HOW TO WRITE AN

EBOOK Jessica Olma, Scribe Syndicate

Let people learn more about your business, earn a reputation for sharing your valuable expertise, and provide tips or facts about a topic in your industry.

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Contents Choosing the Length of your eBook .............................................................................................................. 2

Starting with an Outline ................................................................................................................................ 3

Updating and Repurposing ........................................................................................................................... 3

Writing Style Including Voice and Tone ........................................................................................................ 4

Copy Editing, Proofreading, and Formatting ................................................................................................ 5

Researching and Citing your Sources ............................................................................................................ 5

Linking Externally to Sources ........................................................................................................................ 6

Duplicating Content ...................................................................................................................................... 6

Sources: ......................................................................................................................................................... 9

Endnotes ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

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How to Write an eBook Jessica Olma, Scribe Syndicate, November 2019

Scribe Syndicate has finally decided to put out an eBook. Since we handle other people’s content, we don’t always have time to address our own. We see the irony in neglecting to heed our personal advice. Just because a shoemaker let his children go barefoot, it doesn’t give us an excuse to follow suit. Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a similar dilemma. From now on, we will lead by example and encourage others to do the same.

If you are one of the people who decide to download this material, you will have firsthand knowledge of the effectiveness of providing downloadable content to your consumer audience. Did you leave us your name and email address before downloading? You bet you did. You trusted us to provide you with some useful information and compelling tips. We want to continue to be a source you can rely on when it comes to digital content writing, and we also want you to know we are here when you need us.

Why do we want to do this? Because building and nurturing an email list is a primary goal of nearly every content marketing strategy. You are 63% more likely to give us your email address in exchange for an eBook that offers information on a topic you want to learn about or enjoy.1, a It’s a handshake that lets us get to know each other better so we can both find our ‘peeps.’ Scribe Syndicate loves writing, editing, and research, and you want to learn how to write an eBook. We already agree that this is a fair trade, so let’s get started!

Choosing the Length of your eBook A good thing to know about writing an eBook is that there is no length requirement. What a huge relief. However, if you are letting people have it for free, you might want to keep it short and inspire some future curiosity with various attention-grabbing industry topics to follow in an email newsletter. The payoff is an eventual steady stream of warm leads.

By short, I mean as little as 5-10 pages. Since about 2012, the highest ranking content in search engines has been typically more than 2,400 words in length.2, b This is roughly five pages depending on the font size. Word count in an eBook isn't nearly as important as it is in print books. Readers are satisfied with a complete picture of a topic at a reasonable price. Don't fill your book with fluff to make it longer. It’s a waste of time, especially when offering a free download.3, c

a TNS Experts, 10 Surprising Facts About Content Marketing, https://thenextscoop.com/surprising-facts-content-marketing/ b http://web.archive.org/web/20180122181329/http:/blog.serpiq.com/how-important-is-content-length-why-data-driven-seo- trumps-guru-opinions/ c Shattuck, C., 2017. eBook Word Count: Does Size Matter? https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/ebook-word-count-does-size- matter/

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Visitors who read your eBook and find it useful will want more and revisit. Initially capturing their attention doesn’t require volumes of information, just a few gritty details to help them grasp a concept or learn about a process. Many eBooks are free, but it depends on the amount of work you put into it and what your goal is.

Ask yourself:

• Is the book designed to grow your reputation by sharing your expertise? • Are you building an email list only, or are you trying to create an additional revenue stream? • Will you be offering the book from an existing website page or building a separate landing page

to feature it?

You may want to talk to your website developer to determine a value for the book based on recouping any additional website feature costs. The price for adding a button to your home page is much less than designing a separate landing page.

Starting with an Outline It is too easy to stray into the multiple fascinating aspects of your subject matter without an outline. You will waste hours on unrelated and possibly insignificant information and risk losing your audience. A guideline including an introduction, a central topic indicated by your headline or title, 2-3 related subtopics or examples, and a conclusion may be all you need. Cap the amount of material you want to cover in each section, whether it’s one paragraph, one page, or one chapter. Once you reach that limit, task yourself with choosing only the most important points.

Your information will need to be formatted in a way to fit the space and be aesthetically pleasing. You may choose to use bullet points, images, or infographics to get an idea across. If you run out of room and have more to say, simply embed links into text directing visitors to “read more” for additional information contained on your website, blog posts, and social media. Every time you publish a blog post or upload content into the media library of your website, it generates a unique link. Copy and paste it to link your material together and drive traffic. This allows you to expand on topics and circulate visitors longer to establish your expertise and consumer relationship better.

Scribe Syndicate recommends using all the tools at your disposal. Bullet points get right to the point and highlight the most critical material for easy skimming, and also helps to keep your paragraphs short. Additionally,

embedding links to more information is called “backlinking” and drives traffic back to your website to access more information on a particular topic via a blog article, white paper, or social post that engages current and potential clients once again. When you know someone in a related field, and they publish one of your links within their content, this is an affiliate backlink. Google loves a reputable and genuine backlink, and you benefit from using them by better search results and ranking.

Updating and Repurposing When writing your eBook or any other digital content, including blog posts, you can improve overall traffic - and potential sales - by as much as 402% by updating the information or merely reposting it

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periodically. Consider that many eBooks contain repurposed blog article material collected on a similar topic. Approximately 1 in 10 blog posts are still relevant over time using evergreen material, and the amount of traffic they generate continues to grow as more time passes. You can also repurpose content in different contexts or on various landing pages and social media platforms.4, d

Scribe Syndicate often recommends it’s clients build a content library for at least six months to create a base for updating and repurposing material. You may need to outsource this amount of material, but it is one of the least expensive investments you can make in your business, and it has lasting effects. Even professional content marketers may lack the time, personnel, or technology to handle the volume of material needed and have to weigh the circumstances against the cost to outsource.

Writing Style Including Voice and Tone Concerning the actual content of your eBook, you will need to choose between a formal or informal tone. Your style may be narrative or educational, which is the difference between telling an anecdotal story and handing out tips and facts. Your mood may be emotional or reserved, upbeat, or calm. Most people have a natural inclination for one or the other.

The decisions you make may reflect your brand tone and voice to be consistent. Some content is designed to be persuasive, while others are a source of knowledge. This may affect whether you use simple or complex vocabulary. It is recommended to use a 6th grade level for the general public, but you can increase the education level considerably when talking to industry colleagues. Know your audience.

Microsoft lets you check the Flesch-Kincaid grade level using options under the File tab, Options, and looking at Proofing tools. A quick check let me know that this book has a 9th grade comprehension. We believe that most people attempting to write an eBook for their business can handle a more adult vocabulary and sentence structure, as long as we don’t use less familiar industry terms.

d TNS Experts, 10 Surprising Facts About Content Marketing, https://thenextscoop.com/surprising-facts-content-marketing/

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In this day and age, online content relies on brevity. The grade level comprehension will require you to cap the number of words per sentence as well as the types of words you choose. Keep your paragraphs short, as well. The style guide you use will help you determine things like comma placement, words that require capitalization, periods at the end of headings or bullet points, spacing, and formatting. However, as long as you pick a rule and are consistent, you will look polished. There are no hard and fast rules on digital content style. Know some basics and then use your best judgment.

Copy Editing, Proofreading, and Formatting Thoroughly edit your eBook for professionalism. If you get done with the book and can’t stand to look at the material one more time, sleep on it, or wait a few days before doing the edit.

Scribe Syndicate recommends that you have someone else edit or proofread before publishing or posting. Expert writers do this for three good reasons.

1. An outside perspective on the material will discover any areas that may be confusing, inaccurate, or inconsistent to the reader - this is a structural edit for content and context.

2. The editor will not be so familiar with the wording that their brain fills in the gaps automatically for them – a copy edit looks at grammar, spelling, repetitive words, and sentence structure. When reading your content multiple times, your brain will skip small words and “correct” spelling issues making you blind to the actual text.

3. Sometimes errors mysteriously get missed. Professionals take several passes of material, including a final proofing for minor mistakes. If nothing else, aid yourself with artificial intelligence like Grammarly.com - a helpful tool to proofread. It will not fix all your issues for you, but it will pick up things you truly didn’t see and make you take one more comprehensive look.

Researching and Citing your Sources Whether you are writing from experience or research will probably dictate how long it takes you to pull some information together. Research takes time, but as long as you have your outline, you can fill information in and stay on track. If you know your topic intimately, it’s possible to write a short book in as little as a day. When looking for specific information that is outside of your immediate knowledge base, you may have to browse for material online for accuracy and additional relevant material. Don’t skimp on the research as this shows the reader how invested you are in providing valuable content. You will then need to share where you have gathered your material so readers know they can trust your source.

Be sure to credit your sources correctly. Scribe Syndicate uses APA style for citations. A simple Google search will show you the format for any method you choose to use. There is also a place to ask Microsoft Word to manage your sources in the style selected.

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When you reach the end of this book, you will see the sources listed together and an example of endnotes listed in numerical order. You will also see footnotes inserted at the end of each page containing a reference listed alphabetically. You will generally choose one way to source everything. When it comes to endnotes and footnotes, Microsoft Word easily inserts them for you. Use the references tab, place your cursor where you want the foot or endnote, then add your source when Word takes you to the bottom of your page or book. You can also cite your sources inline - a reference to the source in the paragraph or sentence that may include an external website link.

Linking Externally to Sources Scribe Syndicate recommends avoiding embedding any links to sources outside of your website content – unless you are developing an affiliate link relationship. When mentioning any external research sources inline (within the body of your text), you don’t want to encourage your reader to leave your eBook. If you have already backlinked to your website, blog articles, and other material in the copy somewhere, readers are still relying on your expertise to accumulate knowledge rather than someone else’s. You can provide any external source links (URL)s at the end of your book under sources where it is less distracting.

If you insert any charts or images that are not your own, you must credit the source here too. Even if you use a stock image from a free website application, let the audience know. Many stock image platforms like

Pixabay.com or Unsplash.com provides an easy to copy link to the actual photographer or graphic designer when you download. Be kind and use it when you can.

Duplicating Content Believe it or not, search engine browsers have bots that know if you have plagiarized or duplicated any online content. There is a way to check that your material is at least 90% unique and avoid confusion on who owns the information. Applications, like Copyscape.com, can be downloaded to search the web and make a quick comparison. You will input your text and address any results it comes up with by rewording or removing it. If you don’t fix this, you are risking your online reputation with Google and your readers.

If your eBook is longer than five pages, Scribe Syndicate recommends you add a table of contents (TOC), so your audience can skim and find the information they are most interested in quickly. Microsoft Word

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can automatically insert this for you under references. Remember to update the table of contents when you make edits that change page number references. All you do is hit “update” and its done for you.

You will need to use the HTML headings provided under the home tab so Word knows when you’ve created different section headings that need to be numbered. The code contained in them also helps search engines understand the most important words in the titles and subtitles for search engine optimization (SEO).

HTML headings will also help you navigate your manuscript while writing so you can skip around to different sections easily. It is the same pane that allows you to search the entire document to find a specific word and/or replace it with another one.

Fun fact: This book took a single weekend to write and edit.

Once you’ve completed the editing process, you will want to number your pages using the insert menu tab and click on the page number drop down listed with the header and footers.

You may want to learn about things like meta- and alt-tags, rich snippets, keywords and longtail phrases that make your content more likely to come up in search queries. If you have a Yoast plugin in Wordpress, every time you create content for your media library or blog page, it gives you choices at the bottom and right of the page to edit a snippet or title, check your readability, and add tags for content.

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Rich Snippets Example

Meta tags

These are simply the words you choose for your title and keywords. You can search for Google’s free keyword tool to get started or pay to use Google AdWords. These words are what your ideal consumer will use to search and find you. Educated guesses are a good start, but you may need to test them out against each other to see which ones get the best results. Trial and error take some time, which is why some people choose a professional to do it.

Alt Text

This box appears when you right-click on your image and scroll down to Edit Alt Text. Naming your image using a keyword when downloading is also very helpful.

When a book gets to 100 pages or more, you may want to consider a Kindle or print version. Publishing it by using either self- or traditional publishers changes the complexity of the project. You will need help with getting an ISBN and internal formatting to convert the book to a compatible version for a Kindle (or another digital publishing platform) or print version. A cover design will be necessary along with an author bio and book jacket material, and some guidance on marketing the book to generate an income from sales.

Scribe Syndicate can help you research, write, or edit your eBook of any size. We can consult with you regarding publishing options and make referrals that best suit your needs and goals. If you have been struggling to finish an eBook project, let us know!

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Sources: Panchal, J., 84 Facts You Didn’t Know About Content Marketing, https://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/facts-about-content-marketing/

Shattuck, C., 2017. eBook Word Count: Does Size Matter? https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/ebook- word-count-does-size-matter/

Coolman, A., 2019. How to Start Creating a Writing Style Guide, https://qordoba.com/blog/create- writing-style-guide/

Endnotes:

1 TNS Experts, 10 Surprising Facts About Content Marketing, https://thenextscoop.com/surprising-facts-content-marketing/ 2 http://web.archive.org/web/20180122181329/http:/blog.serpiq.com/how-important-is-content-length-why-data-driven-seo- trumps-guru-opinions/ 3 Shattuck, C., 2017. eBook Word Count: Does Size Matter? https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/ebook-word-count-does-size- matter/ 4 TNS Experts, 10 Surprising Facts About Content Marketing, https://thenextscoop.com/surprising-facts-content-marketing/