Lately I’ve found myself wondering more and more, should I create an eBook? This question has been floating around at the back of my mind since I first learned about the eBooks market and the art of self publishing. I’ve been fascinated by the publishing process for a long time and admire authors who have the drive and discipline to write their own books.
Even though I never really considered myself a writer until just recently, I’ve had dreams about a writing a book of my own for many years. So it felt natural to put publishing an eBook as a goal on my bucket list.
I Failed At Writing Fiction
Before I became a blogger, I actually tried writing a children’s book for a few months, but I totally failed! Like a lot of people, I wanted to be the next J.K. Rowling and strike it rich. But I quickly learned that is way easier said than done. The majority of story ideas I thought of had already been written, and the few unique ones I managed to come up with were totally lame.
After that failure, I pretty much gave up my dream of writing a book because I wasn’t as creative as I hoped and I had only considered fiction writing. Only now have I started to shake that off and am I starting to feel like a real writer, embracing now that my strength is in nonfiction.
Should I Create An eBook?
Now that writing a book doesn’t seem so far fetched if I stick to nonfiction, I’ve gone from wondering should I create an eBook to when should I create an eBook? I keep a busy schedule like a lot of people, and almost every day I feel like I never get enough done. My to do list constantly grows more than it shrinks and I haven’t mastered the cure for laziness yet.
So when I first added publishing a nonfiction eBook to my bucket list, I figured it’d be something I’d do down the road, maybe 3-5 years from now when I plan to become a full time entrepreneur. But recently I realized that there really is no point in waiting! I was busy three years ago, I’m busy now, and chances are I’m going to be just as busy three years from now. Time has a way of slipping away from us if we’re not careful, so if I want to complete this goal, I might as well start now.
One of my favorite inspirational quotes is by Lao Tzu who says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.“ Each step we take, even if it’s small, will eventually get us to our destination if we can keep at it. And as we all know, sometimes taking that first step is the biggest hurdle of them all.
Benefits Of Creating An eBook
There are also several benefits to creating an eBook that have inspired me to give self publishing a shot.
- Create And Build A Brand
- Become An Authority
- Increase Traffic & Readership
I want to build the Untemplater brand, continue to grow our community, and share more of my knowledge and experience. I enjoy helping people, offering advice, and nonfiction writing in general. The idea of creating, designing, and simply having a product is also very exciting. Plus self publishing has lots of flexibility which I love.
Pulling Ideas Out Of My Head
I took my first step to creating an eBook last week and wrote down a bunch of ideas about what type of eBook I want to write and put together an outline of topics I plan to cover. I’m keeping the details under wraps for now but I will tell you it’s going to include a bunch of tips from my own experience. I’m excited already! I also think it will be really rewarding if I can complete this goal on my bucket list, since I like challenges, and it will get me one step closer to becoming a full time entrepreneur. Since I plan to self publish, I will also have full freedom on the content, design, pricing, and timing of the book as well.
It’s exciting being a project manager, and I’ve never had a product of my own before. I know I’m going to learn a ton in the process and will also need to stay disciplined since I already have a lot of things going on in my life. The good news is I helped Sam with the editing and design of his fabulous eBook How To Engineer Your Layoff this year, so I already have some experience and knowledge of publishing under my belt to propel me forward. And I already know how to design eBook covers, create 3D images, and make banner ads so that part should be fairly easy too.
Formulating A Plan
I love to plan, so I’ve put together a rough timeline of when I want to complete each chapter and all the other items I’ll need to complete. After looking things over, I’ve set a goal to launch by July 15th, 2013. That sounds far away, but given the holidays are coming and the intensity of my work schedule for the next three to five months, I’ll be doing the bulk of the work in Q2 2013. I’d love to finish it in one month, but I try to be realistic when I set goals because I don’t want to set myself up for failure. Plus I can’t deny I already have a lot on my plate right now. So July sounds reasonable, and of course if I manage to finish early, I’ll be ecstatic!
The writing and editing is what’s going to take me the longest, and since I already know I’m not the fastest writer out there, I want to have enough time to put together a book that I’m proud of. Anyone can sit down and write, but not everyone writes well. I want to make sure that my eBook is high quality so I know I will need more than just a couple months to put it together. I know my grammar isn’t perfect either, and I’m not the funniest gal out there, but I like to think that my writing style is enjoyable for people to read and I hope this will show in my book!
Inspirational eBooks
A few years ago, I’d never even heard of eBooks and didn’t know much of anything about self publishing. It’s an exciting market, and I owe a lot of my inspiration to people like Chris Guillebeau who created The Unconventional Guides. Who knows how successful I will be, but I’ve happily decided the answer to my question should I create an eBook is YES!
It’s really neat how we can learn just about anything from books and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of reading and learning new things. Here are a few inspirational and informative eBooks to help you on your untemplate journey to shatter the template lifestyle!
One of Untemplater’s regular contributors is Sam Dogen of FinancialSamurai.com. He’s THE guy you go to if you want financial advice, guidance on the real estate market, and help with starting a new career you love with money in the bank. His popular eBook, How To Engineer Your Layoff, is the resource you can’t miss if you are thinking about leaving your current job to do something else.
I was actively involved in the editing and launch of this ebook and I can assure you it’s filled with helpful, easy to follow tips on how to get paid to leave your current job! Read examples of people who successfully launched new careers and lifestyles and find out how to get started on your own opportunities. Learn More…
The Unconventional Guide, Art + Money will teach you how to thrive as an artist without selling out. If you’ve been dreaming about becoming a full time artist, but don’t want to be broke the rest of your life, this is the perfect eBook for you. The guide will teach you how to represent yourself, build a customer base, set pricing, and expand your online presence.
In addition to the eBook you’ll also get to learn from and listen to five interviews with artists who are making money doing what they love. Learn More…
Want to create your own business? This Unconventional Guide, Empire Building Kit, will teach you how to build a business in one year by doing one thing every day. Get inside advice from 15 entrepreneurs making $50-150,000 a year in NET income and have 3 or fewer employees.
You’ll learn which business ideas are the most likely to succeed, which steps to focus on and which to skip, how to increase profits, and more. You can also check out our video interview with Chris Guillebeau himself. Learn More…
Untemplaters, have you ever thought about creating an eBook? Do you have any goals you want to reach in the next 6-12 months?
Copyright. Original content authorized only to appear on Untemplater.com. Thank you for reading!
Go for it Syd! I totally agree with you that writing is harder than it looks. I was motivated years ago to write a book about some adventures my friends and I had in high school. One pivotal scene churned out one page and I was pooped! I’ve been tossing the idea around for an ebook, ideas won’t take you anywhere without a plan and action. Way to hold yourself accountable and I can’t wait to see it. I recently made a podcast about three sure fire topics for info products. I know you’re keeping things under wraps, but does your eBook fall within one of the three categories? Good Luck!
Thanks Buck. Yes, it’s so much harder that is sounds, especially being a frequently busy person there are always things popping up that distract me from writing. I’ve got a vacation coming up so I hope to be able to do some writing while I’m relaxed and away from my normal routine.
I started out with fiction as well. Back in middle school, my friend and I would sit and write short stories together. I still have a half finished novella in my closet. I typed up all those stories earlier this year with the idea of finishing them and selling them on Amazon until I realized that my writing back then was BAD.
That said, I’ve written a two cookbooks so far, and I’m working on my third and fourth. The second finished one and one of the upcoming ones are just collections of recipes from my food blog, but the first finished one and the other one in progress are original content.
Yeah, it’s funny how our writing changes over time. Nice job making 2 cookbooks! That’s really cool Edward. Best of luck on your next 2!
Congratulations on taking the first step towards your new journey! I wish you luck on your eBook. Writing a book has also been on my bucket list for a long time. I’m writing one as we speak. My question is are you going to have a print version as well?
Thanks Dominique! And congrats on starting writing on yours. I don’t plan on making a print version. Although someday I hope to make a printed book of my photography. I’ve made personal photo books, but it’d be cool to have a collection of some of my best work to publish.
I agree that an eBook can be a great way to help build a brand and increase readership. When you’re ready for marketing Sydney stop by bloggersclassifieds.com and list your eBook. Best of luck with the project! – Paul
Thanks Paul I appreciate it! Marketing is a big challenge with any launch. My biggest hurdle up front is taking the time to sit down and write without distractions. My mind has a tendency to wander if I’m not in a quiet room.
I think it’s a great idea to create an eBook.
But, my opinion is that eBooks are a good start, but you should ultimately set you sites on converting it into a paperback book.
I have written both eBooks and paperback books, and book sales for paperbacks are exponentially higher. The nice part it, it’s not much of a jump to go from eBook to paperback book.
And, self-publishing a paperback book is a relatively easy road to navigate..
That’s really neat you’ve written several books Terry! I did some reading about self-publishing paperbacks and there are a decent amount of options out there. It’s pretty sweet there are ways to get in print like that, but I want to wait and see what kind of sales I get through e-publishing first.
Go for it! I look forward to watching your journey succeed.
Thanks Marie!
I think you are going about this with a lot of good intention and optimism, and I wish you good luck on this endeavor. It will be interesting to see what direction you go with the as far as theme. I also have aspirations to write my own eBook (two major topics come to mind). I think the major challenge right now will be on how to actually execute this plan. Writing it is only half the battle – marketing it is a whole other game from everything I read.
Thanks. Yes marketing will be tough and a challenge in itself. It’s one of the hardest things for any type of product.
I love this b/c you can tell as soon as you typed the title, you’d decided “yes!” on writing an ebook. Can’t wait to learn more!
🙂 Thanks Kathleen! I’m looking forward to working on some more things with it this weekend and over Thanksgiving.
I plan to write one eventually but it isn’t on the immediate list. I have other things to get established first! I think you should go for it if it is a goal you really want to hit. Just because you start today doesn’t mean you have to finish tomorrow. It could take a year or two and it’d still be fine.
Yeah. Hopefully it won’t take me a year, but even if it does I’ll be happy that I will have started on it now and not five years from now.
Writing my book definitely was a fantastic learning experience that also felt and feels great! Every time there is a sale, I KNOW that someone looking to get out of their job will be better prepared to negotiate their exit and severance.
The examples and testimonials that flow in are very uplifting and motivating to write more content on FS around the topic, and to give more tips to everyone. Because I was a manager and now a FT blogger, the combination of insights and what we can talk about could be endless! I just need to be careful to diversify my content to keep things interesting.
Everyone should write their own eBook! It takes lots of work, but it’s so worth it for the three reasons you mention above. Create your niche and go for it! Thanks for all your help in editing HTEYL Sydney!
Sam
Thank you too! You make a good point about helping others. I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of work but I think it will be worth it. 🙂
Congratulations on taking the first step and stay motivated Sydney!
Thanks Moneycone! It’s funny how I’m way more motivated when I’m busy. I doubt I would have ever taken the first step before I became a blogger and I had a lot more time on my hands back then!