jbotman.com - How to write an eBook Part 2

How to write an eBook

Parts 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

Part Two - Getting to know your audience

KNOW YOUR SUBJECT, YOUR AUDIENCE AND THEIR PRICE POINT

You have to know who your audience is and you have to know about your content subject. Your audience has to find confidence in you and your knowledge. Without that trust, you cannot build a reputation and that means no ongoing sales.

If you know your content, then getting it down on paper (so to speak) is the easy part. But you have to know who your finished product is for. Think about how much they know already, what it is you are going to share with them. Think about the tone of your language and the detail of your content.

Let's look at an example.

You want to produce an eBook about doddling. (I don't know what doddling is, I have just made it up for the sake of this article. Let's assume that it is a sport of some kind).

So, are you the world expert? Are you a passionate beginner? Do you have qualifications that enable you to train other people to doddle? Is your book for experts? for beginners? for trainers? for Mums and Dads who want to know what their delightful offspring have got themselves involved in?

How long is your eBook going to be? And how much do you expect to sell it for? As a general rule, shorter books sell for less. But it doesn't have to be that way. If you are the world expert in doddling and you create an eBook about the latest significant research in that field, you would and should feel as if you can charge for your knowledge regardless of the size of the finished volume.

(If I begin to sound like your English teacher at High School, then you are listening to me correctly. That was my day job in a previous life. I know what I am talking about. And I know how excruciating it can be to read bad stuff, especially after I have paid for it!)

You need to ask yourself these questions and record the answers. You need to get your head space into the mindset as the author, so that you get a feel for the tone of your text. Recording the answers is important. You will not be able to write the whole text in one day. You need to have records of the ideas and processes for your text creation so that you can refer back to them when you get stuck. And you will get stuck!