#I typed and deleted like three extra paragraphs from this post and it's very early here so this post might be less put together

[stuffedeggplants]

I didn't want to hijack/derail countessofbiscuit's post about opinions regarding Codywan, but another thing for me--and this is actually much less about Codywan than it is about certain writing choices in clone/Jedi ships--is that I like seeing clones as the heroes of their own story, as actors who effect change for themselves without needing to appeal to a more powerful person as though they're helpless to do something themselves. I understand that there's some amount of fulfilling the wish for a more ideal world/a monumental righting of wrongs in writing something where a Jedi is made to understand 'slavery = bad' through their relationship with one of their soldiers, then becoming an unrelenting moral crusader on behalf of all clones, but a lot about that dynamic really does not do it for me. (I could probably articulate why but it might take me a few days to separate out all the threads of that tapestry.)

Come to think of it, a reason I like Republic Commando so much is that it very much does not do that. The decisions our characters make don't have a sweeping impact that upends the entire system--they don't have the power to do that individually--but they do make their own, meaningful choices with what they do have the power to do, even if it's just on the level of "throw my dress blues into a trash compactor and walk off base never to be seen by the wider world again."

#Maze and Ordo are sort of foils for each other and both understand 100% what kind of system they're in #They both have different reactions to it but neither of them appeal to the Jedi to 'save' them or advocate on their behalf or something #Like to the point where they'd be very different people if they did and I cannot imagine that for their characters at all #(I mean just look at Maze's final conversation/confrontation with Skirata on Mandalore) #But back to Codywan (which I never started discussing at all) #aside from fandom-specific issues that turn me off to it #ultimately a lot of Cody's personality is extrapolation and headcanon #And given my understanding of Obi-wan's character and what he's like #I just don't really see it for either of them #though there are three authors whose Codywan stuff I will read because they did a sufficiently good job for me to buy it/like it in their AU #I typed and deleted like three extra paragraphs from this post and it's very early here so this post might be less put together #than it was originally #clone wars #star wars

[sambergscott]

i'd wait forever and a day for you

summary: post-trying // jake is on an undercover mission and amy thinks she’s pregnant. 

(you should read this just for the last line tbh)

Her period is late.

At first, she attributes it to stress. Jake is on a major undercover operation and while she is an incredibly proud, supportive wife, she knows how dangerous the situation is. He’s a great cop -- one of New York’s finest, in both senses of the word (...he’s hot) -- and he was so excited about getting this assignment. And she’s excited for him -- really, she is. But with updates filtering through to Captain Holt at a snail’s pace, it’s impossible not to worry about him, where he is, what he’s doing, whether he’s safe. Her cycle was shot to hell when he was in Witness Protection in Florida and it is entirely possible that history is repeating itself. 

Four days pass, Jake is still undercover and her period still has not arrived. She tries to blame Hitchcock’s God-awful Zika cologne disrupting her cycle again until she remembers that both Hitchcock and Scully have been off work all week with food poisoning. She even Googles why is my period late?, quickly closing the tab and deleting her browser history when the first result that pops up is pregnancy. 

There’s no way she’s pregnant. She refuses to even consider it for a second. 

Despite her absolute certainty that her uterus is as empty as it’s always been, when Rosa invites her for drinks with her new boyfriend, Amy opts for a non-alcoholic beer. 

“I’m driving,” she explains at Rosa’s raised eyebrows and swiftly changes the conversation. She finds out that Rosa’s boyfriend is a mechanic and they hit it off when she took her motorbike in for repair. She talks about Jake, about how he’s her favourite person in the entire world and how much she misses him (A Lot). He asks her what it’s like dating a cop and how to deal with the person you love putting themselves in danger every single day, which makes Rosa blush. Amy has never seen her blush before. 

“It’s difficult,” she says truthfully. She hates seeing her husband hurting and being thrown in prison for crimes he didn’t commit and having guns pointed at his head. It’s why she instated the short-lived ‘no dating cops’ rule, before Jake kissed her and she decided screw it. “But it’s worth it. When you really love them, it’s worth the pain. Every second.”

“That’s what I thought,” he responds, looking at Rosa the way Jake looks at Amy. 

She finishes her drink (which is so not as good as its alcoholic counterpart) and gathers her coat and purse. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it. See you Monday,” she directs at Rosa and “it was nice to meet you” at her boyfriend, who she has a feeling might be sticking around for a while. 

She opens up her Messages app and types out a full paragraph to Jake about how she met Rosa’s boyfriend before him and how he’s really nice and makes her blush! Rosa Disz!!! Blushing!!! She adds a gif of Jonathan Van Ness saying “can you believe?” and is about to click send when she realises his phone is on his nightstand where he left it before his mission and puts her phone back in her pocket in dismay. 

Once home, she gets changed into one of his NYPD t-shirts and climbs straight into bed, crying herself to sleep. 

She wakes up bright and early the next morning, a feat that is made significantly easier when there is no super cute husband to snuggle with. She showers, pulls on leggings and one of his plaid shirts and gets started on her Sunday Chores. Dancing around the apartment and pretending the mop is a microphone stand is a lot less fun on her own and she overcompensates, making herself dizzy and throwing up in the toilet she just cleaned. 

Without thinking, she finds herself at the bodega on the corner, staring at the selection of pregnancy tests. She grabs three of the safest looking ones and bites her lip when the guy congratulates her as she pays. She’s wasted hundreds of dollars on pregnancy tests thus far and she knows she’s definitely wasting money on these ones too. She doesn’t need congratulating for making poor financial decisions and being bad at making babies, but she thanks him anyway. 

Back at the apartment, she dumps the paper bag on the kitchen counter to deal with later. She makes a cup of tea, calls her mom and fills in The Times crossword. The paper bag screams out to her the entire time. 

Reluctantly, she removes the boxes from the bag, fully intending to put them away in the back of the bathroom cabinet, out of sight. 

A niggling voice tells her to just open one and find out. 

She has the box open and the test in her hand when her phone buzzes with a text from Holt informing her that Jake is safe and the mission is going well. 

She drops the test like it burnt her skin. 

Jake. She can’t do this without him. If she is pregnant, she’d never forgive herself for finding out without him, for stripping him of that moment they’d been dreaming of forever. 

She’s waited this long, she can wait a few more days. And she’s probably not pregnant anyway. 

She ends up waiting two more weeks. 

It’s torture. 

She’s throwing up almost daily, crying in the break room for no apparent reason and her damn period has still not come. All symptoms which could be explained away by a lack of Jake Peralta and stress (due to missing the aforementioned Jake Peralta). 

Rosa corners her in the ladies bathroom and asks if she wants her to run out for more pregnancy tests.

“I already have some at home.”

“And?” She prompts. “Did you take them? Are you pregnant?”

“I don’t know.” She tries to play it off as no big deal, but Rosa knows her pretty well these days. 

“You’ve been trying for nearly a year, there’s a chance you are finally pregnant and you haven’t taken a test?”

“I can’t -- I want to -- Jake --.”

“Oh,” it dawns on her. 

“Yeah,” Amy sighs. “I’ve been staring at the tests every night but I just can’t. Not without him.  He’d be devastated.”

“He would not be devastated if you were pregnant, Amy Santiago.” 

“You know what I mean. He’d want to be have been there. I want him to be there.”

“I guess he needs to hurry the hell up and catch the bad guys then.”

He must have heard her because, hours later, the elevator door opens and there he is, exhausted and still in his weird undercover clothes, with the biggest smile on his face. 

She practically throws herself at him and, yeah, maybe she kisses him in a not-very-work-appropriate way and maybe some of the perps in the holding cell wolf whistle and maybe Charles is crying, but he is home and she can finally take those pregnancy tests. 

Holt allows her to clock out early (she makes a mental note to buy him a glass of Charbonnay the next time they go to Shaw’s) and Jake excitedly tells her all about the case, barely taking a second to breathe.

“Sounds fun, babe,” she says when he gets to the part of the story when he handcuffed the bad guys and then made out with this super hot chick in front of all his co-workers. 

“It was awesome,” he confirms. “What about you? What have you been up to? I missed you so much.”

“Aw,” she smiles, rubbing her hand over his thigh as he drives, “I missed you so much, too. As for what I’ve been up to, I’ve mostly just been kind of sick.”

“Really?”

“Mm-hmm. I... um... actually think I might be pregnant.”

He swerves suddenly, nearly crashing the car. Ignoring the cars around them honking, he focuses on his wife. “Pregnant?”

“My period is nearly three weeks late, I’ve been throwing up and I’ve been extra emotional,” she debriefs him. 

“Right. OK.” He takes a deep breath. “Have you taken a test?”

“I bought three but I couldn’t take them without you. It’s kind of been killing me.”

“Yeah, I bet,” he laughs, pulling over in front of their apartment. Neither of them move. “We should probably take them now.”

“Yeah,” she agrees. 

“You nervous?”

“Yeah,” she says again. She’s lost count of how many negative tests they’ve seen, how many times she’s felt that familiar crushing disappointment. The thought of going through it all over again... 

“I understand. We can wait, if you want. Or we could rip the band-aid off, let the scab bleed all over the place. I’ll hold your hand.”

There’s this reassuring look in his eyes that she’s seen a million times over from back when they were newly-assigned partners and he was reassuring her they would solve a tough case to that time on the roof of 397 Barton Street when he said he always knew she was going to be his boss to his speech at Hitchcock’s (second) divorce party when he told her that they are a family and that they can take whatever ‘next step’ she wants because as long as they’re together, he’s happy. 

Because it’s him, she nods. “Let’s do this.” 

The wait for the timer to go off seems longer than ever. She squeezes his hand so tight she thinks she might cut off the circulation, but he doesn’t complain, just keeps talking about how they’ll be fine, no matter what the result. 

The timer eventually goes off and she picks up the test and starts crying immediately. 

Jake hugs her tight and she can feel him crying too and this is so crazy and insane and good. 

“We’re having a baby,” he says in awe and it’s the best thing Amy’s ever heard. 

“We’re having a baby!” She repeats, half-laughing, half-crying. 

She yelps as he lifts her up and spins her around their tiny bathroom before kissing her tenderly. 

“I can’t believe this,” he exclaims when he pulls away, rubbing his hand over his face, “can you?”

“Nope.” She grins, kissing him again.

#my writing #b99 fic #jake x amy #hope this gives you all the feels it gave me as i was writing it

[williamlwolf89]

How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2020

Want to learn how to write an ebook like a pro? It’s not just what you do, but what you DON’T do that can make or break your work.

Admit it.

You’ve thought about writing an ebook.

In fact, you’ve already imagined the front cover.

You can see the main title and, underneath, your name.

And when you picture it, you feel a ripple of pride.

An ebook would be a big step up for you as a writer.

Because while blog posts and freelance writing gigs are great ways to express your ideas and earn a side income, you can’t help feeling they’re a little, well, fleeting. Lightweight even.

But your own ebook? That’s more substantial. It’s taken more seriously. It has more gravitas.

And having an ebook with your name on the front transforms you from a mere writer into that more impressive beast — an author.

But how do you become an ebook author without falling victim to the same mistakes that sabotage the attempts of so many other writers and bloggers?

Why Most Ebooks Are Embarrassingly Bad

On the surface, writing ebooks seem relatively easy.

Lots of writers seem to be doing it, so how hard can it be?

But in reality, most ebooks that see the light of day are horrible. Embarrassingly bad.

That’s because your average ebook author doesn’t have a clue how to write an ebook. They can’t afford to hire a ghostwriter, and they don’t have the support system a traditional author would be given by their publisher when writing a book.

They do their best, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

The good news? We can learn from their mistakes. In this post, we’re going to show you the common mishaps first-time authors make when writing an ebook.

In other words:

Want to write an ebook like a pro? Avoid these 21 common mistakes:

Table of Contents: How to Write an Ebook Like a Pro (Don’t Do These Amatuerish Things)

Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

Starting at the Beginning

Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Designing Your Own Front Cover

Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Back to Top

1. Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

If you want to create a premium ebook, you can be tempted to pick a “hot topic” thinking that’s where the money is.

Likewise, when creating a sign-up bribe, you might think you need to entice readers with the latest information about an emerging topic.

And if you’re self-publishing using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), it’s easy to think you need to target one of the most popular categories.

But picking a topic like this is a BIG mistake.

If you know little or nothing about your chosen topic, creating an ebook will be a huge amount of work. You’ll have to do a ton of research on Google, interview experts, and perhaps even pay a real guru to get you up to speed.

What to do Instead

Write about something you actually know about — which almost certainly means tying your ebook to your blog’s core topic. You’ll not only save a ton of time on research, but you’ll also have a ready-made audience for your writing.

Back to Top

2. Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

I’ve fallen into this trap myself (twice) and I’ve seen a heck of a lot of other bloggers do the same.

It happens when you realize there’s a topic you know your readers need, and you know you can write the perfect book that will genuinely help them.

Sounds great, but people don’t always know what they need. And your sense of what it is might not be spot-on either.

What to do Instead

Don’t give your readers what you think they need. Give them what they know they want.

How? Run a survey, and ask your readers to choose between three or four ebook topics.

(This is also a good opportunity to find out how much they’d pay, whether they’re beginners or more experienced, and what specific questions they need your help to answer.)

Back to Top

3. Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Planning isn’t just about deciding what you’re going to write and what order you’re going to write it in.

Because when you decide to create an ebook, you’re not just a writer; you’re also a publisher (and marketer). You have to write and publish.

If you don’t start thinking now about how you’ll sell your book — whether that means selling it to make money or just selling the concept to your readers — you’ll run into problems later on.

What to do Instead

Draft your sales page while you’re planning your ebook. Make it sound as attractive and useful as possible (try Jon’s list of power words, and make the reader the hero of the story) … and use that pitch to drive the writing process. This will make your ebook much stronger and will make your life much easier when you launch it.

Back to Top

4. Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Once your survey results are in, you might be tempted to start writing straight away.

Whoa there.

Jumping into the writing at this point will cause you serious problems. You’ll find yourself repeating things, or wasting time exploring ultimately unhelpful tangents.

What to do Instead

Plan your ebook before you start writing.

This means having a clear outline that has, at the very least, a title for each chapter. Yes, that might seem a bit boring, but it will make the writing stage far easier (and more fun).

This doesn’t have to mean opening a blank Google Doc or Microsoft Word document and writing a linear outline. Try freeform brainstorming, mind maps, or index cards as creative alternatives to help get your ebook ideas flowing.

Back to Top

5. Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

With your first ebook, it’s easy to think you need to deliver the definitive ebook — the only one your audience will ever need.

If that sounds like a good idea, ask yourself this: “What will I give them next?”

Chances are, you won’t write just one ebook. You might write several in the same series, or you might create a short starter ebook for free, and then write a more advanced one to sell.

Even if your ebook is destined to be your subscriber incentive, if you give your readers everything they’ll ever need, why would they come back to your blog?

What to do Instead

Go back to your survey and determine what aspects your audience cares about the most. Focus on those. If you have lots of extra ideas, great! Keep them in a separate place and use them for your next ebook. Or explore them in a detailed blog post.

If you inadvertently miss something crucial, you’ll find out when you get feedback, and you can add a new section or chapter to address that point.

Back to Top

6. Starting at the Beginning

Although it might be the first chapter in your book, your introduction almost certainly isn’t the place to start writing.

It’s hard to know what to include until you’ve drafted the majority of your book, and you don’t want to get bogged down at this early stage.

If you start with the introduction, you’ll often end up writing far more than you need to. And let’s be honest. No reader relishes the sight of a long introduction — they want to dive into the real content.

What to do Instead

Don’t begin with the introduction; start with your first “proper” chapter. Once you’ve drafted the rest of your book, you’ll know what needs to go in the introduction.

Also, a lot of “introductory” material can go at the back of the book – I strongly recommend having an About the Author page at the back, because it’s a great opportunity to point readers to your website, mailing list, and so on.

Back to Top

7. Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Although your ebook is probably a high-priority project for you, it can be genuinely tough to carve out the time for working on it regularly.

But if you don’t write consistently, you’ll never build up any momentum. You may write for a few hours to begin with, but then end up taking weeks off … and never getting back to your ebook.

What to do Instead

You don’t have to write thousands of words at a time. One of my clients wrote a short chapter every week, without fail, and finished her ebook within a few months.

Find a consistent time each day, or several times a week, to work on your ebook. You might like to try the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes writing, 5-minute break) to use your time effectively during short writing sessions. Anyone can write for just 25 minutes.

If you know you have a problem with time management, address that now; it’ll pay off for years to come.

Back to Top

8. Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

If you’re writing regularly and staying focused but making slow progress, then you’re probably trying to edit while you write.

Perhaps you find yourself typing a couple of paragraphs, then changing your mind and deleting them. You might even be stopping every sentence or two to make minor tweaks.

This is a serious drain on your productivity as a writer.

What to do Instead

If you change your mind about a whole paragraph or section, leave it in as is, but jot a note to yourself about it. You may find, on re-reading, that it works perfectly well.

You might find it’s helpful to use a full-screen “no distractions” text editor. I like Dark Room for this — as it doesn’t have those distracting red and green wiggles that your typical word processor adds when it doesn’t like a word or phrase.

Back to Top

9. Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

After you’ve been working on your ebook for weeks, perhaps months, you may find that you’ve not made the progress you’d hoped for.

Whatever the exact cause (illness, workload, etc.), you’ve hit a wall. You aren’t even halfway through the draft, and there’s a long way to go.

When you go through a patch like this, it’s quite tempting to just give up — to cut your losses and leave that ebook draft abandoned on your computer.

But that would be a huge mistake. Because this is often a sign that things are about to get easier.

What to do Instead

Push yourself to reach the halfway point. Once you’re halfway, natural momentum kicks in, and you’ll speed up as you approach the end.

Be sure to remind yourself of your motivation for starting the ebook in the first place: what’s it going to do for you and your blog? How will it help your readers — the people who you’ve come to know and care about?

Back to Top

10. Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

While it’s important to not let your ebook stall after the first draft, you don’t need to rush into editing. Some writers dive straight into the editing phase — but then they struggle to get perspective, and may quickly feel burned out.

What to do Instead

Let your ebook “sit” for at least a couple of days (and preferably a full week) before you begin reviewing and editing. That way, you’ll come to it with fresh eyes and a new perspective — you’ll be able to see what’s already good, and what needs a bit more work.

With a little distance, you’ll be able to see your work from the perspective of a reader, not a writer.

Back to Top

11. Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Many ebook authors start their edit using the same file they used for the draft — for example, MyEbook.doc.

While that’s not always a problem, it’s seriously frustrating if you cut something you later want to put back in.

Worse, if you manage to delete, lose, or somehow corrupt that master file, all your hard work could be gone for good.

What to do Instead

For each new draft, create a new version of your file — MyEbookV2.doc, MyEbookV3.doc and so on. And create regular backups. A simple way is to email yourself a copy of the latest version from time to time.

Back to Top

12. Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

If you start your editing by looking for minor typos, you’ll miss much more significant issues.

By focusing on the micro detail, you may fail to address major problems with your book — like “Chapter 15 is way too short” or “Chapter 7 should come after Chapter 10.” These often require a bit of perspective (see Mistake #10).

What to do Instead

Read through your whole ebook, preferably in .pdf form, on paper, or on your tablet, before you begin editing.

In other words, read it in a format where you can’t easily make small changes as you go along to force yourself to concentrate on the bigger picture.

Make a note of any issues you need to fix, like chapters in the wrong order, repetitive information, tangents that need deleting, and new sections you want to add.

Back to Top

13. Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

When you’ve been working away on your own for (probably) several months, seeing mistakes can be tough — from the big picture issues to the small details like missing words or misplaced apostrophes.

But many first-time ebook authors are either too inexperienced to know the value of an editor or figure it’s a luxury they can’t afford.

Even if you’re not in a position to pay for a full edit, that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.

What to do Instead

Consider paying for an editor to review just the first few chapters of your ebook. Many problems the editor identifies will probably occur throughout the ebook and you can fix them yourself once you know what to look for.

Recruit volunteers to help edit: ask your readers, or members of any blogging community you belong to. Be prepared to repay the favor!

Back to Top

14. Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Once you’ve made any major changes and addressed the suggestions of your editors, your book is almost complete.

But before it’s ready to publish, you’ll need to do at least one complete read-through to catch any remaining typos or errors. A writing tool like Grammarly or a different grammar checker can help.

However, you’re probably the worst person to catch those errors.

You’ve likely become so familiar with the content and its layout that you’ll miss typos that will be obvious to someone else.

What to do Instead

If you can afford a professional proofreader, or if you have a talented friend who can help out, brilliant.

If you have to do most or all of your proofreading alone, here’s the secret: don’t proofread your ebook in the same environment you wrote it. Try changing the font style and size and printing it out, or reading it on a tablet. You’ll be surprised at how errors stand out.

Back to Top

15. Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Quality matters, but if you’re onto your fifth proofread and you’re spending ten minutes debating whether or not a particular sentence needs a comma, you’re wasting time.

Even books from major publishing houses have mistakes from time to time. You may never have noticed this, because (like every reader) you don’t pause and scrutinize every word.

What to do Instead

Give yourself a deadline for finishing the editing phase, and accept that catching 99 percent of your mistakes is good enough.

Don’t agonize over the possibility that a typo may still be present. Readers aren’t likely to notice, and if someone does point out a particularly glaring mistake after publication, it’s simple to update your ebook.

Back to Top

16. Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Even if you started out with a specific end goal in mind, be sure to review your options once you’ve finished your ebook.

An ebook that started life as a subscriber incentive might in fact make a great premium product, or serve as an authority-building book in the Kindle Store.

But if you don’t at least consider other options, you might miss out on a huge opportunity.

What to do Instead

Depending on the final destination of your ebook, a range of different ebook formats are available to consider:

If you’re giving your ebook away as an incentive for joining your email list, then .pdf-only is simple and straightforward.

If you’re positioning your ebook as a premium product (e.g., at least $10), you can just create a .pdf … but you might also want to offer .epub and .mobi formats. You could also include multimedia bonus material on a password-protected webpage (e.g. audio interviews, short video tutorials).

If you’re publishing your ebook on major retailers’ sites, you’ll need a lower price (usually $9.99 or less) and to publish your file in the appropriate format for the store.

And don’t assume that a particular option is right for your ebook just because it’s what you’ve seen other bloggers doing.

Back to Top

17. Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Just like a blog post title, an ebook title must grab attention. It’s going to be the first (and quite possibly the only) thing your potential ebook reader sees.

When I wrote my first full-length ebook, I planned to title it Writing Blog Content. That’s what it was about, after all! But it’s not exactly sexy.

A wise friend (Charlie Gilkey) jumped onto Skype with me and spent a while hashing out better titles. We eventually went with The Blogger’s Guide to Effective Writing … a much stronger, more compelling title.

What to do Instead

If you’ve had a working title in mind since the planning stage, now’s the time to figure out whether it’s truly good enough. You might want to ask your blog readers to vote on different titles.

The same goes for the headline on your sales page — you’ll probably want to put something a bit more intriguing than just the title of your ebook.

Jon’s Headline Hacks report is packed with lots of inspiration and advice.

Back to Top

18. Designing Your Own Front Cover

Like it or not, everyone judges books by their covers.

Unless you’re a professional designer, creating your own ebook cover design is a hugely damaging mistake.

Your ebook will look amateurish, and readers may well be put off from buying it.

This is especially true if you’ll be selling your ebook on Amazon (or other e-retail sites) where most potential readers won’t have any prior knowledge of you.

If you need some examples, plus some handy templates you can use, take a look at Venngage’s 17 eBook Templates and Design Tips (From an Expert Who Sold 10k+ Paid Copies).

What to do Instead

If you can afford it, hire a designer. This is a crucial investment, and you’ll likely sell enough extra copies to more than pay for the designer’s work.

But if you really have to create your cover yourself, keep it simple and straightforward, and look at lots of examples of good and bad designs.

Back to Top

19. Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Your ebook might be a reader’s first contact with you. And even those who downloaded your ebook from your blog might forget where they got it.

So failing to link your ebook back to your blog is a big mistake. You’re missing an opportunity to drive new subscribers to your main email list or to a separate list that tells your current ebook readers about your next book.

What to do Instead

Include a page at the back of your ebook — after “About the Author” — that lets readers know where to find you online.

Be sure to link to your subscriber landing page, to your next book’s sales page, or anywhere else online you want to send them — e.g., your social media profiles.

Also important is giving your readers an easy way to send you feedback for your ebook, such as a dedicated email address or a link to a contact page.

And don’t be afraid to link to relevant blog content within the body of the ebook itself.

Back to Top

20. Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Even if a reader already knows you, they won’t necessarily trust that your ebook is any good until it has at least one review or testimonial.

Whether your ebook is available for purchase or simply a reward for new subscribers, people probably won’t trust its value unless they can see that other people have read it and found it useful.

And if you’re in a niche that’s known for having a few sleazy operators, or one where ebooks are rare, then failing to provide social proof is an even bigger mistake.

What to do Instead

Be proactive — send out review copies to bloggers in your niche, and to any of your blog’s readers who’ve commented regularly or emailed you recently. Add positive reviews to your sales page and, if possible, use photos of the reviewers to boost credibility.

And if you can, send out your review copies before you launch your ebook – preferably at least a couple weeks before. This gives people a chance to read your book and get a review ready on or soon after your launch day.

Back to Top

21. Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Many bloggers are uncomfortable marketing their ebooks so their “launch” simply involves a new link on their blog and a couple of low-key posts on social media.

But even the best ebook will wither and die without some determined promotion.

And the truth is that if you’re not willing to market your ebook when the hard work of writing it is complete, you’ve basically wasted all that time and effort.

What to do Instead

You’re proud of your new ebook, right? So start acting like it. (If you don’t feel a swell of pride about your work then go back to the writing and editing phases until you do!)

Despite any preconceptions, you can effectively market your blog without coming across like a used car salesman.

Here’s how…

Mix up your promotional messages with lots of useful and interesting content.

If you’re giving people useful information at the same time as promoting your ebook, you’ll feel less like a pushy salesperson.

If your ebook is on Amazon Kindle, you can create some buzz by giving it away free for short periods.

If this is your first premium product, make sure you tell your existing list about it and consider offering a discount for existing subscribers.

Write guest posts for popular blogs in your niche and direct readers to a dedicated landing page for sign-ups or for the sales page for your ebook.

You might even look into ways to do something more interesting and innovative, maybe creating videos, offering special extras, or getting readers involved.

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

Back to Top

Writing an Ebook Doesn’t Have to Be a Dream

Lots of mistakes are lurking out there to trip you up on the path to publishing your first ebook, but the potential rewards are great.

You can get more subscribers for your blog, more authority in your niche, and even earn more money from your writing.

And now that you know the most common mistakes, you can avoid them with ease.

But of all the mistakes you can make, one trumps them all:

Not even trying.

Or telling yourself that you’ll write your ebook someday.

But you’re not going to make that mistake, right?

You now know how to write an ebook. Grab your calendar, take a look at the next week, and choose a day to begin.

Because in just a month or two, you could easily have a finished ebook … one that could supercharge your email list, position you as an expert, or start bringing in a steady income.

When will your ebook journey begin?

The post How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2020 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/ebook-mistakes/

[claudeleonca]

How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2019

Want to learn how to write an ebook like a pro? It’s not just what you do, but what you DON’T do that can make or break your work.

  Admit it.

You’ve thought about writing an ebook.

In fact, you’ve already imagined the front cover.

You can see the main title and, underneath, your name.

And when you picture it, you feel a ripple of pride.

An ebook would be a big step up for you as a writer.

Because while blog posts are a great way to express your ideas, you can’t help feeling they’re a little, well, fleeting. Lightweight even.

But an ebook? That’s more substantial. It’s taken more seriously. It has more gravitas.

And having an ebook with your name on the front transforms you from a mere blogger into that more impressive beast — an author.

But how do you become an ebook author without falling victim to the same mistakes that sabotage the attempts of so many other bloggers?

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

Why Most Ebooks Are Embarrassingly Bad

On the surface, writing an ebook seems relatively easy.

Lots of bloggers seem to be doing it, so how hard can it be?

But in reality, most ebooks that see the light of day are horrible. Embarrassingly bad.

That’s because your average ebook author doesn’t have a clue how to write an ebook. They can’t afford to hire a ghostwriter, and they don’t have the support system a traditional author would be given by their publisher when writing a book.

They do their best, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

The good news? We can learn from their mistakes. In this post, we’re going to show you the common mishaps first-time authors make when writing an ebook.

In other words:

Want to write an ebook like a pro? Avoid these 21 common mistakes:

How to Write an Ebook Like a Pro (Hint: Don’t Do These Amatuerish Things)

Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

Starting at the Beginning

Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Designing Your Own Front Cover

Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Back to Top

1. Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

If you want to create a premium ebook, you can be tempted to pick a “hot topic” thinking that’s where the money is.

Likewise, when creating a sign-up bribe, you might think you need to entice readers with the latest information about an emerging topic.

And if you’re using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), it’s easy to think you need to target one of the most popular categories.

But picking a topic like this is a BIG mistake.

If you know little or nothing about your chosen topic, creating an ebook will be a huge amount of work. You’ll have to do a ton of research, interview experts, and perhaps even pay a real guru to get you up to speed.

What to do Instead

Write about something you actually know about — which almost certainly means tying your ebook to your blog’s core topic. You’ll not only save a ton of time on research, but you’ll also have a ready-made audience for your writing.

Back to Top

2. Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

I’ve fallen into this trap myself (twice) and I’ve seen a heck of a lot of other bloggers do the same.

It happens when you realize there’s a topic you know your readers need, and you know you can write the perfect book that will genuinely help them.

Sounds great, but people don’t always know what they need. And your sense of what it is might not be spot-on either.

What to do Instead

Don’t give your readers what you think they need. Give them what they know they want.

How? Run a survey, and ask your readers to choose between three or four ebook topics.

(This is also a good opportunity to find out how much they’d pay, whether they’re beginners or more experienced, and what specific questions they need your help to answer.)

Back to Top

3. Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Planning isn’t just about deciding what you’re going to write and what order you’re going to write it in.

Because when you decide to create an ebook, you’re not just a writer; you’re also a publisher (and marketer). You have to write and publish.

If you don’t start thinking now about how you’ll sell your book — whether that means selling it for money or just selling the concept to your readers — you’ll run into problems later on.

What to do Instead

Draft your sales page while you’re planning your ebook. Make it sound as attractive and useful as possible (try Jon’s list of power words, and make the reader the hero of the story) … and use that pitch to drive the writing process. This will make your ebook much stronger and will make your life much easier when you launch it.

Back to Top

4. Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Once your survey results are in, you might be tempted to start writing straight away.

Whoa there.

Jumping into the writing at this point will cause you serious problems. You’ll find yourself repeating things, or wasting time exploring ultimately unhelpful tangents.

What to do Instead

Plan your ebook before you start writing.

This means having a clear outline that has, at the very least, a title for each chapter. Yes, that might seem a bit boring, but it will make the writing stage far easier (and more fun).

This doesn’t have to mean opening a blank document and writing a linear outline. Try freeform brainstorming, mind maps, or index cards as creative alternatives to help get your ebook ideas flowing.

Back to Top

5. Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

With your first ebook, it’s easy to think you need to deliver the definitive ebook — the only one your audience will ever need.

If that sounds like a good idea, ask yourself this: “What will I give them next?”

Chances are, you won’t write just one ebook. You might write several in the same series, or you might create a short starter ebook for free, and then write a more advanced one to sell.

Even if your ebook is destined to be your subscriber incentive, if you give your readers everything they’ll ever need, why would they come back to your blog?

What to do Instead

Go back to your survey and determine what aspects your audience cares about the most. Focus on those. If you have lots of extra ideas, great! Keep them in a separate place and use them for your next ebook. Or explore them in a detailed blog post.

If you inadvertently miss something crucial, you’ll find out when you get feedback, and you can add a new section or chapter to address that point.

Back to Top

6. Starting at the Beginning

Although it might be the first chapter in your book, your introduction almost certainly isn’t the place to start writing.

It’s hard to know what to include until you’ve drafted the majority of your book, and you don’t want to get bogged down at this early stage.

If you start with the introduction, you’ll often end up writing far more than you need to. And let’s be honest. No reader relishes the sight of a long introduction — they want to dive into the real content.

What to do Instead

Don’t begin with the introduction; start with your first “proper” chapter. Once you’ve drafted the rest of your book, you’ll know what needs to go in the introduction.

Also, a lot of “introductory” material can go at the back of the book – I strongly recommend having an About the Author page at the back, because it’s a great opportunity to point readers to your website, mailing list, and so on.

Back to Top

7. Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Although your ebook is probably a high-priority project for you, it can be genuinely tough to carve out the time for working on it regularly.

But if you don’t write consistently, you’ll never build up any momentum. You may write for a few hours to begin with, but then end up taking weeks off … and never getting back to your ebook.

What to do Instead

You don’t have to write thousands of words at a time. One of my clients wrote a short chapter every week, without fail, and finished her ebook within a few months.

Find a consistent time each day, or several times a week, to work on your ebook. You might like to try the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes writing, 5-minute break) to use your time effectively during short writing sessions. Anyone can write for just 25 minutes.

If you know you have a problem with time management, address that now; it’ll pay off for years to come.

Back to Top

8. Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

If you’re writing regularly and staying focused but making slow progress, then you’re probably trying to edit while you write.

Perhaps you find yourself typing a couple of paragraphs, then changing your mind and deleting them. You might even be stopping every sentence or two to make minor tweaks.

This is a serious drain on your productivity as a writer.

What to do Instead

If you change your mind about a whole paragraph or section, leave it in as is, but jot a note to yourself about it. You may find, on re-reading, that it works perfectly well.

You might find it’s helpful to use a full-screen “no distractions” text editor. I like Dark Room for this — as it doesn’t have those distracting red and green wiggles that your typical word processor adds when it doesn’t like a word or phrase.

Back to Top

9. Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

After you’ve been working on your ebook for weeks, perhaps months, you may find that you’ve not made the progress you’d hoped for.

Whatever the exact cause (illness, workload, etc.), you’ve hit a wall. You aren’t even halfway through the draft, and there’s a long way to go.

When you go through a patch like this, it’s quite tempting to just give up — to cut your losses and leave that ebook draft abandoned on your computer.

But that would be a huge mistake. Because this is often a sign that things are about to get easier.

What to do Instead

Push yourself to reach the halfway point. Once you’re halfway, natural momentum kicks in, and you’ll speed up as you approach the end.

Be sure to remind yourself of your motivation for starting the ebook in the first place: what’s it going to do for you and your blog? How will it help your readers — the people who you’ve come to know and care about?

Back to Top

10. Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

While it’s important to not let your ebook stall after the first draft, you don’t need to rush into editing. Some writers dive straight into the editing phase — but then they struggle to get perspective, and may quickly feel burned out.

What to do Instead

Let your ebook “sit” for at least a couple of days (and preferably a full week) before you begin reviewing and editing. That way, you’ll come to it with fresh eyes and a new perspective — you’ll be able to see what’s already good, and what needs a bit more work.

With a little distance, you’ll be able to see your work from the perspective of a reader, not a writer.

Back to Top

11. Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Many ebook authors start their edit using the same file they used for the draft — for example, MyEbook.doc.

While that’s not always a problem, it’s seriously frustrating if you cut something you later want to put back in.

Worse, if you manage to delete, lose, or somehow corrupt that master file, all your hard work could be gone for good.

What to do Instead

For each new draft, create a new version of your file — MyEbookV2.doc, MyEbookV3.doc and so on. And create regular backups. A simple way is to email yourself a copy of the latest version from time to time.

Back to Top

12. Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

If you start your editing by looking for minor typos, you’ll miss much more significant issues.

By focusing on the micro detail, you may fail to address major problems with your book — like “Chapter 15 is way too short” or “Chapter 7 should come after Chapter 10.” These often require a bit of perspective (see Mistake #10).

What to do Instead

Read through your whole ebook, preferably in .pdf form, on paper, or on your tablet, before you begin editing.

In other words, read it in a format where you can’t easily make small changes as you go along to force yourself to concentrate on the bigger picture.

Make a note of any issues you need to fix, like chapters in the wrong order, repetitive information, tangents that need deleting, and new sections you want to add.

Back to Top

13. Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

When you’ve been working away on your own for (probably) several months, seeing mistakes can be tough — from the big picture issues to the small details like missing words or misplaced apostrophes.

But many first-time ebook authors are either too inexperienced to know the value of an editor or figure it’s a luxury they can’t afford.

Even if you’re not in a position to pay for a full edit, that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.

What to do Instead

Consider paying for an editor to review just the first few chapters of your ebook. Many problems the editor identifies will probably occur throughout the ebook and you can fix them yourself once you know what to look for.

Recruit volunteers to help edit: ask your readers, or members of any blogging community you belong to. Be prepared to repay the favor!

Back to Top

14. Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Once you��ve made any major changes and addressed the suggestions of your editors, your book is almost complete.

But before it’s ready to publish, you’ll need to do at least one complete read-through to catch any remaining typos or errors.

However, you’re probably the worst person to catch those errors.

You’ve likely become so familiar with the content and its layout that you’ll miss typos that will be obvious to someone else.

What to do Instead

If you can afford a professional proofreader, or if you have a talented friend who can help out, brilliant.

If you have to do most or all of your proofreading alone, here’s the secret: don’t proofread your ebook in the same environment you wrote it. Try changing the font style and size and printing it out, or reading it on a tablet. You’ll be surprised at how errors stand out.

Back to Top

15. Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Quality matters, but if you’re onto your fifth proofread and you’re spending ten minutes debating whether or not a particular sentence needs a comma, you’re wasting time.

Even books from major publishing houses have mistakes from time to time. You may never have noticed this, because (like every reader) you don’t pause and scrutinize every word.

What to do Instead

Give yourself a deadline for finishing the editing phase, and accept that catching 99 percent of your mistakes is good enough.

Don’t agonize over the possibility that a typo may still be present. Readers aren’t likely to notice, and if someone does point out a particularly glaring mistake after publication, it’s simple to update your ebook.

Back to Top

16. Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Even if you started out with a specific end goal in mind, be sure to review your options once you’ve finished your ebook.

An ebook that started life as a subscriber incentive might in fact make a great premium product, or serve as an authority-building book in the Kindle Store.

But if you don’t at least consider other options, you might miss out on a huge opportunity.

What to do Instead

Depending on the final destination of your ebook, a range of different ebook formats are available to consider:

If you’re giving your ebook away as an incentive for joining your email list, then .pdf-only is simple and straightforward.

If you’re positioning your ebook as a premium product (e.g., at least $10), you can just create a .pdf … but you might also want to offer .epub and .mobi formats. You could also include multimedia bonus material on a password-protected webpage (e.g. audio interviews, short video tutorials).

If you’re publishing your ebook on major retailers’ sites, you’ll need a lower price (usually $9.99 or less) and to publish your file in the appropriate format for the store.

And don’t assume that a particular option is right for your ebook just because it’s what you’ve seen other bloggers doing.

Back to Top

17. Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Just like a blog post title, an ebook title must grab attention. It’s going to be the first (and quite possibly the only) thing your potential ebook reader sees.

When I wrote my first full-length ebook, I planned to title it Writing Blog Content. That’s what it was about, after all! But it’s not exactly sexy.

A wise friend (Charlie Gilkey) jumped onto Skype with me and spent a while hashing out better titles. We eventually went with The Blogger’s Guide to Effective Writing … a much stronger, more compelling title.

What to do Instead

If you’ve had a working title in mind since the planning stage, now’s the time to figure out whether it’s truly good enough. You might want to ask your blog readers to vote on different titles.

The same goes for the headline on your sales page — you’ll probably want to put something a bit more intriguing than just the title of your ebook.

Jon’s Headline Hacks report is packed with lots of inspiration and advice.

Back to Top

18. Designing Your Own Front Cover

Like it or not, everyone judges books by their covers.

Unless you’re a professional designer, creating your own cover is a hugely damaging mistake.

Your ebook will look amateurish, and readers may well be put off from buying it.

This is especially true if you’ll be selling your ebook on Amazon (or other e-retail sites) where most potential readers won’t have any prior knowledge of you.

For plenty of examples of both good and bad covers, take a look at Joel Friedlander’s Monthly e-Book Cover Design Awards.

What to do Instead

If you can afford it, hire a designer. This is a crucial investment, and you’ll likely sell enough extra copies to more than pay for the designer’s work.

But if you really have to create your cover yourself, keep it simple and straightforward, and look at lots of examples of good and bad designs.

Back to Top

19. Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Your ebook might be a reader’s first contact with you. And even those who downloaded your ebook from your blog might forget where they got it.

So failing to link your ebook back to your blog is a big mistake. You’re missing an opportunity to drive new subscribers to your main email list or to a separate list that tells your current ebook readers about your next book.

What to do Instead

Include a page at the back of your ebook — after “About the Author” — that lets readers know where to find you online.

Be sure to link to your subscriber landing page, to your next book’s sales page, or anywhere else online you want to send them — e.g., your social media profiles.

Also important is giving your readers an easy way to send you feedback for your ebook, such as a dedicated email address or a link to a contact page.

And don’t be afraid to link to relevant blog content within the body of the ebook itself.

Back to Top

20. Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Even if a reader already knows you, they won’t necessarily trust that your ebook is any good until it has at least one review or testimonial.

Whether your ebook is available for purchase or simply a reward for new subscribers, people probably won’t trust its value unless they can see that other people have read it and found it useful.

And if you’re in a niche that’s known for having a few sleazy operators, or one where ebooks are rare, then failing to provide social proof is an even bigger mistake.

What to do Instead

Be proactive — send out review copies to bloggers in your niche, and to any of your blog’s readers who’ve commented regularly or emailed you recently. Add positive reviews to your sales page and, if possible, use photos of the reviewers to boost credibility.

And if you can, send out your review copies before you launch your ebook – preferably at least a couple weeks before. This gives people a chance to read your book and get a review ready on or soon after your launch day.

Back to Top

21. Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Many bloggers are uncomfortable marketing their ebooks so their “launch” simply involves a new link on their blog and a couple of low-key posts on social media.

But even the best ebook will wither and die without some determined promotion.

And the truth is that if you’re not willing to market your ebook when the hard work of writing it is complete, you’ve basically wasted all that time and effort.

What to do Instead

You’re proud of your new ebook, right? So start acting like it. (If you don’t feel a swell of pride about your work then go back to the writing and editing phases until you do!)

Despite any preconceptions, you can effectively market your blog without coming across like a used car salesman.

Here’s how…

Mix up your promotional messages with lots of useful and interesting content.

If you’re giving people useful information at the same time as promoting your ebook, you’ll feel less like a pushy salesperson.

If your ebook is on Amazon, you can create some buzz by giving it away free for short periods.

If this is your first premium product, make sure you tell your existing list about it and consider offering a discount for existing subscribers.

Write guest posts for popular blogs in your niche and direct readers to a dedicated landing page for sign-ups or for the sales page for your ebook.

You might even look into ways to do something more interesting and innovative, maybe creating videos, offering special extras, or getting readers involved.

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

Back to Top

Writing an Ebook Doesn’t Have to Be a Dream

Lots of mistakes are lurking out there to trip you up on the path to publishing your first ebook, but the potential rewards are great.

You can get more subscribers for your blog, more authority in your niche, and even earn more money from your writing.

And now that you know the most common mistakes, you can avoid them with ease.

But of all the mistakes you can make, one trumps them all:

Not even trying.

Or telling yourself that you’ll write your ebook someday.

But you’re not going to make that mistake, right?

You now know how to write an ebook. Grab your calendar, take a look at the next week, and choose a day to begin.

Because in just a month or two, you could easily have a finished ebook … one that could supercharge your email list, position you as an expert, or start bringing in a steady income.

When will your ebook journey begin?

About the Author: Ali Luke is the author of Publishing E-Books For Dummies, and writes for Learn SEO Fast. If you’d like more help with the “plan-write-edit” process (not just for ebooks!) then check out her free video training, The Writing Process for Bloggers — no opt-in required.

The post How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2019 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/ebook-mistakes/

[thecloudlight-blog]

New Post has been published on Cloudlight

New Post has been published on https://cloudlight.biz/transportation-in-kc-wordpress-conference/

Transportation in KC, WordPress conference

There are a plethora of entrepreneurial activities hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we recommend those upcoming occasions for you.

Are you web hosting a relevant network event? Feel free to feature it to the FWD/KC calendar for expanded exposure. Once your occasion is submitted, it will fast get reviewed and then published to the calendar.

There are a plethora of entrepreneurial activities hosted in Kansas City on a weekly foundation.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we suggest those upcoming activities for you.

Are you hosting an applicable community event? Feel loose to add it to the FWD/KC calendar for expanded exposure. Once your event is submitted, it will speed get reviewed and then posted to the calendar.

At the middle of the state, Kansas City has extended records as a logistics hub. And whilst we can appearance returned more than one hundred years at our function as a leader, the destiny of transportation is also blossoming in Kansas City. From the possibility of a Hyperloop line arriving within the metro to the following phase of the streetcar line, Kansas City transportation is quick converting.

In the April Innovation Exchange, we’ll dive into thrilling tendencies inside Kansas City transportation by means of speaking with leaders inside the streetcar expansion, those developing plans for Hyperloop Missouri and Smart City efforts to not only handle the traffic but additionally make the metropolis more handy to every person. This month, we’re web hosting … Bob Bennett, Chief Innovation Officer of KCMO Matt Staub, KC Streetcar Authority Board member Amana Gray, Air Quality Control software manager, Mid-America Regional Council Hunter Johnston, Transportation & Mobility advisor, Think Big Partners Tim Sylvester, founder of Integrated Roadways **More visitors to be announced**

The Foundation Series: Attracting and Retaining Engaged Employees with Ashley Harper, Harper Strategy When: April 26, eleven:00 p.M. – 12:30 p.M. Where: Village Square Coworking Studio

The Foundation Series addresses prison and operational troubles usually faced by way of startup founders, from the process of locating and working with co-founders to techniques to defend your highbrow belongings. This ECJC workshop series is supplied in partnership with Village Square, Located within the heart of the Kansas City Startup Village, Village Square is a coworking space that offers entrepreneurs and startups a place to call domestic.

Premiere Leadership Summit

When: April 27, all day Where: The View at Briarcliff (inside the Courtyard Marriott) During this one day event, three periods had been designed precisely for the pinnacle troubles that leaders face. The audio system will make use of case research and role gambling to emphasize 360-degree conversation, hassle solving skills, and employee coaching techniques. Plus, our luncheon speaker will offer comic remedy along with his storytelling prowess.

Wedding Transportation Planning Issues to Think About

You can be very inquisitive about wedding ceremony bus rent, and it’s miles a tremendous idea to think about for your needs. However, you do want to make certain you cross approximately it the proper manner. The remaining thing you need is pressure over things now not operating out. The company wishes to offer you exceptional transportation, a pleasant driving force, and display up on time.

Discussing with them in advance approximately what you’re searching out is important.

Never expect all wedding ceremony bus lease offers are the equal. The buses are difference, costs vary, and a lot greater. Being nicely informed means you could make a decision you don’t emerge as regretting afterward. Make sure they may be expert, certified, and a great healthy to your wishes.

It is not a large expense to hire this type of transportation both. Due to the convenience of it and the dimensions of the numerous buses, people frequently assume they can’t come up with the money for it. Don’t hesitate to test into what it entails although. You can be blown away at how reasonable the pricing is. Talk to the issuer to see what options they allow you to customize.

The extra you know, the easier you may see how this will suit properly on your plans. You can begin to see it all coming together. Find a provider inclined to assist you too so you can get the final results you really want. This should not be closing minute, it needs to be planned very early in the wedding ceremony arrangement levels.

Think Outside of the Box

With a wedding bus hire, you may suppose out of doors of the box. You can get a shape of transportation for everybody that gives space, it is low-priced, and it’s far fun. This isn’t like your regular limo condo or your commonplace antique car for 2. There are one of a kind sizes of buses too so that you can get one to accommodate the size of your wedding ceremony birthday party.

You won’t know all of us who has long gone this route, so you did not think about it. However, there are plenty of testimonies on the line shared by human beings who have discovered it to be an asset to them. They were pressure unfastened approximately the transportation in their visitors to and from the wedding and reception.

Things You Should Do Before Changing WordPress Themes

  Undoubtedly, WordPress offers you a plethora of topics and plugins, which make the improvement simpler and helps to feature awesome functionalities on your internet site. Most of the time, people want to switch their subject matters to change its average look. However, converting subject matters is easier than you even notion. If you are new to WordPress and that is your first time whilst you are converting the subject, so, do not get fearful. Here are a few simple recommendations you ought to follow before taking any further step; in any other case, you could turn out to be losing everything that you did not imply to lose.

Backup Is The First Step

One of the common belongings you need to do before you switch the topic is, take the backup of your normal website. It lets you restore your preceding internet site in case of any mistake. So, continually backup before making any alternate in your website online. This may lessen the probabilities of any loss.

Take Notes On Your Current Theme: If you are browsing the net to discover the correct strategy to the problem, so, make sure you constantly take notes on your current topic. This may additionally assist you to choose the brand new one and the chances of any mess are lesser than the primary. For this, you just need to undergo your subject matter record and word down all of the codes, which enables you if something is going incorrect.

Preserve Statics And Other Essential Data

Before you turn the theme bear in mind to test for your monitoring codes and Google analytic a couple of instances. This can also help you to check the real overall performance, conversion charge and something else important about your internet site. Always hold them before you move stay your new subject, so, the chances of any mistake reduce.

Don’t Forget To Test The Plugins: If you want to feature the old plugins even to your new theme, so, ought to double-check them. Make certain they support the brand new theme; otherwise, you need to switch to some other alternative. Along with this, usually, delete all the vintage plugins that you do not need to use further due to the fact it can have an effect on your website performance and slow down its speed as properly.

Test The Theme On Different Devices: Nowadays, the brand new generation is the usage of the cell to browse the internet than the desktop. Therefore, you have to make sure that the topic you will switch is mobile-friendly and aid unique devices. Always check them earlier than making any final choice.

All the above factors will assist you to exchange the topic of your WordPress Website efficaciously. On the off-risk, you continue to have any confusion; so, do not hesitate to take the help of WordPress Website Development Services from a reputed Website Development Company.

What Are Conference Proceedings?

  The simple definition of convention court cases is going something like this: A series of educational papers supplied at a professional association assembly or conference. However, some of the words, like assembly and conference, which make up that definition are interchangeable with other phrases…And frequently are. If you are not an academic or an engineer, you will enjoy the following multiplied clarification.

For starters the term conference can also be exchanged with the following terms:

Meeting Symposium Exposition Colloquium Workshop Exhibition Confabulation (sure, confabulation — I did not believe it) The term lawsuits can also be exchanged with the following phrases:

Papers

Manuscripts Abstracts (a short paper — a paragraph up to at least one web page) Extended Abstracts (2-5 pages) Presentations And the time period affiliation can be exchanged with any organization, like society, business enterprise, research foundation, council, institute, employer, etc.

[scribero-blog]

What’s the difference between editing and proofreading? Jan. 10

The discussion about the definition of proofreading and its difference from editing is pretty long. Here is what Leah McClellan thinks:

“A lot of beginner writers and even more experienced writers wonder: What’s the difference between editing and proofreading?

And what’s copyediting?

Then there’s developmental editing, substantive editing, and stylistic editing. Structural editing, line editing, project editing, technical editing, and fact checking. Even proofreading is sometimes (erroneously) called editing, although there is such a thing as editorial proofreading.

Gah! What’s a writer to do?

If you Google “types of editing” you’ll get all sorts of confusing information. On top of that, in the blogging world an “editor” is sometimes more of a WordPress geek or administrative assistant than anything.

But it’s not really all that complicated. And every writer should have a good understanding of the editing and proofreading process. Even if you never hire or work with an editor or proofreader, you should be taking care of these steps yourself.

And chances are good you already are.

Stages of writing

Editing is probably the most confusing concept whereas copyediting and proofreading are fairly specific. Let’s take a look.

Any type of writing ideally goes through four stages in order: writing, editing, copyediting, and proofreading.

We know what writing is, so let’s skip that part and move on to editing.

Editing definitions are confusing partly because of the overlap with writing early in the editing process. And later, a bit of a blur occurs between final copyediting and proofreading.

Plus, professionals use terms in their own way, and that might be different from the ways others use them. Publishing houses, editorial service companies, and freelancers all have their own definitions within certain boundaries.

For example, developmental and substantive editing are often used interchangeably. Stylistic editing can be performed as a separate step, but it’s more often part of some other editing process. And copyediting is usually synonymous with line editing—but not always.

Let’s look at editing as improvements made after the writing is in fairly good order but before focusing on small details.

This stage is most often called developmental or substantive editing.

The big picture: Developmental or substantive editing

Think of a novel. The first step in the editing process is developmental editing, sometimes called substantive editing.

During this process, editors review the entire manuscript from a broad perspective and suggest improvements in organization, structure, and consistency. They might also point out problems with characterization, point of view, tension, or conflict. Or maybe the story has too much dialogue or the setting needs more detail.

At this stage, editors don’t focus on fixing awkward sentences, misspelled words, or punctuation. Instead, a developmental editor’s job is to improve the story itself—the big picture—from beginning to end. This applies to non-fiction writing as well.

And bloggers, by the way, do the same thing with their blog posts, especially the lengthy epic posts. The big picture has to be in place before detailed editing can begin.

Developmental editing can blend into substantive editing, which focuses on the finer points of structure: chapter or paragraph organization, transitions, and even sentences. It all depends on the company or organization and how they’re defining editing.

Substantive editing can also refer to heavy copyediting (discussed below), and it can mean almost a complete rewrite at the sentence and paragraph level. As you can see, there’s an overlap in each direction.

In your own writing—let’s say a blog post—developmental editing includes deciding on details you want to include or delete. Organizing your information and refining your focus is also a part of this stage. And if you’re using an extended metaphor, you’ll want to be certain it’s carried through the entire blog post, as in this case.

When the blog post is in 100% solid shape—or you think it is—it’s time for copyediting.

The fine-tuning: Copyediting

Also called line editing, copyediting takes place mainly at the sentence level.

It means correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Awkward sentences are reworded, and verbiage is eliminated for conciseness. Excess passive verbs are exchanged for active verbs, and transitions might be added in between and within paragraphs.

Style issues can also be a focus during this stage. In my own writing, for example (even in this blog post), I have a tendency to use formal, academic language even when I want a casual tone. By reading out loud, I can spot it and improve it since I don’t talk that way (far from it).

Consistency issues are also checked such as capitalization, hyphenation, and numbers spelled out or represented as numerals (four vs. 4). Plus, lists are checked for parallelism; each item should have similar structure and start with the same part of speech (nouns, verbs, etc.).

Think of it this way:

Copyediting isn’t the big picture, but it doesn’t require a microscope.

You can break it down into three different types: heavy, medium, and light copyediting.

Heavy copyediting is the kind that blurs into substantive editing as described above. It can mean almost a complete rewrite at the sentence level.

But it could also mean working with a non-native, non-fluent English writer. The content might be fantastic from a developmental perspective, but sentences are cumbersome, paragraphs need better organization, and word choices aren’t the best. And that means heavy copyediting.

Light copyediting means the writing has little need for improvement. Wordiness is corrected here or there, punctuation or a subject-verb agreement mistake is corrected, or a few sentences are broken up or joined for clarity.

In some cases, light copyediting is what the writer has requested of a freelance editor regardless of actual existing issues. In this case, only the most glaring or problematic issues are corrected.

Medium copyediting, of course, comes in between light and heavy.

And by the way, you might see copyediting spelled copy editing (with a space) or even copy-editing (British). I prefer copyediting since it’s a single concept just like copywriting, which is always spelled as one word.

The goal of copyediting is to produce writing that’s as close to perfection as any writing can ever be. But one final step is critical, and that’s proofreading.

Now put it under the microscope: Proofreading

No matter how skilled a copyeditor is, proofreading requires a different focus. And even if a copyeditor is an excellent proofreader, the two tasks should be done separately.

And that applies to writers doing all the work on their own. When you’re thinking about grammar and style, you won’t see that extra space or missing quotation mark.

It’s like using a different part of your brain for writing and copyediting and another part for proofreading.

Proofreading is science, editing is art.

CLICK TO TWEET

Here are two ways to remember what proofreading is about:

1. Proofreading proves the article or manuscript is ready to be published.

Everything else is—or should be—done.

2. Proofreading makes tiny adjustments and corrections, not big changes.

A proofreader scrutinizes the writing for minor spelling errors, extra or missing spaces, missing or double end punctuation, margin consistency, fonts, numbering, and so on. With website copy, links are checked for accuracy, and a proofreader might even examine keywords and meta data behind the scenes.

If copyediting errors are found, professional proofreaders check back with the copyeditor (if one exists) rather than make the changes themselves.

Proofreading can overlap into copyediting

Like types of editing, proofreading doesn’t have strict boundary lines. Proofreaders don’t ignore misspelled or incorrectly used words (peak instead of pique, for example) that a copyeditor missed.

But whether a proofreader has liberty to make changes depends on the job definition within a publishing house or other company. Sometimes a large company employs editorial proofreaders who have more leeway with copyediting than typical proofreaders. Other times, only one or two editors do all the editing and proofreading work.

At a small local newspaper, for example, a freelance writer might submit articles to the only person who sees them before they’re published: the editor. That editor might be one of several department editors, but if the budget is tight, copyeditors or proofreaders don’t exist. And in that case, editors either approve articles as they are or handle copyediting and proofreading themselves (or pass it on to an assistant editor).

For your own proofreading:

If you’re reworking convoluted sentences or replacing technical jargon with more common words, you’re not proofreading. You’re still in the copyediting stage, and it’s best to start fresh with proofreading or you’ll miss something.

If you do find a bigger problem while proofreading, you could highlight it and return to it later. That way, you won’t lose your proofreading focus.

But be sure to re-proof the entire paragraph when you make changes during this last stage. It’s very easy to introduce new errors when switching between proofreading and copyediting. (Ever see a double or missing word in a blog post? Yep, that often happens at this stage.)

~~~

Remember, developmental and substantive editing are the main types of editing, and they’re all about the big picture.

Copyediting is a separate entity, and it focuses on fine-tuning at the sentence level.

Proofreading is a completely different step. It requires a microscope (so to speak), and it’s done only when all other editing is complete.

Your turn! What challenges have you faced while editing or proofreading your own writing? Have you worked with an editor or proofreader? What was your experience like? Comments and questions are always welcome.”

Source: http://simplewriting.org/whats-the-difference-between-editing-and-proofreading/

[claudeleonca]

How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2019

Want to learn how to write an ebook like a pro? It’s not just what you do, but what you DON’T do that can make or break your work.

  Admit it.

You’ve thought about writing an ebook.

In fact, you’ve already imagined the front cover.

You can see the main title and, underneath, your name.

And when you picture it, you feel a ripple of pride.

An ebook would be a big step up for you as a writer.

Because while blog posts are a great way to express your ideas, you can’t help feeling they’re a little, well, fleeting. Lightweight even.

But an ebook? That’s more substantial. It’s taken more seriously. It has more gravitas.

And having an ebook with your name on the front transforms you from a mere blogger into that more impressive beast — an author.

But how do you become an ebook author without falling victim to the same mistakes that sabotage the attempts of so many other bloggers?

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

Why Most Ebooks Are Embarrassingly Bad

On the surface, writing an ebook seems relatively easy.

Lots of bloggers seem to be doing it, so how hard can it be?

But in reality, most ebooks that see the light of day are horrible. Embarrassingly bad.

That’s because your average ebook author doesn’t have a clue how to write an ebook. They can’t afford to hire a ghostwriter, and they don’t have the support system a traditional author would be given by their publisher when writing a book.

They do their best, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

The good news? We can learn from their mistakes. In this post, we’re going to show you the common mishaps first-time authors make when writing an ebook.

In other words:

Want to write an ebook like a pro? Avoid these 21 common mistakes:

How to Write an Ebook Like a Pro (Hint: Don’t Do These Amatuerish Things)

Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

Starting at the Beginning

Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Designing Your Own Front Cover

Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Back to Top

1. Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

If you want to create a premium ebook, you can be tempted to pick a “hot topic” thinking that’s where the money is.

Likewise, when creating a sign-up bribe, you might think you need to entice readers with the latest information about an emerging topic.

And if you’re using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), it’s easy to think you need to target one of the most popular categories.

But picking a topic like this is a BIG mistake.

If you know little or nothing about your chosen topic, creating an ebook will be a huge amount of work. You’ll have to do a ton of research, interview experts, and perhaps even pay a real guru to get you up to speed.

What to do Instead

Write about something you actually know about — which almost certainly means tying your ebook to your blog’s core topic. You’ll not only save a ton of time on research, but you’ll also have a ready-made audience for your writing.

Back to Top

2. Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

I’ve fallen into this trap myself (twice) and I’ve seen a heck of a lot of other bloggers do the same.

It happens when you realize there’s a topic you know your readers need, and you know you can write the perfect book that will genuinely help them.

Sounds great, but people don’t always know what they need. And your sense of what it is might not be spot-on either.

What to do Instead

Don’t give your readers what you think they need. Give them what they know they want.

How? Run a survey, and ask your readers to choose between three or four ebook topics.

(This is also a good opportunity to find out how much they’d pay, whether they’re beginners or more experienced, and what specific questions they need your help to answer.)

Back to Top

3. Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Planning isn’t just about deciding what you’re going to write and what order you’re going to write it in.

Because when you decide to create an ebook, you’re not just a writer; you’re also a publisher (and marketer). You have to write and publish.

If you don’t start thinking now about how you’ll sell your book — whether that means selling it for money or just selling the concept to your readers — you’ll run into problems later on.

What to do Instead

Draft your sales page while you’re planning your ebook. Make it sound as attractive and useful as possible (try Jon’s list of power words, and make the reader the hero of the story) … and use that pitch to drive the writing process. This will make your ebook much stronger and will make your life much easier when you launch it.

Back to Top

4. Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Once your survey results are in, you might be tempted to start writing straight away.

Whoa there.

Jumping into the writing at this point will cause you serious problems. You’ll find yourself repeating things, or wasting time exploring ultimately unhelpful tangents.

What to do Instead

Plan your ebook before you start writing.

This means having a clear outline that has, at the very least, a title for each chapter. Yes, that might seem a bit boring, but it will make the writing stage far easier (and more fun).

This doesn’t have to mean opening a blank document and writing a linear outline. Try freeform brainstorming, mind maps, or index cards as creative alternatives to help get your ebook ideas flowing.

Back to Top

5. Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

With your first ebook, it’s easy to think you need to deliver the definitive ebook — the only one your audience will ever need.

If that sounds like a good idea, ask yourself this: “What will I give them next?”

Chances are, you won’t write just one ebook. You might write several in the same series, or you might create a short starter ebook for free, and then write a more advanced one to sell.

Even if your ebook is destined to be your subscriber incentive, if you give your readers everything they’ll ever need, why would they come back to your blog?

What to do Instead

Go back to your survey and determine what aspects your audience cares about the most. Focus on those. If you have lots of extra ideas, great! Keep them in a separate place and use them for your next ebook. Or explore them in a detailed blog post.

If you inadvertently miss something crucial, you’ll find out when you get feedback, and you can add a new section or chapter to address that point.

Back to Top

6. Starting at the Beginning

Although it might be the first chapter in your book, your introduction almost certainly isn’t the place to start writing.

It’s hard to know what to include until you’ve drafted the majority of your book, and you don’t want to get bogged down at this early stage.

If you start with the introduction, you’ll often end up writing far more than you need to. And let’s be honest. No reader relishes the sight of a long introduction — they want to dive into the real content.

What to do Instead

Don’t begin with the introduction; start with your first “proper” chapter. Once you’ve drafted the rest of your book, you’ll know what needs to go in the introduction.

Also, a lot of “introductory” material can go at the back of the book – I strongly recommend having an About the Author page at the back, because it’s a great opportunity to point readers to your website, mailing list, and so on.

Back to Top

7. Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Although your ebook is probably a high-priority project for you, it can be genuinely tough to carve out the time for working on it regularly.

But if you don’t write consistently, you’ll never build up any momentum. You may write for a few hours to begin with, but then end up taking weeks off … and never getting back to your ebook.

What to do Instead

You don’t have to write thousands of words at a time. One of my clients wrote a short chapter every week, without fail, and finished her ebook within a few months.

Find a consistent time each day, or several times a week, to work on your ebook. You might like to try the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes writing, 5-minute break) to use your time effectively during short writing sessions. Anyone can write for just 25 minutes.

If you know you have a problem with time management, address that now; it’ll pay off for years to come.

Back to Top

8. Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

If you’re writing regularly and staying focused but making slow progress, then you’re probably trying to edit while you write.

Perhaps you find yourself typing a couple of paragraphs, then changing your mind and deleting them. You might even be stopping every sentence or two to make minor tweaks.

This is a serious drain on your productivity as a writer.

What to do Instead

If you change your mind about a whole paragraph or section, leave it in as is, but jot a note to yourself about it. You may find, on re-reading, that it works perfectly well.

You might find it’s helpful to use a full-screen “no distractions” text editor. I like Dark Room for this — as it doesn’t have those distracting red and green wiggles that your typical word processor adds when it doesn’t like a word or phrase.

Back to Top

9. Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

After you’ve been working on your ebook for weeks, perhaps months, you may find that you’ve not made the progress you’d hoped for.

Whatever the exact cause (illness, workload, etc.), you’ve hit a wall. You aren’t even halfway through the draft, and there’s a long way to go.

When you go through a patch like this, it’s quite tempting to just give up — to cut your losses and leave that ebook draft abandoned on your computer.

But that would be a huge mistake. Because this is often a sign that things are about to get easier.

What to do Instead

Push yourself to reach the halfway point. Once you’re halfway, natural momentum kicks in, and you’ll speed up as you approach the end.

Be sure to remind yourself of your motivation for starting the ebook in the first place: what’s it going to do for you and your blog? How will it help your readers — the people who you’ve come to know and care about?

Back to Top

10. Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

While it’s important to not let your ebook stall after the first draft, you don’t need to rush into editing. Some writers dive straight into the editing phase — but then they struggle to get perspective, and may quickly feel burned out.

What to do Instead

Let your ebook “sit” for at least a couple of days (and preferably a full week) before you begin reviewing and editing. That way, you’ll come to it with fresh eyes and a new perspective — you’ll be able to see what’s already good, and what needs a bit more work.

With a little distance, you’ll be able to see your work from the perspective of a reader, not a writer.

Back to Top

11. Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Many ebook authors start their edit using the same file they used for the draft — for example, MyEbook.doc.

While that’s not always a problem, it’s seriously frustrating if you cut something you later want to put back in.

Worse, if you manage to delete, lose, or somehow corrupt that master file, all your hard work could be gone for good.

What to do Instead

For each new draft, create a new version of your file — MyEbookV2.doc, MyEbookV3.doc and so on. And create regular backups. A simple way is to email yourself a copy of the latest version from time to time.

Back to Top

12. Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

If you start your editing by looking for minor typos, you’ll miss much more significant issues.

By focusing on the micro detail, you may fail to address major problems with your book — like “Chapter 15 is way too short” or “Chapter 7 should come after Chapter 10.” These often require a bit of perspective (see Mistake #10).

What to do Instead

Read through your whole ebook, preferably in .pdf form, on paper, or on your tablet, before you begin editing.

In other words, read it in a format where you can’t easily make small changes as you go along to force yourself to concentrate on the bigger picture.

Make a note of any issues you need to fix, like chapters in the wrong order, repetitive information, tangents that need deleting, and new sections you want to add.

Back to Top

13. Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

When you’ve been working away on your own for (probably) several months, seeing mistakes can be tough — from the big picture issues to the small details like missing words or misplaced apostrophes.

But many first-time ebook authors are either too inexperienced to know the value of an editor or figure it’s a luxury they can’t afford.

Even if you’re not in a position to pay for a full edit, that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.

What to do Instead

Consider paying for an editor to review just the first few chapters of your ebook. Many problems the editor identifies will probably occur throughout the ebook and you can fix them yourself once you know what to look for.

Recruit volunteers to help edit: ask your readers, or members of any blogging community you belong to. Be prepared to repay the favor!

Back to Top

14. Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Once you’ve made any major changes and addressed the suggestions of your editors, your book is almost complete.

But before it’s ready to publish, you’ll need to do at least one complete read-through to catch any remaining typos or errors.

However, you’re probably the worst person to catch those errors.

You’ve likely become so familiar with the content and its layout that you’ll miss typos that will be obvious to someone else.

What to do Instead

If you can afford a professional proofreader, or if you have a talented friend who can help out, brilliant.

If you have to do most or all of your proofreading alone, here’s the secret: don’t proofread your ebook in the same environment you wrote it. Try changing the font style and size and printing it out, or reading it on a tablet. You’ll be surprised at how errors stand out.

Back to Top

15. Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Quality matters, but if you’re onto your fifth proofread and you’re spending ten minutes debating whether or not a particular sentence needs a comma, you’re wasting time.

Even books from major publishing houses have mistakes from time to time. You may never have noticed this, because (like every reader) you don’t pause and scrutinize every word.

What to do Instead

Give yourself a deadline for finishing the editing phase, and accept that catching 99 percent of your mistakes is good enough.

Don’t agonize over the possibility that a typo may still be present. Readers aren’t likely to notice, and if someone does point out a particularly glaring mistake after publication, it’s simple to update your ebook.

Back to Top

16. Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Even if you started out with a specific end goal in mind, be sure to review your options once you’ve finished your ebook.

An ebook that started life as a subscriber incentive might in fact make a great premium product, or serve as an authority-building book in the Kindle Store.

But if you don’t at least consider other options, you might miss out on a huge opportunity.

What to do Instead

Depending on the final destination of your ebook, a range of different ebook formats are available to consider:

If you’re giving your ebook away as an incentive for joining your email list, then .pdf-only is simple and straightforward.

If you’re positioning your ebook as a premium product (e.g., at least $10), you can just create a .pdf … but you might also want to offer .epub and .mobi formats. You could also include multimedia bonus material on a password-protected webpage (e.g. audio interviews, short video tutorials).

If you’re publishing your ebook on major retailers’ sites, you’ll need a lower price (usually $9.99 or less) and to publish your file in the appropriate format for the store.

And don’t assume that a particular option is right for your ebook just because it’s what you’ve seen other bloggers doing.

Back to Top

17. Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Just like a blog post title, an ebook title must grab attention. It’s going to be the first (and quite possibly the only) thing your potential ebook reader sees.

When I wrote my first full-length ebook, I planned to title it Writing Blog Content. That’s what it was about, after all! But it’s not exactly sexy.

A wise friend (Charlie Gilkey) jumped onto Skype with me and spent a while hashing out better titles. We eventually went with The Blogger’s Guide to Effective Writing … a much stronger, more compelling title.

What to do Instead

If you’ve had a working title in mind since the planning stage, now’s the time to figure out whether it’s truly good enough. You might want to ask your blog readers to vote on different titles.

The same goes for the headline on your sales page — you’ll probably want to put something a bit more intriguing than just the title of your ebook.

Jon’s Headline Hacks report is packed with lots of inspiration and advice.

Back to Top

18. Designing Your Own Front Cover

Like it or not, everyone judges books by their covers.

Unless you’re a professional designer, creating your own cover is a hugely damaging mistake.

Your ebook will look amateurish, and readers may well be put off from buying it.

This is especially true if you’ll be selling your ebook on Amazon (or other e-retail sites) where most potential readers won’t have any prior knowledge of you.

For plenty of examples of both good and bad covers, take a look at Joel Friedlander’s Monthly e-Book Cover Design Awards.

What to do Instead

If you can afford it, hire a designer. This is a crucial investment, and you’ll likely sell enough extra copies to more than pay for the designer’s work.

But if you really have to create your cover yourself, keep it simple and straightforward, and look at lots of examples of good and bad designs.

Back to Top

19. Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Your ebook might be a reader’s first contact with you. And even those who downloaded your ebook from your blog might forget where they got it.

So failing to link your ebook back to your blog is a big mistake. You’re missing an opportunity to drive new subscribers to your main email list or to a separate list that tells your current ebook readers about your next book.

What to do Instead

Include a page at the back of your ebook — after “About the Author” — that lets readers know where to find you online.

Be sure to link to your subscriber landing page, to your next book’s sales page, or anywhere else online you want to send them — e.g., your social media profiles.

Also important is giving your readers an easy way to send you feedback for your ebook, such as a dedicated email address or a link to a contact page.

And don’t be afraid to link to relevant blog content within the body of the ebook itself.

Back to Top

20. Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Even if a reader already knows you, they won’t necessarily trust that your ebook is any good until it has at least one review or testimonial.

Whether your ebook is available for purchase or simply a reward for new subscribers, people probably won’t trust its value unless they can see that other people have read it and found it useful.

And if you’re in a niche that’s known for having a few sleazy operators, or one where ebooks are rare, then failing to provide social proof is an even bigger mistake.

What to do Instead

Be proactive — send out review copies to bloggers in your niche, and to any of your blog’s readers who’ve commented regularly or emailed you recently. Add positive reviews to your sales page and, if possible, use photos of the reviewers to boost credibility.

And if you can, send out your review copies before you launch your ebook – preferably at least a couple weeks before. This gives people a chance to read your book and get a review ready on or soon after your launch day.

Back to Top

21. Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Many bloggers are uncomfortable marketing their ebooks so their “launch” simply involves a new link on their blog and a couple of low-key posts on social media.

But even the best ebook will wither and die without some determined promotion.

And the truth is that if you’re not willing to market your ebook when the hard work of writing it is complete, you’ve basically wasted all that time and effort.

What to do Instead

You’re proud of your new ebook, right? So start acting like it. (If you don’t feel a swell of pride about your work then go back to the writing and editing phases until you do!)

Despite any preconceptions, you can effectively market your blog without coming across like a used car salesman.

Here’s how…

Mix up your promotional messages with lots of useful and interesting content.

If you’re giving people useful information at the same time as promoting your ebook, you’ll feel less like a pushy salesperson.

If your ebook is on Amazon, you can create some buzz by giving it away free for short periods.

If this is your first premium product, make sure you tell your existing list about it and consider offering a discount for existing subscribers.

Write guest posts for popular blogs in your niche and direct readers to a dedicated landing page for sign-ups or for the sales page for your ebook.

You might even look into ways to do something more interesting and innovative, maybe creating videos, offering special extras, or getting readers involved.

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

Back to Top

Writing an Ebook Doesn’t Have to Be a Dream

Lots of mistakes are lurking out there to trip you up on the path to publishing your first ebook, but the potential rewards are great.

You can get more subscribers for your blog, more authority in your niche, and even earn more money from your writing.

And now that you know the most common mistakes, you can avoid them with ease.

But of all the mistakes you can make, one trumps them all:

Not even trying.

Or telling yourself that you’ll write your ebook someday.

But you’re not going to make that mistake, right?

You now know how to write an ebook. Grab your calendar, take a look at the next week, and choose a day to begin.

Because in just a month or two, you could easily have a finished ebook … one that could supercharge your email list, position you as an expert, or start bringing in a steady income.

When will your ebook journey begin?

About the Author: Ali Luke is the author of Publishing E-Books For Dummies, and writes for Learn SEO Fast. If you’d like more help with the “plan-write-edit” process (not just for ebooks!) then check out her free video training, The Writing Process for Bloggers — no opt-in required.

The post How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2019 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/ebook-mistakes/

[claudeleonca]

How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2019

Want to learn how to write an ebook like a pro? It’s not just what you do, but what you DON’T do that can make or break your work.

  Admit it.

You’ve thought about writing an ebook.

In fact, you’ve already imagined the front cover.

You can see the main title and, underneath, your name.

And when you picture it, you feel a ripple of pride.

An ebook would be a big step up for you as a writer.

Because while blog posts are a great way to express your ideas, you can’t help feeling they’re a little, well, fleeting. Lightweight even.

But an ebook? That’s more substantial. It’s taken more seriously. It has more gravitas.

And having an ebook with your name on the front transforms you from a mere blogger into that more impressive beast — an author.

But how do you become an ebook author without falling victim to the same mistakes that sabotage the attempts of so many other bloggers?

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

Why Most Ebooks Are Embarrassingly Bad

On the surface, writing an ebook seems relatively easy.

Lots of bloggers seem to be doing it, so how hard can it be?

But in reality, most ebooks that see the light of day are horrible. Embarrassingly bad.

That’s because your average ebook author doesn’t have a clue how to write an ebook. They can’t afford to hire a ghostwriter, and they don’t have the support system a traditional author would be given by their publisher when writing a book.

They do their best, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

The good news? We can learn from their mistakes. In this post, we’re going to show you the common mishaps first-time authors make when writing an ebook.

In other words:

Want to write an ebook like a pro? Avoid these 21 common mistakes:

How to Write an Ebook Like a Pro (Hint: Don’t Do These Amatuerish Things)

Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

Starting at the Beginning

Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Designing Your Own Front Cover

Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Back to Top

1. Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

If you want to create a premium ebook, you can be tempted to pick a “hot topic” thinking that’s where the money is.

Likewise, when creating a sign-up bribe, you might think you need to entice readers with the latest information about an emerging topic.

And if you’re using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), it’s easy to think you need to target one of the most popular categories.

But picking a topic like this is a BIG mistake.

If you know little or nothing about your chosen topic, creating an ebook will be a huge amount of work. You’ll have to do a ton of research, interview experts, and perhaps even pay a real guru to get you up to speed.

What to do Instead

Write about something you actually know about — which almost certainly means tying your ebook to your blog’s core topic. You’ll not only save a ton of time on research, but you’ll also have a ready-made audience for your writing.

Back to Top

2. Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

I’ve fallen into this trap myself (twice) and I’ve seen a heck of a lot of other bloggers do the same.

It happens when you realize there’s a topic you know your readers need, and you know you can write the perfect book that will genuinely help them.

Sounds great, but people don’t always know what they need. And your sense of what it is might not be spot-on either.

What to do Instead

Don’t give your readers what you think they need. Give them what they know they want.

How? Run a survey, and ask your readers to choose between three or four ebook topics.

(This is also a good opportunity to find out how much they’d pay, whether they’re beginners or more experienced, and what specific questions they need your help to answer.)

Back to Top

3. Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Planning isn’t just about deciding what you’re going to write and what order you’re going to write it in.

Because when you decide to create an ebook, you’re not just a writer; you’re also a publisher (and marketer). You have to write and publish.

If you don’t start thinking now about how you’ll sell your book — whether that means selling it for money or just selling the concept to your readers — you’ll run into problems later on.

What to do Instead

Draft your sales page while you’re planning your ebook. Make it sound as attractive and useful as possible (try Jon’s list of power words, and make the reader the hero of the story) … and use that pitch to drive the writing process. This will make your ebook much stronger and will make your life much easier when you launch it.

Back to Top

4. Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Once your survey results are in, you might be tempted to start writing straight away.

Whoa there.

Jumping into the writing at this point will cause you serious problems. You’ll find yourself repeating things, or wasting time exploring ultimately unhelpful tangents.

What to do Instead

Plan your ebook before you start writing.

This means having a clear outline that has, at the very least, a title for each chapter. Yes, that might seem a bit boring, but it will make the writing stage far easier (and more fun).

This doesn’t have to mean opening a blank document and writing a linear outline. Try freeform brainstorming, mind maps, or index cards as creative alternatives to help get your ebook ideas flowing.

Back to Top

5. Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

With your first ebook, it’s easy to think you need to deliver the definitive ebook — the only one your audience will ever need.

If that sounds like a good idea, ask yourself this: “What will I give them next?”

Chances are, you won’t write just one ebook. You might write several in the same series, or you might create a short starter ebook for free, and then write a more advanced one to sell.

Even if your ebook is destined to be your subscriber incentive, if you give your readers everything they’ll ever need, why would they come back to your blog?

What to do Instead

Go back to your survey and determine what aspects your audience cares about the most. Focus on those. If you have lots of extra ideas, great! Keep them in a separate place and use them for your next ebook. Or explore them in a detailed blog post.

If you inadvertently miss something crucial, you’ll find out when you get feedback, and you can add a new section or chapter to address that point.

Back to Top

6. Starting at the Beginning

Although it might be the first chapter in your book, your introduction almost certainly isn’t the place to start writing.

It’s hard to know what to include until you’ve drafted the majority of your book, and you don’t want to get bogged down at this early stage.

If you start with the introduction, you’ll often end up writing far more than you need to. And let’s be honest. No reader relishes the sight of a long introduction — they want to dive into the real content.

What to do Instead

Don’t begin with the introduction; start with your first “proper” chapter. Once you’ve drafted the rest of your book, you’ll know what needs to go in the introduction.

Also, a lot of “introductory” material can go at the back of the book – I strongly recommend having an About the Author page at the back, because it’s a great opportunity to point readers to your website, mailing list, and so on.

Back to Top

7. Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Although your ebook is probably a high-priority project for you, it can be genuinely tough to carve out the time for working on it regularly.

But if you don’t write consistently, you’ll never build up any momentum. You may write for a few hours to begin with, but then end up taking weeks off … and never getting back to your ebook.

What to do Instead

You don’t have to write thousands of words at a time. One of my clients wrote a short chapter every week, without fail, and finished her ebook within a few months.

Find a consistent time each day, or several times a week, to work on your ebook. You might like to try the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes writing, 5-minute break) to use your time effectively during short writing sessions. Anyone can write for just 25 minutes.

If you know you have a problem with time management, address that now; it’ll pay off for years to come.

Back to Top

8. Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

If you’re writing regularly and staying focused but making slow progress, then you’re probably trying to edit while you write.

Perhaps you find yourself typing a couple of paragraphs, then changing your mind and deleting them. You might even be stopping every sentence or two to make minor tweaks.

This is a serious drain on your productivity as a writer.

What to do Instead

If you change your mind about a whole paragraph or section, leave it in as is, but jot a note to yourself about it. You may find, on re-reading, that it works perfectly well.

You might find it’s helpful to use a full-screen “no distractions” text editor. I like Dark Room for this — as it doesn’t have those distracting red and green wiggles that your typical word processor adds when it doesn’t like a word or phrase.

Back to Top

9. Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

After you’ve been working on your ebook for weeks, perhaps months, you may find that you’ve not made the progress you’d hoped for.

Whatever the exact cause (illness, workload, etc.), you’ve hit a wall. You aren’t even halfway through the draft, and there’s a long way to go.

When you go through a patch like this, it’s quite tempting to just give up — to cut your losses and leave that ebook draft abandoned on your computer.

But that would be a huge mistake. Because this is often a sign that things are about to get easier.

What to do Instead

Push yourself to reach the halfway point. Once you’re halfway, natural momentum kicks in, and you’ll speed up as you approach the end.

Be sure to remind yourself of your motivation for starting the ebook in the first place: what’s it going to do for you and your blog? How will it help your readers — the people who you’ve come to know and care about?

Back to Top

10. Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

While it’s important to not let your ebook stall after the first draft, you don’t need to rush into editing. Some writers dive straight into the editing phase — but then they struggle to get perspective, and may quickly feel burned out.

What to do Instead

Let your ebook “sit” for at least a couple of days (and preferably a full week) before you begin reviewing and editing. That way, you’ll come to it with fresh eyes and a new perspective — you’ll be able to see what’s already good, and what needs a bit more work.

With a little distance, you’ll be able to see your work from the perspective of a reader, not a writer.

Back to Top

11. Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Many ebook authors start their edit using the same file they used for the draft — for example, MyEbook.doc.

While that’s not always a problem, it’s seriously frustrating if you cut something you later want to put back in.

Worse, if you manage to delete, lose, or somehow corrupt that master file, all your hard work could be gone for good.

What to do Instead

For each new draft, create a new version of your file — MyEbookV2.doc, MyEbookV3.doc and so on. And create regular backups. A simple way is to email yourself a copy of the latest version from time to time.

Back to Top

12. Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

If you start your editing by looking for minor typos, you’ll miss much more significant issues.

By focusing on the micro detail, you may fail to address major problems with your book — like “Chapter 15 is way too short” or “Chapter 7 should come after Chapter 10.” These often require a bit of perspective (see Mistake #10).

What to do Instead

Read through your whole ebook, preferably in .pdf form, on paper, or on your tablet, before you begin editing.

In other words, read it in a format where you can’t easily make small changes as you go along to force yourself to concentrate on the bigger picture.

Make a note of any issues you need to fix, like chapters in the wrong order, repetitive information, tangents that need deleting, and new sections you want to add.

Back to Top

13. Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

When you’ve been working away on your own for (probably) several months, seeing mistakes can be tough — from the big picture issues to the small details like missing words or misplaced apostrophes.

But many first-time ebook authors are either too inexperienced to know the value of an editor or figure it’s a luxury they can’t afford.

Even if you’re not in a position to pay for a full edit, that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.

What to do Instead

Consider paying for an editor to review just the first few chapters of your ebook. Many problems the editor identifies will probably occur throughout the ebook and you can fix them yourself once you know what to look for.

Recruit volunteers to help edit: ask your readers, or members of any blogging community you belong to. Be prepared to repay the favor!

Back to Top

14. Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Once you’ve made any major changes and addressed the suggestions of your editors, your book is almost complete.

But before it’s ready to publish, you’ll need to do at least one complete read-through to catch any remaining typos or errors.

However, you’re probably the worst person to catch those errors.

You’ve likely become so familiar with the content and its layout that you’ll miss typos that will be obvious to someone else.

What to do Instead

If you can afford a professional proofreader, or if you have a talented friend who can help out, brilliant.

If you have to do most or all of your proofreading alone, here’s the secret: don’t proofread your ebook in the same environment you wrote it. Try changing the font style and size and printing it out, or reading it on a tablet. You’ll be surprised at how errors stand out.

Back to Top

15. Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Quality matters, but if you’re onto your fifth proofread and you’re spending ten minutes debating whether or not a particular sentence needs a comma, you’re wasting time.

Even books from major publishing houses have mistakes from time to time. You may never have noticed this, because (like every reader) you don’t pause and scrutinize every word.

What to do Instead

Give yourself a deadline for finishing the editing phase, and accept that catching 99 percent of your mistakes is good enough.

Don’t agonize over the possibility that a typo may still be present. Readers aren’t likely to notice, and if someone does point out a particularly glaring mistake after publication, it’s simple to update your ebook.

Back to Top

16. Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Even if you started out with a specific end goal in mind, be sure to review your options once you’ve finished your ebook.

An ebook that started life as a subscriber incentive might in fact make a great premium product, or serve as an authority-building book in the Kindle Store.

But if you don’t at least consider other options, you might miss out on a huge opportunity.

What to do Instead

Depending on the final destination of your ebook, a range of different ebook formats are available to consider:

If you’re giving your ebook away as an incentive for joining your email list, then .pdf-only is simple and straightforward.

If you’re positioning your ebook as a premium product (e.g., at least $10), you can just create a .pdf … but you might also want to offer .epub and .mobi formats. You could also include multimedia bonus material on a password-protected webpage (e.g. audio interviews, short video tutorials).

If you’re publishing your ebook on major retailers’ sites, you’ll need a lower price (usually $9.99 or less) and to publish your file in the appropriate format for the store.

And don’t assume that a particular option is right for your ebook just because it’s what you’ve seen other bloggers doing.

Back to Top

17. Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Just like a blog post title, an ebook title must grab attention. It’s going to be the first (and quite possibly the only) thing your potential ebook reader sees.

When I wrote my first full-length ebook, I planned to title it Writing Blog Content. That’s what it was about, after all! But it’s not exactly sexy.

A wise friend (Charlie Gilkey) jumped onto Skype with me and spent a while hashing out better titles. We eventually went with The Blogger’s Guide to Effective Writing … a much stronger, more compelling title.

What to do Instead

If you’ve had a working title in mind since the planning stage, now’s the time to figure out whether it’s truly good enough. You might want to ask your blog readers to vote on different titles.

The same goes for the headline on your sales page — you’ll probably want to put something a bit more intriguing than just the title of your ebook.

Jon’s Headline Hacks report is packed with lots of inspiration and advice.

Back to Top

18. Designing Your Own Front Cover

Like it or not, everyone judges books by their covers.

Unless you’re a professional designer, creating your own cover is a hugely damaging mistake.

Your ebook will look amateurish, and readers may well be put off from buying it.

This is especially true if you’ll be selling your ebook on Amazon (or other e-retail sites) where most potential readers won’t have any prior knowledge of you.

For plenty of examples of both good and bad covers, take a look at Joel Friedlander’s Monthly e-Book Cover Design Awards.

What to do Instead

If you can afford it, hire a designer. This is a crucial investment, and you’ll likely sell enough extra copies to more than pay for the designer’s work.

But if you really have to create your cover yourself, keep it simple and straightforward, and look at lots of examples of good and bad designs.

Back to Top

19. Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Your ebook might be a reader’s first contact with you. And even those who downloaded your ebook from your blog might forget where they got it.

So failing to link your ebook back to your blog is a big mistake. You’re missing an opportunity to drive new subscribers to your main email list or to a separate list that tells your current ebook readers about your next book.

What to do Instead

Include a page at the back of your ebook — after “About the Author” — that lets readers know where to find you online.

Be sure to link to your subscriber landing page, to your next book’s sales page, or anywhere else online you want to send them — e.g., your social media profiles.

Also important is giving your readers an easy way to send you feedback for your ebook, such as a dedicated email address or a link to a contact page.

And don’t be afraid to link to relevant blog content within the body of the ebook itself.

Back to Top

20. Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Even if a reader already knows you, they won’t necessarily trust that your ebook is any good until it has at least one review or testimonial.

Whether your ebook is available for purchase or simply a reward for new subscribers, people probably won’t trust its value unless they can see that other people have read it and found it useful.

And if you’re in a niche that’s known for having a few sleazy operators, or one where ebooks are rare, then failing to provide social proof is an even bigger mistake.

What to do Instead

Be proactive — send out review copies to bloggers in your niche, and to any of your blog’s readers who’ve commented regularly or emailed you recently. Add positive reviews to your sales page and, if possible, use photos of the reviewers to boost credibility.

And if you can, send out your review copies before you launch your ebook – preferably at least a couple weeks before. This gives people a chance to read your book and get a review ready on or soon after your launch day.

Back to Top

21. Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Many bloggers are uncomfortable marketing their ebooks so their “launch” simply involves a new link on their blog and a couple of low-key posts on social media.

But even the best ebook will wither and die without some determined promotion.

And the truth is that if you’re not willing to market your ebook when the hard work of writing it is complete, you’ve basically wasted all that time and effort.

What to do Instead

You’re proud of your new ebook, right? So start acting like it. (If you don’t feel a swell of pride about your work then go back to the writing and editing phases until you do!)

Despite any preconceptions, you can effectively market your blog without coming across like a used car salesman.

Here’s how…

Mix up your promotional messages with lots of useful and interesting content.

If you’re giving people useful information at the same time as promoting your ebook, you’ll feel less like a pushy salesperson.

If your ebook is on Amazon, you can create some buzz by giving it away free for short periods.

If this is your first premium product, make sure you tell your existing list about it and consider offering a discount for existing subscribers.

Write guest posts for popular blogs in your niche and direct readers to a dedicated landing page for sign-ups or for the sales page for your ebook.

You might even look into ways to do something more interesting and innovative, maybe creating videos, offering special extras, or getting readers involved.

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

Back to Top

Writing an Ebook Doesn’t Have to Be a Dream

Lots of mistakes are lurking out there to trip you up on the path to publishing your first ebook, but the potential rewards are great.

You can get more subscribers for your blog, more authority in your niche, and even earn more money from your writing.

And now that you know the most common mistakes, you can avoid them with ease.

But of all the mistakes you can make, one trumps them all:

Not even trying.

Or telling yourself that you’ll write your ebook someday.

But you’re not going to make that mistake, right?

You now know how to write an ebook. Grab your calendar, take a look at the next week, and choose a day to begin.

Because in just a month or two, you could easily have a finished ebook … one that could supercharge your email list, position you as an expert, or start bringing in a steady income.

When will your ebook journey begin?

About the Author: Ali Luke is the author of Publishing E-Books For Dummies, and writes for Learn SEO Fast. If you’d like more help with the “plan-write-edit” process (not just for ebooks!) then check out her free video training, The Writing Process for Bloggers — no opt-in required.

The post How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2019 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/ebook-mistakes/