E-book Writing Best Practices in 2020

Contents

E-book Writing Best Practices in 2020

1. Commit to writing
2. Research your Audience
3. Innovate and renovate
4. Know your target audience
5. Be sure of what you want to write
6. Know what kind of writer you are
7. Should you self-publish?
8. Additional tips on how to write and sell your e-books online

With everything going online, it’s no surprise that people are leaving behind paperback novels and turning to e-books instead. In recent times, sales of e-books have sky-rocketed. Writing an e-book have plenty of advantages too – it’s easier, cheaper, and there’s a vast market to sell your e-books online.

But for new writers, this may be challenging. There’s a ton of genres, plenty of competition, and confusion behind how to publish your books online. But, you don’t need to worry anymore because I’ve listed down some of the best e-book writing practices for you to make use of this year. So, stop stressing and start reading to pave your way to becoming a published author!

1.      Commit to writing

A lot of people decide to become an author and make big plans on publishing multiple e-books but they aren’t able to. Why is that?

Because writing an e-book takes time, patience, and hard-work; you require commitment.

Coming up with an idea, putting that idea into words, and then rewriting, editing, going through multiple revisions until you’re satisfied with what you’ve written can take many months. So, before you decide on writing an e-book, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have the mental strength to commit to many hours of writing, which can take up to many months?
• Do you believe you have it in you to not give up midway writing because of boredom, stress, frustrations or a busy schedule?
• Is this really what you want to do or is it just a passing fancy?

If you’ve answered yes to all the above questions then congrats! You have the capabilities to become an excellent e-book writer.

2.      Research your Audience

As a writer, it should be your main goal to understand what your readers want to read or expect from you, what they like and dislike, and what topics or genres, they most like.

If you’re unsure about how well your book would fare, look up different books on Amazon or Goodreads, in line with the topic you wish to write about. Pick the ones, which have the highest ratings and reviews and go through them. This will give you a better idea on what e-book audiences like.

You don’t have to copy those authors or write similarly to those but this would aid your research, after all, you are writing for that audience.

Reading those novels won’t only help you understand your audience, but you’ll become knowledgeable about your topic of interest and will become a better writer! Not only that, you can learn from the marketing skills of those authors and understand better on how e-book marketing (online) works.

3.      Innovate and renovate

You want your book to be meaningful, well-researched, have a sound plot or outline, excellent writing and receive good feedback from your audience. To do that, you need to follow certain measures:

1.      Know your target audience

To make your e-book a success, research the feedback given by your audience to books similar to the one, you intend to write. What they liked and disliked about those books, and their opinions on how the books could be improved.

You need to be sure of your audience’s preferences because you’re catering to a certain niche, you’ll have to listen to their feedback and learn from it.

2.      Be sure of what you want to write

Writing can often be tricky because it’s easy to get distracted or become side-tracked from your original plot or idea. The surest way to accomplish your goal of writing your book the way you originally intended to is to outline these points before you write your first draft:

• Why am I writing this book?
• Who is this book for?
• Why should people buy and read my book?
• How does my book differ from other books in the market?

Answer these questions on a paper or somewhere, where you can go back to when you’re in doubt or confused about your writing.

3.      Know what kind of writer you are

Are you someone who has a vague idea of what you want to write or have you already figured out how you want the whole book to be carried out? If you fall into the first category, then writing will come freely to you, you’ll inspire yourself as you make progress in writing. If you fall into the latter, you’ll have to spend a hefty amount of time figuring out the flow of your book, the story, characters, what to add or what not to before you even begin writing.

Both of these approaches are good, none is superior over the other. If you don’t know yet of what kind of a writer you are, don’t stress yourself because it will come to you as you start writing.

4.      Should you self-publish?

Okay, so now we move on to the big question: how to publish your e-book online?

With this you can take two approaches, you can work with a book publishing house or you can self-publish your book.

If you decide to self-publish, know it won’t come cheap, but it had its benefits like you have complete creative control, higher royalty rates, and a quicker publishing process.

When self-publishing, you’ll need to set aside a large amount of cash in order to pay proof-readers, editors, copywriters, and all other professionals involved in making your book better. You’ll also need to pay for marketing – e-book marketing online – which will be in the form of Amazon ads or to show up in recommendation for potential buyers.

Additional tips on how to write and sell your e-books online:

• Set a deadline
• Research, research, and research!
• Take breaks while writing
• Pace yourself so you don’t get behind on your writing
• Have a fixed writing space, which is strictly reserved for your writing
• Accept you’ll make mistakes, but learn to move past them
• Don’t let writer’s block overcome you

Writing an e-book is no easy task. It’s time-consuming, mentally exhausting, and incredibly stressful at times, but it’s also rewarding. Especially when you see your published book being read and enjoyed by others.

Even if you don’t manage to write a masterpiece on your first try (no one does!), don’t be disheartened, you can write again. And again. And again till you nail a perfect book.

If you found these tips and suggestions useful, write to me in the comments or tell me your suggestions on how to make writing easier!