Sista_web: Black Web Design Advice: The Secret to Creating Your Own e-books

I love writing, and when I discovered that I could turn my personal howtos into e-books everyone could enjoy, I went nuts! If you want to create your own e-book or if you are interested in why they are becoming so popular, let me fill you in on my e-book howto success.

First and foremost, creating e-books is are great for several reasons:

Sharing Your Knowledge, Skill Set, or Experience with Others
Generating Extra Income
Generating Traffic to Your site
Marketing Your Product or Service
Building a Network of Interested Readers

I create my e-books for these and other reasons. My first collection, Mahogany Momma eGuides, is special to me because it allows me to share my advice and resources with other African American mothers. It also always me to have total control over creating a Mommy Magazine that fits my interests and reader circle. In addition to Mahogany Momma, I also have a series of Black Business eBooks available on Urban Dynamics: The Web Resources for Black Busiess Owners and Entrepreneurs. I've created over 10 African American e-Books this year, and I'm looking forward to working on the next one.

Now Down to the HowTo Part

Pick a topic of interest to you that you know you can research and successfully write about
Create an Outline of Your eBook, separate your points into chapters and focus on finishing one chapter at a time. Breaking up your text into smaller parts makes it easier to write about
Do your research, write, edit, repeat (continue this process until you create something that's professional, quality, and what you envision it to be)
Now I'm an MS Word fanatic but if you do not have access to word another processing program to take advantage of is Google Docs and SpreadSheets, this is Free Online Software and great for creating documents
If you are trying to creating an e-book with special features like embedded tables, a calender, etc., take a look at the free downloadable templates that Microsoft Office provides.
Once you have created your e-book you will need to design a book cover. Now here is my biggest of secrets.... I use istockphoto.com for great high quality African American images, Black clipart, and stock photography. You can get an istock image for between $1 and $5. It's so cheap and the quality is so great, if you didn't know this is one of the best kept net secrets there is.
Now open your grapics program and design that cover! Or pay someone to do it for you.
After the book and the cover is done, convert your e-Book into .pdf form. I use the software: pdf995, it works and its free.
The best place to sell your e-book is Payloadz.com, this site provides free and affordable services for those who want to sell downloads like e-books or software. You can even create your own affiliate program to boost traffic and generate more revenue.
When I go to events like Black Expos or Book Fairs, my e-Books provide great merchandise for extra sales and also promotional giveaways or trades. Now you are probably wondering how I promote my e-books offline. I burn them onto cds! You can by a pack of 100 cds and cases and sell your e-book cds for as much as you like. And if you want to go for a more professional look, sometimes I get my CDs professionally printed by Kunaki.com. Again, this is another great, cheap site to take use of. It is even a great resource for those who want to put their songs or movies on cd or dvd.
If you want to find out more about how to market your e-book visit Urban Dynamics Black Business website and read this post on Tips for Advertising Online.

Now there you have it, this is how I make me e-Books and how you can make some too. At first it will take awhile to get out all the kinks, but I'm sure you will figure it out. And for added inspiration take a look at all my African American e-Books.

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