Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 2: Writing a Digital Book
• Method 2 of 2: Publishing a digital book
• Tips

Whether you have a million dollar idea or just want your voice to be heard, writing a digital book and selling it electronically is a cheap and effective self-publishing option. And this article will tell you all the details of writing a digital book!

Steps

Method 1 of 2: Writing a Digital Book

1. 1 Come up with an idea. Digital books are regular books, just digital. They are written in exactly the same way, so, first, you need an idea. The easiest way is to sit down, think and formulate the main message of the book in one sentence. Having coped with this, you can proceed to all other matters.
   • Work on a future book in terms of planning will take a lot of time and effort, not to mention writing it. Search online for guides on this topic to make your life easier.
   • The digital book format is beneficial for writers not only because its publication is free. The point is that a book that would be more expensive to print on paper could be distributed electronically!
2. 2 Develop an idea. Have an idea? It's time to add some more details. It will be useful to draw a map of concepts for your future book, to make some kind of a plan.The more elaborate your plan is, the easier it will be to work on the book further.
   • Different books need different approaches to developing a plan. A memoir plan can be organized linearly, but in the case of, say, a repair manual, a concept map will do better.
3. 3 Organize all the details of the story. After working on the main idea, you should notice that you just have a lot to write about. Now is the time to organize and organize everything in such a way that the narrative looks logical and clear. Think about what your readers will want to know at the beginning, and put the basics at the beginning of the book. After that, you can already move on to more difficult moments of the book, without fear of losing the reader.
   • Remember, each line of your outline is a future chapter. And the chapters can be divided into thematic groups, as well as the chapters can be combined according to the principle of contiguity of the topic.
4. 4 Write a book. Don't worry about the title yet. Don't worry about the table of contents. And don't worry about style. Just sit down and start writing. It may be easier to start in the middle by first writing a chapter that spins around on the tongue. Write in the way that suits you. Your task now is to write everything.
   • Please note that this will take a long time. So consistency, consistency and patience! Write daily for a certain amount of time, or, for example, write at least a certain amount of text. Stay at your desk until you've finished your work. Even if you are overcome by a creative crisis, then write at least something until it lets go and the inspiration returns.
5. 5 Check everything and rewrite. Is the book ready? Set it aside for a week and then take a fresh look at it. Are the chapters well ordered? Is it logical? Maybe you should rearrange something somewhere? If the order of the chapters suits you, then skip to the chapters themselves.
   • As in the previous case, it will take time, although not so much. Edit a certain number of pages per day, but not less.
   • You will often come across the fact that this or that piece of text will need to be rewritten. Try to keep the text as coherent and orderly as possible.
   • Sometimes it's easier to delete and rewrite than trying to fix it. Do not be afraid to delete unnecessary, unsuccessful and illogical.
     • If this information turns out to be simply extremely important, then there is nothing to do - you need to edit everything so that it harmoniously integrates into the text.
6. 6 Add details and details. If the book, after all the edits, began to look more or less bearable, then it's time to come up with a title, write an introduction and draw up a bibliography. Titles and titles are usually created along the way. As a last resort, you can get by with a simple headline without pretensions.
   • Have you decided, out of harm's way, to make a simple headline? Come up with a couple of backup options in advance. It often happens that books with such a title have already been published.
   • If you took information from third-party sources, then you need to correctly draw up footnotes, because plagiarism is not a joke. If the third-party sources were friends, then write them thanks.
7. 7 Add a cover. Like regular books, digital books need a cover, even a virtual one. Nevertheless, it is the cover that the buyer will see first, so it makes sense to think about hiring a professional. Above all, do not use copyrighted images without permission.
   • Even a fragment of a copyrighted image cannot be taken without permission.

Method 2 of 2: Publishing a digital book

1. 1 Gather all the related information. The more responsible you approach this task, the easier it will be to cope with the publication. In a separate file, collect the title of the book, its table of contents, the number of chapters, the number of words and pages. Then prepare a list of keywords and, if necessary, abstracts.
   • And it is far from the fact that theses will be needed, unless we are talking about popular science works.
2. 2 Think about the book's readership. Try to imagine who will be interested in your book with its description and summary? How old are these people, where do they live, how much do they get? Just imagine. All this will help you to promote the book in the future.
3. 3 Choose a publishing platform. There are enough options, the conditions are different - both for protection against unlicensed copying and for issues of royalties. Please read carefully all the options available.
4. 4 Publish the book through KDP. Most often they use the platform from Amazon - KDP. It will help you format and publish your digital book specifically for the Kindle market. In other words, all owners of these readers will be able to buy your book, from which you will be transferred up to 70% of the cost of the book, if, of course, the price is between $ 2.99 and $ 9.99. The main disadvantage of this option is that those who do not have Kindle readers will not be able to buy your book.
5. 5 Consider other options. Services like Lulu, Booktango and Smashwords will also help you publish your book in electronic format. As a rule, the basic services of these services are free, but you will have to fork out for additional options. So choose wisely or you will be wasting your money. The advantages of these services are obvious - a wider readership, and royalties are sometimes higher (Lulu pays up to 90%)!
6. 6 Be aware of hidden costs. Any publishing platform works with one format or another. To reformat your book into the desired format, you can, of course, use the services of third parties - but for money. It would be much better to do everything yourself. However, there are also disadvantages - you will have to read the requirements of the publishing platforms, download the necessary programs, deal with them, and so on. So if you decide to ask for help, then don't pay more than a couple of hundred dollars for everything.
   • And never work with a publisher who won't let you put your own price. Also, keep in mind that the most profitable books come from $ 0.99 to $ 5.99.
7. 7 Publish the book yourself using special programs. If you want to make the entire Internet happy with your book, and not the users of a particular site, then this option is for you, since there are plenty of programs that allow you to do this nowadays. However, keep in mind that protection against unauthorized copying of such programs is inferior in efficiency to protection of more serious publishing platforms.
   • Caliber is a new, free, fast, powerful and simple program that converts HTML (and only) to EPUB. And most text editors can save text to HTML.
   • Adobe Acrobat Pro is the gold standard for creating PDF files that are readable almost everywhere and everywhere. This program will help you protect the book with a password (not a panacea, but still). The program is powerful, but, alas, paid.
   • Known to many as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org can save files to PDF. True, adding a cover will be more difficult, but in terms of protecting PDF files, this option is not inferior to Acrobat.
   • And dozens of other programs, both paid and free.
8. 8 Advertise your book. You published it and downloaded it somewhere, and now you are waiting for when they will start buying it? Don't expect a miracle, start promoting your masterpiece. Options, again, are very decent, for every taste. And even if you use the services of professionals, it will not be superfluous to show initiative and independence.
   • Social media is a great way to make yourself known! Twitter, Facebook, Vkontakte ... even LinkedIn!
   • Use all available and appropriate means to advertise the book.
   • Remember that people like it when authors are available for questions. By the way, it's helpful to send a copy of your book to review bloggers and ask them to review your book.

Tips

• Save your work materials at all times. You never know what will happen - paper burns, hard drives break. You don't want your work to disappear without a trace, do you? Then make backups!
• Always read carefully what you are paying for in terms of editing and advertising. Always be clear about everything. If you cannot understand how much you will be billed for services, do not sign the contract.