8 Lessons I Learned from Writing My First Ebook

Updated on: by Amy Kennedy

Lessons to Writing an EbookNow that I’ve written and published my first ebook and it’s started getting some downloads, I wanted to share some lessons I learned as I went through the process of writing this first ebook. If you  have thought about writing an ebook,  I hope you’ll keep these things in mind.

Need Easy Extra $350+/Month For Free?

  • SwagBucks: Watch videos, take surveys, shop and more to earn real money. Earn up to $35 per survey! No hidden fees and completely free. Join Swagbucks Now to Get $5 Free
  • InboxDollars: Has so far paid its members over $40 Million. Watch videos, take surveys, shop and more. Join InboxDollars Now and Get Free $5
  • SurveyJunkie: Make $5-$25 in your spare time from home to take online surveys, participating in a Focus Groups and trying new products. Join SurveyJunkie Now
  • Branded Surveys: Complete online surveys. Collect points. Redeem your points for cash & gift cards. No hidden fees and completely free! Has so far paid its members over $18 Million. Join Branded Surveys Now

Make it a priority –

If you’re determined to write an ebook, you need to set aside time to actually work on  the process.  If you work full t ime, this means you  may have to get early or stay up late so you can put in a little time on your ebook.  I often got up at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning so I could work on writing or researching my ebook , or doing other things related to my ebook.

Have a to-do list –

I always try to make a to-do list of what I want to accomplish for the day, including what I want to get accomplished on my ebook – that could be writing or outlining a chapter,  researching a chapter,  brainstorming ideas, or anything else that I need to do that’s related to my ebook.  Then I would at least try to make a dent in those tasks during the time I set aside for writing.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help –

If your goal is not only to write an ebook, but actually make money off of it, there’s a lot more to the process of writing an ebook than just writing it.  You also have to design a book cover and find ways to market your ebook.  Not everyone knows how to do all these things well though, nor do they have the time to do it, so it’s ok to enlist the help of others you might know.  When I was writing my ebook, I asked Miranda to modify a graphic that I had downloaded and was considering using in my ebook cover.  I also had people help me with editing my ebook as well as my ebook description, and format the ebook description so it would look good on my book’s sales page.

If you don’t already have one, build a following while you’re working on your ebook –

When I first started writing my ebook back in 2012, I did have a little bit of a following  because I had been a contributing writer on Work at Home Adventures for a little over a year at that time, but I also decided to  start a free blog on wordpress.com so I could let people know about the progress I was making on my ebook.  Later when I had the money, I converted the free blog to a self-hosted website on WordPress.org.

Write as much as you can about your ebook’s subject so you can get the word out about your ebook –

You can write guest posts for blogs about your ebook’s subject, or even write articles for sites like Hubpages and Yahoo Contributor Network.  If you have a blog or website, be sure to mention it in your article or blog post.

Get the word out about the articles you wrote –

You can do this by connecting with others on the sites you write on, and you can also share your articles on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Create a mailing list that people can sign up for –

Mailchimp is great for this.  You can sign up for a free account and you’ll be able to send 12,000 emails a month to a list of 2,000 subscribers.  If your list  ends up being larger than that, you may want to consider upgrading to a paid account.  Once you create a mailing list, you can copy and paste the code for the mailing list widget right into your WordPress website, or post a link on different social networking sites.

Connect with other writers –

There are a lot of ways to connect with other writers.  There are writing groups on Facebook, and there are also a few social networking sites especially for writers, such as Indie Writer Support, which is a fairly new site, and also Book Marketing Network.

These are just a few of the lessons I learned from writing my first ebook.  You can check out my ebook here.  To follow my ebook progress, be sure to check out my website.

Related Posts:

Earn Everything… nearly!

Join Ipsos iSay, one of the few Faithful and Honest survey panels and earn prizes, gift cards and donations. Stack your points and redeem them: Simple! No hidden fees and completely free!

Join Ipsos Now

Comments

Click here to post a comment...
Post comment

Anna

June 16, 2014 at 6:25 pm

These are great tips, Erica. I’ve written one and am working on a second. It can be challenging to get through the process when you have other work you have to do … what I did was set aside my weekends for a couple of weeks to work on nothing but that, and I got through it.

The great thing about ebooks is that once they’re written, that’s it! The work is done save for very occasional updating and you can sell it forever.

Erica

June 16, 2014 at 6:36 pm

Very true Anna. I’m working on a second ebook myself, looking forward to reading your second ebook 🙂

Leisa Good

June 17, 2014 at 9:27 am

Great tips, Erica! Yes, you definitely have to keep the e-book on the front burner to ever finish it.

Stacey Crutcher

November 17, 2014 at 11:36 am

Erica, what a wonderful accomplishment, I’ve also self published my first e-book as well it’s called The Beginner’s Guide: “Tips for Working at Home” , Ultimate Guide for The New Work at Home Parent. I had so much fun writing the first that I ended up writing and self publishing my second e-book. I hope to make plans to go on to write more. Feel free to stop by sometime and tell me what you think! Oh yeah thanks for sharing your tips they were most certainly helpful as I will go on to consider writing a third e-book.

Erica Martin

November 17, 2014 at 5:18 pm

So glad to hear it Stacey! I will definitely check out your eBooks.

Laina Turner

November 17, 2014 at 12:47 pm

Good tips. I’m working on a book right now and it is easy to get distracted.

Erica Martin

November 17, 2014 at 5:19 pm

Yes it is – good luck with your eBook!