How To Write A Book For A Website

By | January 18, 2017

Famous Quote

 

This article is for the people who want to know how to write a book for a website or a business. I will be including some tips that will help make their book be in demand.

 

A book that is found on a blog or a website shouldn’t be any different than a book that can be found on Amazon Kindle. Each is designed to give the reader information on their given subject.

 

 

So what makes a book the object of admiration? What about writing a book that seems so mystifying?
In my last article, I answered these two questions and more with “Tips To Writing A Book”. To read more about these writing tips please follow this link: Tips To Writing A Book

 

 

 

Since the Internet, anyone can become a successful writer. Just ask any of the many authors that can be found on Amazon.com/books

 

 

 

There are vast opportunities that have opened up to you in becoming a self-publishing author. Using social media as a marketing tool millions of potential readers and buyers can be reached in an instant.

 

 

In just the last several years, to become a writer all you needed was a computer and an Internet connection. Go online to www.InternationalLiving.com and learn how you can get paid to write.

 

Exotic Travel Writer

 

 

The pie chart below shows the market share of the total US Book industry. Most of the books are from Indie authors, which are independent eBook authors.

 

Market Share of eBooks

courtesy of Google.com

 

 

Today it is so much easier to write, publish, and distribute a book all over the world. There are several platforms in which to accomplish any of these tasks.

 

 

Most publishing companies have their own eBook division where a writer may submit their PDF Document for consideration of publication.

 

There are literally hundreds of publishers that can be easily found online.

 

But the two publishers that I personally know of today will publish your PDF Document for FREE. One of these publishers also distributes your eBook to all of the major bookstores worldwide.

 

The first publisher that most people already know about is Amazon Kindle, at http://amazon.com/books. Here you can find a book about anything. The wonderful thing about Amazon is that it is free to submit a book for publication.

 

 

Amazon.com/books

 

 

The only downside to Amazon is that once you submit a book they have exclusive rights to this book. You can’t allow any other bookstore to offer this book for sale.

 

 

The other publisher is Smashwords found at http://smashwords.com. This happens to be my favorite publisher. The reason they are my go-to publisher is not only are they also free but they also distribute your book worldwide to all major bookstores, including Amazon!

 

smashwords website

 

 

The greatest thing since sliced bread, these publishing companies take your uploaded PDF Document and transform it into a book, into different languages if necessary, and distribute it all over the world! In less than 24 hours you could be earning money from your book.

 

They give you a choice of prices you wish for your book and the breakdown of shared revenue on your book. For example, you are asking $1.99 per book, you get $1.00 and the publisher gets $0.99 from the book sale. They have varying degrees of price points so do your homework so you know exactly what you keep and what goes to the publisher.

 

This is more than fair considering the publisher has the cost of publishing your book and in distributing it worldwide.

 

 

This allows a book to be marketed all around the world at all the major hubs! I believe this is much better than having a book only available at one store.

 

 

A lot of would-be authors frown on the price as low as $.099, $1.99, even $2.99. The surprising statistics about this is that far more books are sold at the $1.99 and $2.99 than any other price setting.

 

 

Here is an example. So would you rather sell 100 books at $1.99 or 10 books at $10.00? It is much easier to sell a book from an unknown author for mere pennies verse a much higher price.

 

 

Another great way to promote your book is to get affiliate promoting your book for commission sales. For every book they sell, you pay them a commission.

 

 

Have A Plan

Wanting to write a book is one thing, but to actually sit down and write a book is a different matter. The hardest part about writing a book is getting started.

 

 

As the well-known author, Scott Burkun, on his blog post, “How To Write A Book – The Short Honest Truth”, said, “if Voltaire and Marquis de Sade could write in prison, then you can do it in suburbia”.

 

 

Get Started

 

The easiest way to write a book, as Nike, coined the phrase, “Just Do It”.

 

 

What kind of book would you like to write? Who is this book for? Do you know your audience? Do you know your subject or must you do some research?

 

 

These questions should be answered first before preceding to sit down and start writing.

 

 

Get into a routine of writing a few pages every day, or have a particular word count to shoot for. Practice makes perfect so the more you condition yourself to write the better you will become.

 

 

What works best for me is dividing my time into blocks or segments of twenty minutes each. I will write for twenty minutes, then take a break. I don’t have a set number of pages to complete before I stop because my time to write is already limited.

 

 

I first decide what my book is going to be about. I start gathering some facts that I want and write them down. I then start some research on the ‘net for more information about my subject. I put all this information into an outline.

 

 

After I have all the information necessary, I organize my outline into segments or what I call ‘bits of information’ so that it flows easily from one fact to another. With all my research complete, I am now ready to start writing.

 

 

When writing a book it is best to know your audience. What I mean by that is to know who you are writing this book for. Your plan is to write this book for them, the ‘audience’.

 

 

Let’s say you want to write a book about how to stop nail biting. Who are you going to write this book for? The Psychologists, a concerned parent, or the nail-biting individual themselves?

 

 

Each one would require a different language so that they would stay attentive to what is said in the book. Knowing this beforehand will help in maintaining a consistent language and approach in the book.

 

 

Each one of these audiences could make for a very good book, but not all of these subjects would be profitable. Know who your audience will be so that you write the book for them.

 

 

Another important step before writing is to find out what the publisher requires before you submit your book to them. Most publishers all require the same formatting rules but before you start writing, make sure you adhere to their formatting guidelines.

 

 

Not adhere to these formatting guidelines will force you to rewrite, or at least reformat, when sometimes this affects every page.

 

I will give more details of the formatting rules later in this article.

 

Title And Category Of Your Book

You could have written an extremely good book; but unless it has a good title, it may never get read. This is so very true. The title, the book cover, and description all add to or subtract from the value of the book.

 

 

Amy Harrop, at https://amyharrop.com, the author of “Three Fast Fixes for More Book Royalties” expresses there are three essential elements to obtaining the largest readership. Which are:

  • Choose the Best Book Title
  • Choosing the right categories for your book
  • Your Book Description

Since the majority of books sold today are found through the Internet, having the right keywords in the title and descriptions play a vital role in creating success for the book.

 

Another post to learn about using the right keywords and the impact these words have on the ranking of your article is What Is A Keyword Research Tool and How Is It Used

 

 

By researching book titles at Amazon and finding the top fifty within your niche should give you an ample example of what people are searching for. Try one search with the date, ‘2016’ then without the date to see if the search data changed. NOTE: It is still too early in the year to benefit from the date ‘2017’.

How To Write A Book
Today a book that has a very good cover will always outsell a book that doesn’t have a good cover. It will be money-in-the-bank by deciding to have the book cover professionally created for you.

 

 

Once you have finished your book, do you know how you are going to market your book? If you wrote a book to get submitted to a publisher and then distributed worldwide, You will want to read this report first, at http://www.indiesunlimited.com/book-promo-sites/

 

This website is full of free and paid advertisers to promote your book. However, before you spend money on advertising your book you will want to learn how to run an effective ad.

 

You can read these guides on FaceBook for more information:

  • Facebook for Fiction Promotion: http://ezrd.me/r/?rd=082QCYfun
  • Facebook for Non-Fiction Promotion: http://ezrd.me/r/?rd=082S6Mfun

 

 

Finding Your Space

Finding a good location to start writing is an important key to writing successfully. You will want a space that you are not continually disturbed by a phone ringing, a television blaring, or people talking.

 

 

This space should be a place that you feel very comfortable in. This space could be anywhere, like a bedroom, the living room, a home office, even the patio.

 

 

The reason this space has to be a place that you are most comfortable in is so that you will not have to go out of your way to go there to write. If this space is inconvenient then you will find reasons not to go there to write.

 

It should be an easy space to get to.

 

Everyone is different so whatever floats your boat should be fine. My go-to space happens to be my home office where my desktop rests. I have a laptop but I feel more comfortable writing on my desktop than my laptop.

 

As I had said earlier my time is very limited to when I can write a book. I go to my home office, I open the folder that contains my book and find the spot where I had stopped writing earlier.

 

 

I get a cup of coffee, sit down, read the last two paragraphs or so to help my mind get back to where it had been before. Then I start writing. When I finish my cup of coffee, I take a break. I may get more coffee before preceding.

 

 

Again, an important key to writing a book is that you enjoy writing. If you enjoy writing then you will find it very easy and fulfilling. This adds to the incentive to finding the time to go write.

 

 

People that already have websites have to write content continuously and add to their website. These individuals already know the importance of maintaining their unique voice in entertaining their readers with what they want to say.

 

 

The more you write the better at expressing yourself you become and the development of the author within you is born.

 

 

Write About Something You Know

The easiest book to write is a` book about something you know. It is all your fingers can do to keep up with the information coming from your head.

 

 

Things that you are experienced about could make a great book. The skills that you have may have taken a long time to develop. For a new person to acquire these same skills will either take the same time or learn it from a good instructional book. You could be the author of this instructional book.

 

 

One of the largest categories of books at the bookstore is the self-help section. Hundreds of people every day are looking to learn how to do something.

 

 

That is how all DIY men and women learn how to do things. They want something done. They want it done now. So they learn how to do it themselves.

 

 

Tell your story as no one else can. You have unique experiences that can possibly help many younger adults going through similar trials.

 

 

Don’t bore your reader with issues that are totally irrelevant to the subject you are writing about. Make your words believable and accurate. Maybe even write a book about what you would like to read. If you are interested, then it will probably interest others as well.

 

 

As with any website or blog, the main focus is writing good content. With “Content Is King”, approach the book that you write should also be content that you are proud to be linked to.

 

 

Many of these books are given away for free as a capture-email “lead magnet”.

These books do two things:

  • First, it allows you as the website owner to capture a potential customers email. Once you have their email address, you can sell to them again and again.
  • Secondly, It helps the customer to know your brand and learn to trust you. You will never sell to a stranger. You can only sell to someone that trust you.

 

Once your book is published, it is time to get book reviews!

 

Getting at least five to seven book reviews when you publish a book will boost your overall success of the book. Most people read reviews. They will not buy a book if it has a bad review.

 

Book reviews give your book visibility, helps it gain credibility, and allows your book to be circulated on more websites and promo specials.

 

A place to start:

  1. GoodReads.com – Physical book only
  2. Rafflecopter.com – Can use with social media; Free/paid plans
  3. Librarything.com – Pay a small fee – fastest way to join

 

Formatting Guidelines

Every publisher will have their own basic rules and regulations that every individual author must follow. These are simple guidelines that even a novice can easily follow. Most of these guidelines can even be set up in any word processor, just set it and forget it.

 

The rules that follow are only basic formatting fundamentals to follow. As I said earlier, every publisher has their own set guidelines to follow. So check with a publisher first to know what their guidelines are. Their rules may be the same, or totally different.

 

The First rule, try not to have several different fonts used in your book. Try to use only one or two fonts.
The Second rule never uses the last line of a page or the first line of a page.
The Third rule always punctuates with a manual page break at the bottom of the page.
The Fourth rule, Have a separate TOC (Table of Contents).
The Fifth rule, all pictures, graphics, etc, should be filed in their own folder separate from the PDF Book.
The Sixth rule, if you are furnishing a cover for your book, have it as a separate folder as well.

 

It is also best to spend good money for a professional book cover. There are countless books sold today by the cover only, the customer “bought the book because the book cover looked interesting.”

 

Teresa Miller has written a free report to creating a more professional looking book. She is the head of Createspace, a leading print distributor. She also has a complete course on how to make sure your books are truly professional looking. The name of this course is – Createspace intensive. For the free report on formatting your book click on her Free Style Affiliates.

 

 

I hope you have learned how to write a book for a website or your business. I have tried to include all of the important steps to make your book writing a success. I am open to suggestions and look forward to your comments.

 

4 thoughts on “How To Write A Book For A Website

  1. Martina

    Hey! Just wanted to comment because your post at Wealthy Affiliate got me so excited but I have some questions. Thank you for telling me about Amazon’s exclusive policy because I actually have a book on there right now and I had no idea that this right existed. If you take your book down from Amazon, then you can sell it other places though right? Another question I had is that do you know how to promote your book well once you’ve put it up on Amazon or like Smashwords? You mention book reviews but how do I go about getting good ones? Is there an advertising method that works well for books? Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Martina, thank you for reading my blog post and I happy that you were able to find the information useful. To answer your questions, Yes you can sell your book at other vendors, like Smashwords.com, I think after ninety days from the day you request closure at Amazon. I would suggest giving a few copies of your book away for free in exchange for a book review. Once you have several book reviews, you can list them in the book description, which helps with promotion purposes. Another route to promoting your book is through free and paid advertisements, FaceBook and all social media channels.

      Reply
  2. Rachel

    Hi Kenneth,
    This is a great article – so much information, and lots that i hadn’t even considered. I didn’t realise that epublishing could be done for free through a big publisher like Amazon Kindle so that’s very exciting.

    You mention the importance of having the cover professionally done. Do you have any tips on how to find an illustrator to do the cover, and any illustrations or diagrams inside the book? I’d imagine this can end up very expensive but are there budget conscious options as well?

    Thanks for the inspiration!
    Rachel

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Thank you Rachel and to answer your question, yes I do have suggestions on how to find an illustrator to design your book cover. DO NOT use Fiverr.com. I would instead go to elance.com, http://www.guru.com, https://ebooklaunch.com, or www.freelancer.com. Each website has several designers, all at reasonable expense. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? With the right book cover, even a semi good book will sell well.

      Reply

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