-workbook based on a free email clinic I’ve been offering, so this is totally timely! I’ll give it a try. I’ve already done the 30 minutes on outlining, so yay to being on track! ;)

  • Roseli A. Bakar

    September 16th, 2009 1:44 am

    Amazing post Ali. I’ve been wanting to write an ebook and this great tip will help me a lot.

    Kudos !

  • poorblogger

    September 16th, 2009 1:52 am

    Wow.. Great information how to create some free ebooks without any good knowledge in literature..
    I appreciate your idea and will use it next.

  • Mary H.

    September 16th, 2009 1:53 am

    Thank you for this post!

    I’ve considered writing an ebook or two, but haven’t known where to start or how to go about it. This article has some very good tips and gave me a bit of courage that I can write one!

    Mary H.
    http://stalecheerios.com/blog

  • Steve

    September 16th, 2009 2:08 am

    I thought for sure you were going to start out with purchase an already prepared eBook with a PLR source. But I like your outline although the 4 hour writing block might be difficult for some to complete.

  • Rakesh

    September 16th, 2009 2:08 am

    Very nice and explaining post. I am planning to create my own blogs’ pdf book. Thanks for sharing a such great article.

    Rakesh

    tutorialfeed.blogspot.com

  • Ryan Collins

    September 16th, 2009 2:14 am

    In step four, a trick I picked up is to use the letters TK in every spot you need to go back and do some research. These letter rarely show up in English, and it makes it very easy to find so you don’t miss replacing any of them.

    I guess I picked up the trick from Cory Doctorow, but it must be used by others:
    http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a386.asp

  • Joshua Elliot

    September 16th, 2009 2:16 am

    This is a great tip in writing ebook for your readers.

    I have done a ebook a few months back on “How To Build Squeeze Page”.

    There are more insights on creating a ebook, next time will use it for my future ebook.

    If you are interested in my ebook, you can go to my blog and get it there.

  • David Godot

    September 16th, 2009 2:21 am

    Thanks for this!

    Strangely, it had never occurred to me that a good ebook length is around 4000 words. As a graduate student, I can write 4000 words in my sleep, but when I imagined writing a “book” I imagined a years-long process of hundreds of pages.

  • Jenny

    September 16th, 2009 2:22 am

    This is an amazing post. Thanks for providing the depth and guidance that so many bloggers-who-aspire-to-author-a-book need. Also refreshing to see that others experience the “I want to.. but don’t have time” feeling on a frequent basis.

  • Roschelle

    September 16th, 2009 2:48 am

    Initially, you made it sound so easy…so do-able and don’t get me wrong, it is but there’s definitely some “work” involved. I would love to take on a challenge like this in the near future and thanks for a thorough and concise guide to help me every step of the way.

    Many thanks, again

  • DJ

    September 16th, 2009 2:52 am

    I have been thinking about writing an eBook but time is not on my side. If I could do it in 13 hours that would be phenomenal. Thanks for all the great information. You have just motivated me to get started.

  • Bea

    September 16th, 2009 2:55 am

    The best article I’ve seen written on this topic; succinct, on point and clearly understood in a nutshell. Most of all, I love the attention paid to edit, edit, edit. Brava!
    Many people think they can just write it and throw it out there, not if you want people to take notice. Good Job, Ali.

  • The Affiliate Marketer's Help Desk

    September 16th, 2009 3:01 am

    Where am I gonna get thirteen hours? :-) I’m glad you talked about how you broke the task down over the course of a few days. That’s very realistic approach. But consistency is the key – break it down into thirteen 1-hours spurts for 13 days if you have to. Just do it.

  • Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach

    September 16th, 2009 3:05 am

    Excellent short tutorial. I’ve found that it’s not only the creation that’s character-building…it’s getting the word out to your readers that’s a challenge as well.

    It’s all in the long-term planning.

  • Blogger User

    September 16th, 2009 3:08 am

    Good tips…. I think many can get inspiration to create their own E-book.

  • Kosmo @ The Casual Observer

    September 16th, 2009 3:12 am

    Wow. Mine took a LOT longer than this … but then again, it was a 20,000 word eBook of short stories :)

  • brian from nodebtworldtravel.com

    September 16th, 2009 3:21 am

    I am right in the middle of this, so this is PERFECT timing. Thanks for the tips!

  • William Womack

    September 16th, 2009 3:27 am

    Oh! This is great stuff.

    Just yesterday I was thinking about how I should go about writing an ebook for my blog to give to my subscribers, and here it is!

    Awesome stuff, I will definitely be using this post for my new ebook.

    Thanks for being so thorough too. I can’t think of any questions, but if I do I will let you know!

    Thanks so much!

    Will

  • Benny

    September 16th, 2009 3:29 am

    It must be like destiny cause I’ve been thinking about writing an ebook but didn’t know exactly how I should start.

    Then I found this post! It gives a great template of what to do.

    Now I just have to do the work. That’s the hardest part but hopefully the rewards will be great!

  • kav key

    September 16th, 2009 3:29 am

    This is great post.Thank you for sharing these useful tips.

  • Daniel Richard

    September 16th, 2009 3:35 am

    Hey! I’ve got Ali’s ebook downloaded to my comp. :)

    It’s an amazing book on its own. And now that the “How-to” for writing an ebook is up… I should just go do step #1 soon.

  • Dan

    September 16th, 2009 3:36 am

    Read your review of eCover Software Pro (followed the link to your site) and I was interested until I saw an affiliate link. It’s hard to take any review seriously when you put an affiliate link in there. Too much bias.

  • khmerbird

    September 16th, 2009 4:00 am

    great, i am about to write an ebook for Cambodia blogger that way that they can make money online from Cambodia.

    thank for sharing this, i hope i will finish the ebook soon,

  • starr

    September 16th, 2009 4:11 am

    This is an awesome post! EXACTLY what I needed. I Love you Darren!

  • nadineblogs

    September 16th, 2009 4:17 am

    Great post…once again. I am so appreciative of your posts and get great value from them! I have published 2 e-books and agree that it can be done in 13 hours IF YOU FOCUS.

    My e-books are for real estate professionals, introducing them to the potential business blogging will bring their way. They don’t seem to get it and I often feel like I am banging my head against a wall. I am hoping the e-book, blogging for buyers will help them out! We will see what happens. I am just about to start promoting.

    http://www.nadineblogs.com

  • MillionDollarBlogger

    September 16th, 2009 4:41 am

    In principle, I’m against leaving comments of the “Wow great post!” variety, but…

    Great post!

    As someone new to the blogging world, making my own ebook is one of those things that I’ve been meaning to do but still haven’t. I’ll be honest, I only just skimmed the post, but it seems like you’ve laid out solid steps to getting this crap done.

    By the way, tell your boyfriend I’ll send him the details of the work I need done on my ebook too. :P

    Shameless plug: http://www.vipinternetmarketing.com

  • Chris | Martial Development

    September 16th, 2009 4:47 am

    I recently encountered this same link problem with my ebook on qigong. When I used the free PDF creators, all my links were lost.

    You do not need to buy Acrobat to fix this problem. Try OpenOffice Writer instead. It’s free!

  • Ryan Biddulph

    September 16th, 2009 4:48 am

    Another great post Darren.

    Planning the eBook creates order in the mind, which allows the content to flow more freely.

    Don’t make the mistake of trying to write it on the fly. Organized planning creates the best results.

    RB

  • Angela Mills

    September 16th, 2009 5:21 am

    Apparently I am not the only one thinking about doing this, but it is very timely for me! I have been jotting lots of notes down, but really didn’t know how to go about it, thanks so much!
    Great post!!

  • Rich

    September 16th, 2009 5:35 am

    I hate to be the sour one here, but any eBook written in 13 hours is a waste of your time and the time of those reading it. A high-quality eBook not only takes far longer to create, but it requires revision as community members read the book and share feedback.

    When I wrote my third eBook, I too thought I could do it in “no time” (24 or less hours.) 182 (according to Word) hours later, I feel my eBook is slowly becoming worthy of reading. I’m not saying to need to invest a week’s worth of hours into an eBook, but PLEASE don’t rush it. There is already too much junk online. Think about your creation and make it high quality. You’ll be helping more people than you realize.

    Thanks for reading this (I hate to be negative, but your readers are worth more than a rushed 12 (not including step 13) hour job.

  • Ali Hale - Aliventures/Getting More From Life

    September 16th, 2009 5:58 am

    Wow, looks like I’ve hit an untapped mine of ebook-writers!

    @James – It’s a challenge if you want it to be. I dare ya. ;-)

    @Rhys – I find turning off my internet connection works a charm…

    @Jeffrey – I love guest posting here, mostly because people are always so enthusiastic in the comments!

    @Blake – Glad to help! I find having a process for something like an ebook makes it a lot easier to wrap my head round (and it prevents me procrastinating).

    @Alex – Awesome! Look forward to seeing the ebook :-D

    @Roseli, @poorblogger, @Mary, @Angela – Good luck with your ebooks / potential ebooks..!

    @Joshua – Good luck with your next ebook! They’re like cookies, aren’t they, you can’t just have one… ;-)

    @David – At first I thought an ebook would need to be at least 10,000 words, and then I thought a bit harder… 4,000 doesn’t seem like much to me either (I’ve just finished drafting an 180,000 word novel…) but ebooks need to be a short and snappy read!

    @Jenny – Thanks! It’s great being able to share what I’ve learned over here on ProBlogger. :-)

    @Rochelle – It definitely does involve some work – but I’d say it’s worth it!

    @DJ – There’s never going to be a perfect time. If you can find an hour a day, you’ll be done in a fortnight!

    @Barbara – Promotion is a big part of it, and sometimes needs a bit of bravery…

    @Kosmo – Short stories take me longer, per word, than ANY other kind of writing. (Except poetry, but I very rarely attempt that.) Well done on getting 20,000 words!

    @William, @Benny – Glad the timing worked well for you!

    @MillionDollarBlogger – How dare you skim my post? :-P Seriously, I know, it’s a bit of an epic. You might want to bookmark it for when you have a bit of spare time!

    @Chris – I haven’t actually tried using Open Office myself but I’ve heard good things about it. Thanks for the tip!

    @Ryan – Planning is crucial, yep!

    @Angela – Brilliant, hope this post helps you solidify the notes into an ebook!

  • Maria Schneider

    September 16th, 2009 6:22 am

    Just an FYI to this excellent how-to guide: You don’t have to purchase an Adobe product to make a PDF that includes hyperlinks. Open Office’s Text Program will export PDF files with hyperlinks. I’ve used it successfully for E-Books and it’s open source.

  • Andy

    September 16th, 2009 6:30 am

    Hi Darren,

    Wow, that’s a fantastic post! It’s great to see someone using Office in such a creative way and sharing how to do it with everyone. You are quite the Word guru!

    If you want to share anymore of your knowledge head over to http://www.facebook.com/office

    Thanks again for the post!

    Cheers,
    Andy
    MSFT Office Outreach Team

  • Keli

    September 16th, 2009 6:46 am

    Good information, although I would not alert my readers of an ebook before the outline is written…once we’re close to publishing, I would begin to put the bug out…yes it could be a four day project…or it could turn into a two week project…

  • icantinternet

    September 16th, 2009 6:49 am

    Great tips!!! I’ve posted this to my iPhone to re and re and reread, and use in practice. Hope to be able to show you my first e-book pretty soon!

  • Salma

    September 16th, 2009 7:35 am

    Ali,

    Right after i read this blog post, I immediately took out my notepad and made an outline for my e-book! It took me about 20 mins but I’ve got most of the chapters, the main headings and most of the sub-headings down (as well as some little tips and reminders to self).

    Wow! Its actually fun to do once you take it up as a challenge and know that someone else has just done it, so why not you.

    Thanks for the much-needed inspiration and turbo-charge. I’m just finishing up two e-books for a client and then will get started fleshing out my book in about 2 week’s time so I’m not going to meet the 13-hr challenge (at least not contiguously) but still, its a great start I think.

    And here’s the icing on the cake: I created the outline between 3:00-and 3:30 AM my time (I’m in Pakistan). Definitely time to get some shut-eye now! :)

    Salma.

  • Dave Doolin

    September 16th, 2009 7:51 am

    Nice work.

    Your blog post here could form the basis of yet another ebook.

  • Technology Slice

    September 16th, 2009 9:13 am

    Good post. It’s a solid set of instructions.

  • Johnluffa

    September 16th, 2009 9:21 am

    Darren,

    Many thanks for this GREAT tip,
    I have for a while been wondering how to get started on this.
    It sounds like one heck of a big project.

    Although, I think mine would take a lot longer than 13hrs, but I shall be making reference to this post for guidance.

    Great work

  • Heather Allard

    September 16th, 2009 9:31 am

    Hi Ali,
    This is a great post–I just printed it out for future reference. I’ve been toying with the idea for an ebook for years.

    You can actually use Google Docs to create PDFs too, a very handy and FREE tool. ;)

    Thanks for the great info!
    Heather

  • Dave Doolin

    September 16th, 2009 10:12 am

    I’m going to weigh in with a counter example. I changed the link for this comment to point to the first chapter of an ebook a colleague and I never finished. It was too time consuming. We each have over 40 hours in the first chapter alone. We just haven’t had the time to continue.

    But I’ve never seen anything like this given away for free.

    Very curious to get feedback, click the link if you’re interested in the technology required to produce an effective favicon useful for a WordPress blog (or any web page).

  • Dave Doolin

    September 16th, 2009 10:16 am

    Also, there is no sign up or promotion or anything for downloading Chapter 1. Just click and go. Totally free, we’re not gathering any information other than number of hits.

  • Sarge

    September 16th, 2009 10:44 am

    An ebook is something I definitely have planned for the near future and this is an excellent guide in how to get one out there quickly and efficiently!

    Thanks Ali and Darren :-)

  • Carl Coddington

    September 16th, 2009 11:33 am

    Darren thank you so much for these guest posts. This was one of the best ever.

  • Nicole/MadlabPost

    September 16th, 2009 11:57 am

    This is great and all, but I have no idea on how to put links into an ebook. A post, tutorial or “ebook” (since we’re talking about ebooks here) on that would be very helpful for bloggers who may not have the formatting know-how for inserting links into a PDF document.

  • Web Marketing Tips

    September 16th, 2009 12:40 pm

    Now thats we called a out come of experience.

    Ali … these are really good suggestion and one is linked to another one and hence making it more attractive and working.

  • kitchen tables

    September 16th, 2009 1:26 pm

    Thanks for sharing this information! This could help a lot! I have been panning to make one but I am having doubts about it.

  • Jens P. Berget

    September 16th, 2009 3:22 pm

    13 days seems a bit difficult for me.

    I’m reading a book about how to write a novel in 30 days, and that might actually be doable (well, if I didn’t have a wife, two kids and a 100% job).

    I’m eager to write a new ebook/novel so I’ll at least try. Great instructions.

    - jens

  • Jens P. Berget

    September 16th, 2009 3:24 pm

    My comment should be about 13 hours and not 13 days :-)

    sorry about that

    - jens

  • Jonny

    September 16th, 2009 5:13 pm

    It is a good idea, i have ever seen this happen on some famous forum. And Word documents into PDF i recommend “primopdf”, no more than 5 M, convert online then send the pdf to your mail. :)

  • Paul

    September 16th, 2009 5:33 pm

    Proofread and check links in 4000+ words in 15 minutes? It is absolutely not possible, really.

    I work very quickly, but this claim is absurd! Even using a automatic grammar checker like WhiteSmoke, or just MS Word’s grammar/spell check, it would take more than 15 minutes to go over 4000+ words.

  • Diabetis

    September 16th, 2009 6:30 pm

    Great tips!

  • Jeremy McMinn

    September 16th, 2009 7:05 pm

    For PDF creation you can use either http://www.dopdf.com or Google Documents and export as a PDF. Simple.

  • diggma

    September 16th, 2009 8:25 pm

    Darren thank you so much for these guest posts. This was one of the best ever.

  • bluetooth adapter

    September 16th, 2009 10:49 pm

    I’ve been wanting to write an ebook and this great tip will help me a lot. And i really appreciate your ideas, Thank you for this post……

  • Troy

    September 16th, 2009 11:08 pm

    Guys can we read the post. Ali was clearly the author and here half of us are thanking and praising Darren. Come on guys, actually read the post properly and give credit where it’s due.

    On a more positive note, I must agree it is a great post and well set out, easy to follow. Thanks Ali :-)

  • Latha

    September 16th, 2009 11:14 pm

    Ali, Thanks for the tips. I think I will take up your challenge. Been to your blog it is awesome.

  • Jacob Stoops

    September 16th, 2009 11:26 pm

    Great tips! I’ve been wanting to write an e-book for a little while and wasn’t quite sure how to go about the process.Thanks!

  • ITrush

    September 16th, 2009 11:43 pm

    Great info, been looking for some tips on how to create an ebook and this one will really help a lot. Thanks for sharing.

  • Dave

    September 17th, 2009 12:04 am

    I used Google Documents to create my first ebook and I churned it out in about 24-36 hours (that includes sleep of course!). They have a 1-click option to save the document as a PDF and it worked great.

  • Debra Weiss

    September 17th, 2009 12:54 am

    PrimoPDF works great and it’s free. For PrimoPDF just install the program, go into your word processor and click “Print”, then select PrimoPDF as your printer. Works like a charm. :)

    Debra

  • Reza Winandar

    September 17th, 2009 12:57 am

    If you already got the idea, 7 hours is enough to create a high quality ebook. But still, creating an ebook by just 13 hours is unpredictable. Succesful ebook is created over a week.

  • Ali Hale - Aliventures/Getting More From Life

    September 17th, 2009 1:14 am

    @Maria – Thanks for the tip there, I didn’t know Open Office did that!

    @Keli – I found that alerting people got me a lot more motivated to finish!

    @Salma – Well done on getting the outline done! I didn’t do 13 hours continuously (that’d have required a lot of coffee…) but across a few days.

    @Dave – Perhaps it will, one day! ;-)

    @John – Good luck with your ebook! It’s not such a daunting project when you break it into steps.

    @Heather – Thanks for the Google docs tip!

    @Sarge, @Carl – Thanks! :-) Really glad you enjoyed the post.

    @Jens – Have you come across NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)? Every November, people all round the world try to write a novel in 30 days…

    @Troy – Thank you! Though I don’t mind being mistaken for Darren, in fact I’m quite flattered ;-)

    @Jacob, @ITrush – Good luck with your ebooks!

    @Reza – I spread the 13 hours across a few days (apologies if that wasn’t clear in my post), though there’s no reason you couldn’t attempt it in 13 hours solid! 7 hours might be enough – depends on how long your ebook is and how much graphic/design work you want to do.

  • Anders Ronnau

    September 17th, 2009 1:35 am

    Hi Ali
    Thanks for a great pack of tips.
    I would think that you do some kind of tracking of how many downloads you have, who downloads, and a lot of other stuff?
    Do you track downloads – and if you do, how?

  • BloggerDaily

    September 17th, 2009 4:00 am

    Wow. This is a complete guide for making an E-Book! ..and I need it! Thanks a lot!

  • DC Practice Tools

    September 17th, 2009 4:48 am

    Ali,

    Great advice, easy to read and very enjoyable. Honestly, I personally haven’t though about writing an ebook, but why not? Everyone has something to be shared and everyone has more room to learn. Right?

    As usual, the journey through the comments was very enlightening with so many good and useful tips in them as well.

    Thank you for sharing your gift of writing.
    Cindi

  • Wayne Key

    September 17th, 2009 6:47 am

    An absolutely amazing and important post. Even if the 13 hours is a bit fast for most situations, a week is not. At least for the basic research and writing. I am thinking that I need to get ahead a weeks worth of posts on my blog and do the research and write an ebook in a week.

    Does anyone have a reference to good and free/pretty-cheap ebook formatting software?

    Thanks for an inspiring post!

  • Computer Tips

    September 17th, 2009 7:09 am

    Unbelievable!!!!! I know why you have such a popular website.. You have covered this subject in such detail. Thanks Darren.

    Wondering if you could continue on this subject and elaborate on the publishing and the landing page stage??

  • Paul Hassing

    September 17th, 2009 7:46 am

    Fabulous post, Darren. Totally impressive. Many thanks indeed! P. :)

  • hokya

    September 17th, 2009 12:11 pm

    i think the most important is number 9, cover and graphic are the most effective factor to attract readers

    :-)

  • Fotografo Matrimonio Milano

    September 17th, 2009 2:29 pm

    Write in e-book is really not easy but it’s a great idea. I belive that i will need more than 50 hours.
    Thanks to clear the workflow to buld an ebook.

  • Randi

    September 17th, 2009 4:09 pm

    I am going to try and do this tonight… like right now then i’m going to sell all of you my ebook :)

  • Surender Sharma

    September 17th, 2009 6:47 pm

    I am observing that many bloggers are publishing the eBooks and giving free or with little charges.
    I think this the best way to share the knowledge with the readers.

  • Samantha Milner

    September 17th, 2009 6:48 pm

    Thanks for the post.

    I often write many of my ebooks in a day and this has brought it home to others how easy it is to do. As long as you can set the time out and dont get distracted by other tasks its easily done.

    kind regards

    sam
    X

  • make money free

    September 17th, 2009 9:14 pm

    I like Nate also use MS Word to transfer my doc to PDF very helpful though I have not wrote nor published any full e books. Your post has really surprised me though I think that I will at least attempt to write one.

    kris

  • Codruta Moga

    September 17th, 2009 11:49 pm

    It took me more than 13 hours, but that’s a challenge I’ll take for the next ebook. The hardest part was to write, write, write, without editing.
    For the publishing part I think it would be useful to make a presentation with the main ideas of the ebook and publish it on SlideShare. Another idea would be to share it on LinkedIn, on the groups that are interested by the subject.

    excellent guide, it came at the right moment
    thank you

  • MaryMoh

    September 18th, 2009 12:11 am

    I’m very inspired by this article. I always wonder how people write their eBook. I’m very interested to write one about my cooking one day. This is such a useful guide to me.

    Thanks, Darren

    MaryMoh

  • Learn Chinese Everyday

    September 18th, 2009 1:56 am

    “Free ebooks can be a great traffic draw”. This is the purpose I create Chinese PDF ebooks/worksheets.
    However, Step 12 : Publicise is the most difficult step.
    Thanks for the post.

  • Endy Daniyanto

    September 18th, 2009 7:31 am

    Hey Ali,

    I think this post can become an ebook by itself! You’re style of writing is such that it isn’t exhausting to read even though you make quite long posts. Will use your guidelines. I’ve been wanting to write an ebook, but maybe not anytime soon.

    Cheers,
    Endy

  • Ronblogger

    September 18th, 2009 11:53 am

    nice list of ideas there. im planning to have my own soon and i will surely follow your steps here ;)

  • MiaHysteria

    September 18th, 2009 12:43 pm

    Great article. Thanks for the outline. It’s something I’ll refer back to often.

  • Dennis Gibson

    September 18th, 2009 2:15 pm

    Wow. Those tips were awesome and I can really relate to it. Just as I thought of haveing an e book!

  • Liew Cheon Fong

    September 18th, 2009 2:25 pm

    great article. I found the steps work on writing blog post too!

  • brigid

    September 18th, 2009 8:05 pm

    thanks so much for this info!!!
    Its just what I need, the Darkroom doesn’t work with Macs though, so it looks like I will have to buy Writeroom. I tried it Its awesome, thanks for the link.
    I will be referring to this post a lot because I am about to write 2 free e-books. Watch for the release dates!!
    Cheers Ali for being so generous with what you have learned, much appreciated
    Brigid

  • Ali Hale - Aliventures/Getting More From Life

    September 19th, 2009 3:31 am

    Thanks for keeping the comments coming; very much welcomed! I’ll address a few below:

    @Paul – The 15 was the “final proof read” and was mostly focused on link-checking (and keeping an eye out for any glaring errors!) The stage where I did most of the spell-checking and typo-fixing was “Redrafting and editing, inserting all links: 3 hours”

    @Anders – I haven’t been tracking downloads, nope, I’m sure it should be possible to see how often the pdf has been requested from the web server though.

    @Wayne – The 13 hours is tight, and I did spread it across a few days. Also, I’m a writer by profession, which certainly helped a lot!

    @Samantha – Yes, I think an ebook in a day is definitely possible!

    @Codruta – Those are some great ideas on publishing/marketing, thanks!

    @Endy – This was a pretty long post (even by Aliventures standards!) so I’m glad it was digestible!

    @bridid – Yes, I’m afraid I don’t use a Mac so not sure if there’s a free version of WriteRoom or something similar.

  • Bakari

    September 19th, 2009 7:42 am

    Ali, I just finished reading your article (which could easily be expanded into an ebook!), and I have question about the Adobe Acrobat process. If I say write, format, and export my ebook as a PDF file using Apple’s Pages or Word, why do I need to bring it into Adobe Acrobat? Is it just so the links will work? I’m not quite clear about that part of the process.

    Btw, I know I can’t finish my ebook in 13 hours (I’m a slow writer and typist), but even if I did it in 13 days that would be better than what I’ve done so far, which is only think about the idea of doing it. So I think writers of your guide shouldn’t get stuck on the number of hours. The point is, is to have a plan and stick with it. Don’t let the project be so drawn out that you never get started or complete it.

  • George Estremera

    September 19th, 2009 2:08 pm

    There oughta be more blogs like this! Information products are big online business, and more make money online experts need to cover this area as well as it’s covered here! Thanks for clearing up some things that might have daunted a beginning online entrepreneur!

  • Lexi Rodrigo

    September 19th, 2009 9:32 pm

    Thanks, Ali! I’ve been toying with the idea of giving away a free report or ebook on my blog. Now you’ve inspired me to actually do it!

    And I’m so glad you included adding a table of contents in your steps. Ebooks without a TOC is a pet peeve of mine. I’ve bought ebooks without one and it’s very annoying. It shows the writer didn’t care enough about the reader to make the experience easy for them.

    Oh and I’d like to add that creating a PDF is not an issue for Mac users since we can easily turn almost any document into a PDF.

  • jennifer888

    September 21st, 2009 5:47 am

    Ali,

    Thank you for this post! As a new blogger myself, I haven’t even considered the idea of writing an eBook. It is now something I have on my “To-Do” list!

  • Roberto75

    September 24th, 2009 6:58 pm

    Absolutely awesome post! I’ve been thinking about writing an ebook for a good while now, but the challenge always seemed too BIG!
    Just breaking it down into manageable chunks like you have above, makes the whole process seem a lot more achievable. So thanks, I’m gonna get right on it :)

    P.S I’m currently using eCoverSuiteElite for my eCovers etc. Just thought I’d post an alternative to eCover Software Pro – It works in photoshop so the end result it usually at a much higher quality.

  • Dickie Armour

    September 25th, 2009 7:18 am

    WOW! I love this article! Thank you so much. I thought it was going to be an article with 13 tips, but this is so much more. YOu’ve gone into great detail and I really enjoyed reading it and I have picked up some great advice.

    The feedback and number of comments you’ve had speak volumes.

    I wish my Blog was this successful!

    Have a great evening and thanks again.

    Kind Regards
    Dickie

  • Travel Membership

    September 29th, 2009 11:23 am

    Hey Ali,

    Very well explained and step by step post. You got me thinking of creating my own ebook. The table of contents idea was great. Keep up the great work. I look forward in reading more of your posts.

    Thanks,

    Tony

  • Fran Civile

    October 4th, 2009 2:42 am

    Thank you very much! I already have some bits and pieces
    I have drafted for a ‘How to set up a membership site’ so with your great plan in hand I have no excuse for not being able to complete this project in 13 hours…

    Fran :)

  • Eugen - electrician Bucuresti

    October 4th, 2009 5:44 am

    Hello,

    Thank You for your advice. I was planning to write a e-book on electrical engineering. This will help me alot.

    Than You once more,
    Eugen

  • John (aka The Masked Financier)

    October 4th, 2009 10:29 am

    Ali,
    Many thanks for this excellent post.
    I myself have already written an ebook and am planning on distributing it online for free based on the following strategy:
    1) I have written a full ebook on the topic of Texas Holdem Investing
    2) I am current posting on my site a shortened version of the full book – similar to the strategy used by 37Signals for their “Getting Real” book
    3) When I have finished posting the shortened version online I will PDF it and distribute it for free
    4) Then I will create the full version as a PDF and sell it as a follow up to the free version

    I would be very interested in any feedback from you.
    Also, one question I have is: how does one set up the distribution so whoever comes to the site has to give an email address if they would like (it would not be mandatory)?

  • dusakabin

    October 16th, 2009 2:25 am

    700 $ a day? x30 = 21,000 $ a ay!!
    Ben Darren am impressed!

  • Timberland shoes

    October 19th, 2009 11:27 am

    I already have some bits and pieces
    I have drafted for a ‘How to set up a membership site’ so with your great plan in hand I have no excuse for not being able to complete this project in 13 hours…

  • Jennifer

    October 20th, 2009 5:42 am

    Hurrah for the thinkers! This is a very inspiring project – and a challenge to boot. Thanks for the post.

  • Ishan@ILoveFreeSoftware

    November 16th, 2009 5:17 pm

    This is a really good post. I have been thinking about creating an ebook for sometime, but had been putting it off thinking that it would be pretty complicated to do the same. However, you have made the whole process seem pretty simple. I am sure to give it a try now. Thanks :)


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