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It’s day three of the 14 day e-book writing challenge here at All Freelance Writing. If you’ve been with us from the beginning, you’ve narrowed down niche ideas through simple market research, chosen your final topic (and a working title), possibly set up your domain name and Web hosting for the site where you’ll sell or distribute your e-book, and you’ve created a basic e-book outline. Today we’re going to expand on that outline to give you something more substantial to simplify the writing process.
Reminder: Visit the official challenge thread to access all of the pre-challenge reading on e-book publishing, and for a running list of daily challenge tasks. If you can’t participate during these 14 days, you’ll be able to use the information in that post at any time later to challenge yourself as well.
Today we’ll be tackling three things:
Task Summary:
- Set an estimated length goal for your e-book.
- Conduct further keyword research.
- Create your expanded e-book outline.
E-book Length:
There’s no way to know exactly how long your finished e-book will be at the end of this challenge. However, it’s a good idea to estimate some kind of goal. That’s going to help you pace yourself with your actual writing.
You don’t need to choose an exact page count as your estimate. You can be pretty general (more than 20 pages, more than 50 pages, 100+ pages, etc.), or you can create a relatively narrow range (20 – 30 pages, etc.).
When estimating the length, keep in mind that only 4 – 5 days of the challenge are going to be allocated solely to writing the content. Only you know how much time you can invest during each day of the challenge, and only you know how quickly you can write unique material on the topic you’ve chosen. Keep these things (as well as your audience and their expectations) in mind when creating your e-book length estimate.
Keyword Research:
You already conducted basic keyword research, so I won’t get into a how-to here. If you need a refresher on using the Adwords sandbox, read the day one tasks or read my finding e-book ideas post again.
Originally you did keyword research to help you narrow down your niche options. Yesterday, you outlined some of the primary subject areas to be covered in your e-book. Today you should conduct similar keyword research in each of those narrower areas to help you choose the best headline options and topics to discuss in each area based on what people want to know (through what they’re searching for).
Expanded E-book Outline:
How thorough your outline is will depend entirely on what you’re most comfortable with. Some people prefer a basic outline structure simply listing the points they want to touch one. I suggest you do that as a bare minimum. If you prefer a more detailed outline, you can list sub-topics and even list some of the primary points you want to make in each section of your e-book.
By the time you’ve completed your expanded e-book outline, everything you want to touch on in the e-book should be listed in some way (what will vary from person to person is the level of detail), and you should have something that you’ll feel comfortable using as a guide for writing your e-book content, sales letter, and other promotional materials.
What style of expanded outline works best for you?
Related posts:
- 14 Day E-book Writing Challenge – Day Two
- 14 Day E-book Writing Challenge – Day Five
- 14 Day E-book Writing Challenge – Day Seven
- 14 Day E-book Writing Challenge – Day Twelve
- 14 Day E-book Writing Challenge – Day Eleven
About the Author: Jennifer Mattern
Browse all posts from this author.
This question should perhaps have come earlier in The Challenge:
When producing a PDF book is there any reason to get an ISBN number, or would that only be necessary for printed editions or if I was going to market through a bookseller?
I’m having fun with the challenge! T.
I’m glad you’re having fun Tina.
No, you don’t have to get an isbn for your e-book (if you’re planning to distribute it yourself or through services like Clickbank, e-junkie, etc.). If you’re selling through a bookseller, chances are they’ll require it, so be sure to check with any distributors first. And remember, if you want an isbn for your e-book, and you’re also planning to release a print edition, they’ll each need their own isbn.