January 2010 – Create An eBook Now

January 30, 2010December 29, 2022

Designing your eBook Cover with color selection

The eBook cover and graphics make a statement about your eBook. If the cover is unprofessional the writing may be considered the same, before the first word is read.

photo credit: anemoneprojectors
Overall most people would consider the cover important. But what about color selection?

Its been proven that colors can make us feel different emotions. They can even trigger a physical reaction.

Therefore, the color you use for your eBook cover will influence how the potential buyer will react to the eBook. And certain topics will lend their selves to a certain color range.

For example my Easy Backyard Oasis Projects will use earth tones. Greens and brighter colors for the spring and summer season and oranges, reds, yellows for fall.

If I had a winter gardening eBook it would be monochromatic colors and use browns, grey, black, and blues. Bright colors could be used for emphasis.

Here are a few guidelines to help you choose colors for your eBook cover. These are guidelines only. They are not hard and fast rules.

1. The color green reminds us of prosperity and money. Green will also work well for eBooks about saving money, investment strategies or starting a new business. Green is also an environmental color so any nature, environment, landscape or gardening eBook will do well with tones of green in the cover.

2. Blue is a confidence color. Any topic that deals with building or creating confidence will attract more interest with a blue cover. Marketing, job hunting, getting a raise, sales strategies, etc are only a few ideas. Water related topics would do well with blue accents.

3. Red is known as an action color. How to books, eliminating debt, creating wealth and make more money titles will get noticed faster with a red cover

4. Orange has been known to stimulate the appetite. It also represents health and vitality so cookbooks would do well with an orange cover. (But be sure to stay away from blue, and the mixture or blue and yellow, which are known to be an appetite suppressant!)

5. Pastels are often used for crafts, young children and weddings.

There are many color combinations that create certain moods. Graphic artists and artist know many of these. You can look online or head to the local library for a book on color to assist with color choices. Another way to identify color use is to pick up a sales catalog and notice the color combinations they use.

When you eBook is so close to completion, don’t overlook the final accents that will help make your project a success.

January 27, 2010December 29, 2022

Create an eBook Cover

The writing of your eBook is finished. Now its time for you to add the final touches, designing the eBook cover and matching banners, graphic buttons. You will need a sales pages if you are planning to sell the eBook.

photo credit: Enoch Pratt Free Library

This last step of creating a professional look to your eBook is one of the essential parts of creating a professional impression. With out this final process your writing will be overlooked.

There are several options available for this last step.

1. You can hire a professional to design your e-book cover and the graphics needed. This is the faster way to finish your eBook, particularly if you have not worked with graphic design and photo imaging software before.

2. You can use a package of ‘stock’ covers that you can alter to fit your needs or you can design the graphics you need yourself.

3. Use software to create you own eCover and graphics.

photo credit: room122

If you really don’t feel up to the task or time involved in eBook cover and graphic creation, hire a professional. There are groups of skilled designers that design eBook covers, headers and graphics for very reasonable fees.

Online, I would recommend eLance. You sign into eLance and place a job ad for the eBook and graphics needed for your project. Include the price range you are willing to accept and wait for bids.

You may also be able to find talented local college students that would be able to do the work for you.

The price for the graphics for your eBook project will depend on the amount of work you are requesting. But prices usually fall between $40 and $100.

If you decide to design your eBook cover and graphics yourself you will need imaging software. Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, or GIMP are a few programs available. Stock images, are also available online. But you need to carefully check the license of any image you select to see if you can user the image for your project.

If you are a photographer and have professional quality photos, or know a good photographer, they might be a person to contact. Otherwise look for sites that deal in royalty free images. Google has many listing for stock photographs.

When creating you own eBook cover make sure the quality of the image is sharp and attractive. You will also need to check the perspectives of the eBook cover and match up all edges so that your binding, and front and back covers are not crooked or out of proportion.

There are software packages out there that provide Photoshop action scripts and more aid in the design of your eBook. These action scripts allow you to generate a cover without fiddling with matching up edges and other tasks such as a perspective view that you might want for your e-book or stylized box design. ECover software programs can be found on Google. Some programs must be bought and others are free.

The cover and packaging is the first thing most people will see of your e-book. The quality has to be top notch to attract attention and create interest. Your eBook may be informative and a great read but if the eCover lacks pizzazz your readers will loose interest quickly.

Regardless of the topic of your eBook, a professional and appealing e-book cover is a must if you expect to people to read your eBook or buy a copy.

January 25, 2010December 29, 2022

Avoid Four common eBook mistakes

There are many reasons why a person creates an eBook, but one common goal is to have the eBook read. With this in mind here are a few of the biggest eBook mistakes. Ones that relate to getting your eBook out in public.

photo credit: tiny_packages

There are four very common eBook mistakes. These mistakes can cost you your hard work and time faster than any other mistake you’ll ever make.

1. The first mistake is you need to provide a strong reason to redistribute your eBook. Free eBook, free reports and free gifts go a long way, but you’ll also find that some people aren’t inclined to redistribute free.

They won’t read the e-book. They will set it aside to look at later and it gets lost in the stack of “to do projects.” Or they just won’t find the time to create a way to offer the eBook to others.

So you’ll have to offer some form of an attractive bonus to the people downloading it to redistribute your e-book. That bonus could be anything from a percentage of each sale, or the ability to sell the book themselves. It could also be other valuable items that give them a reason to distribute your book to their lists.

2. The second mistake is failing to create a buzz. You need to create a stir and attention to your product before launch. It’s important to remember that you’ll need to create an honest buzz. If you over promise and under deliver you will have many unhappy customers and the interest in your eBook will fade. So keep your promotion honest. If your content is informative and fresh you will do well.

3. The third of these big mistakes is not finding a joint venture partner or group of people to help you distribute your book. Affiliates are great when you’ve reached critical mass, and pay per click and search engine results won’t hold a candle to the amount of promotional traffic a strong joint venture partner will bring you.

And the biggest mistake you can make and I am guilty here, is trying to make the eBook perfect. You want a good eBook that is full of relevant information but if you keep tweaking and changing plans you will not know how the book will do.

There is time after your eBook is released to tweak the sales page, add a bonus and change a few things for better sales. But you only know where to start when you start seeing results.

As my friend Wizzer says: Do it now!

And there it is – four common mistakes that you can make and the easiest ways to avoid them – avoiding them, though perhaps a bit more time consuming, but well worth it in the long run.

Create an eBook now! Denise

January 23, 2010December 29, 2022

Free eBook Directories for listing your eBook

When creating an eBook you will want a way to promote it after you have the product finished. Ebook directories are one way to get the word out about your eBook.

photo credit: Sheldon Pax

Below are four directories that may be useful to you.

Ebook2U is a free e-book only directory – which means you can target those affiliates and people looking for highly targeted niche content. You can promote well in this directory.

This huge directory accepts free and paid listings. With a vast array of categories and areas, you can list your e-book within many different areas to maximize your niche exposure.

Wisdom e-books is another site that allows you to list your e-books – its business category contains a lot of free and purchasable e-books, but doesn’t really have much niche targeting capability.

Jogena.com – Mainly focused on marketing and business categories, you can sometimes list your e-book with these categories.

You can also list your eBook at Craigs list and forums that are related to yout topic.

January 21, 2010December 29, 2022

Why you Should Create a Mini-eBook

Creating mini-eBooks, or small eBooks, is a great way to break into writing an eBook.

photo credit: brandbook.de

There are many benefits to creating a mini eBook.

1. It is relatively easy to start,
2. There is not much up front cost
3. You don’t have to have any special skills or training to start the project but you will learn a few skills along the way.

The following are some reasons why you should create a mini-eBook and some tips to help you along the way.

Mini-eBooks are a great way to store and share information. They can be very profitable if you choose to sell them. When you create an eBook, you create the product once and each customer downloads a copy of it. Using this method you do not have to pay printers’ fees, shipping fees, or any other repetitive production costs.
Mini-eBooks, as with all information products, allow you to create a product from home, around your schedule. If you have a day job or if you happen to be a stay-at-home parent, you can create these products at night or on the weekend.
And if you are creating a mini-eBook for income, you can earn money over and over again for the work you put into creating a mini-eBook. Many people who have assembled an eBook have generated income from the book for many years. You put the effort into it once, and can sell it over and over again.
You will have to do promote your eBook, of course. You can also have people from around the world coming to your website at all times of day to buy your eBook. This is one job where you can wake up in the morning to find that you made money while you were sleeping.

Unlike an e-book, a mini-eBook only needs to be around 10 or 15 pages. You can easily write that many pages within a few days. You can literally start writing an eBook on a Monday, have it written by Wednesday, and see a profit by Friday.

You do not need any prior writing experience. As long as you know how to type and have good grammar and language skills, you are all set. You also need to have someone else proof your writing. It’s a proven fact you cannot we your own typing errors.

If you do not like writing, you can hire a ghostwriter to create the eBook for you. This will add to you expenses though.

You will need to have a computer with word processing software in order to type the eBook. You will need converting your finished work into an EXC file or PDF file to ensure that your customers will be able to read it.

And to enhance the eBook you will want to add photos, graphics and a cover. It just gives an overall professional look to your work.

A Mini-eBook can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to create. It will depend on the time you have to spend on it, and learning any additional skills you need to finish the project.