Writing an ebook. A Journey of Blog, sweat, and tears

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Who’s ready for an Organic Traffic Jam? Because I recently finished my first eBook and with it came the exhilarating feeling of relief. It is a mini milestone in my online journey and I celebrated the fact appropriately – by researching where I could leverage this new creation, and then drafting this post so that I could share the experience with my readers. That’s how a blogger should celebrate something right? Surely there is no time to actually STOP (heaven forbid)

There were a lot of hiccups along the way, and a lot of successes too, so let’s break the saga down into appropriate categories (I’m not obsessive compulsive I swear) and explore what I learned along the way.

The Mental Game

Looking back at the journey I often think how I could have, and SHOULD have completed the ebook at least a month before I actually did. I tend to be too hard on myself I think, whether or not this is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen, but I’m not here to go all Dr. Phil on your ass so I’ll just leave it alone. I really could have finished the ebook earlier, but then you know what – I could still be writing it too! It all goes back to whether the glass is half empty of half full, and even though I personally think the glass is twice as big as it needs to be (it’s just logical) I still believe it all depends on how you look at things. So I looked at it with regards to everything else and I said “Alex, for a guy with an almost full time job, two young kids, a wife who thinks this internet thing is ‘glorified Facebook’ and 5 new teeth in the appearing in the last month from the 10 month old, You are not doing too bad”. It’s all in the perspective. I guess what I am trying to share with you is the lesson that echoes my favourite quote of all time:

“Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change”

Because it actually works

The Physical Game

Creating the ebook itself was not really a drama. Content is content after all, and compiling it really is not that hard when you are writing on a topic you already know about, but organising and structuring the content within the ebook was a battle all to itself. The first thing I did was look at a whole heap of the ebooks I have downloaded in the past to get a general idea of how they were all laid out and in what order, and then I fiddled around with this for about a decade or so. Once I had this done I started randomly writing chapters and compiling resources.

Big mistake! Creating information without a framework is a dangerous thing, and it was not until I did actually build one that things started to progress. So I ‘built’ a framework – and then I ran out of inspiration.

I learned a lot throughout the course of my ebooks creation and I have compiled a relevant and helpful guide for you to use when you start to write your own. I guarantee these tips will help you get things done sooner rather than later and it is a resource I will be using myself when I start ebook number 2. (already started actually )

Tips to getting your ebook written sooner rather than later

• Create an image of what it will look like (your ebook cover)
  I seriously recommend doing this first. The power of imagery has been written about at length and it works like magic here too. Seeing you awesome ebook before it’s written helps fire up the motivational engines and get things going. It also serves as ongoing inspiration when you find yourself losing focus for whatever reason.

• Write a Table of Contents (Index page)
  This is the framework I speak of. You probably think this is really obvious, but like any activity that fully engrosses you, when you are ‘in the moment’ logic seems to be noticeably absent. Needless to say, having a table of contents gives you some structure to work with, and your goals can work with them too. ‘Today I will complete chapter 1 and 4 in their entirety’ is a lot more specific and accountable a goal than ‘today I will write, ummm – the first twenty pages of my ebook’

• Organise the information
  I wish I had thought of this from the offset, it is logical after all (I don’t think logic likes me very much) but organising your files and the information you are using is critical if you want to effectively manage your time and finish your ebook.  When you first decide to write your ebook create a file on your desktop and put everything related to it in that file, but also remember to create a folder within your browser to organise the sites you will be utilising. Trust me, this will make your life so much easier in the long run.

That’s it, no more tips necessary. I look at that pathetic excuse for a list now and I think ‘why did I have so much trouble writing my bloody ebook then?’ Hindsight can be nasty like that.

I’d like to thank… Everyone!

If I really thought about who has inspired and assisted me along the way I would end up with an Oscars speech on my blog. There have been so many amazing blogs that have all contributed somewhat to the whole and it really does speak volumes for the power of the blogosphere and of building relationships within it, but there are definitely a few people I must mention.

• Joshua Black aka The Underdog Millionaire –product creation specialist, always been around with advice when I needed it.
• Matthew Needham, aka The Big Red Tomato Company – recently created his own ebook and wrote a brilliant series on the how to’s of the whole process, read: a much much better version of this post. Learnt a LOT from that series, thanks Matthew.
• Karen Ruby, aka A Meaningful Existence writes about inspiration. Yeah so do a lot of people, but Karen’s different. She isn’t cliché and she always has this knack of posting exactly what I need WHEN I need it,  thanks for helping keep the fire lit Karen.
• Mark Wagner aka Ice Blue Banana, Commenting on his posts somehow creates ideas in my head, he is a blogging muse, but he’s also a tweeter – constantly supporting and engaging, keeping me in touch with the human side of blogging
• Sam Schuurman aka iThnk is the first person I met in the real world through blogging (ah, the irony) We used to work together at IBM and even now he is a continued and renewed source of inspiration. It’s nice to know I’m not the only idiot on the block, thanks Sam – you’re a star!
• There are so many others, and you know what – I think you know who you are. I’m sorry for not mentioning you directly here, but I thank you tremendously for being there when you were.

Where to now?

I guess it’s all about building that list now isn’t it. More importantly to me is the power of leverage, something that is a bloggers best friend online. Now that I have created this brilliant resource I must surely leverage its existence.I’m currently compiling a list of the best places to do this with my ebook now that I have created it, stay tuned for that post in a few days – this will be a brilliant resource for anyone who wants to get their ebook to go viral.

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Tagged as: how to blog, how to write an ebook, list building, tips for ebook creation