Day Four, Create an ebook in 5 days

It’s day four of create an eBook in five days. The schedule I am following today has how to write your articles. I have had my articles stuck in a file folder for months so I really don’t have new writing for the eBook today.

But I do still have proofing changes to make and then to reorganize the files to get them ready to make a PDF.  I am using open office to make my PDF, but there are several other good PDF makers online. One is Adobe Reader and the other is pdf995. Adobe is a paid program and pdf995 has a free version and a paid version program.

There are also many other programs out there; some good other not so reliable, but I have no personal experience with them.

So today I proofed and changed articles and set up more steps for selling my Book project when it’s done.

Resources that you may be interested in:
Adobe Reader
Pdf995
I stock photo

Create an eBook now, Denise

Basic steps in assembling your eBook

Day 3 in eBook creation. Two more to go… and the eBook should be done in five days.

Notebooks
photo credit: Risager

So far I have ideas for my eBook and I have done research on keywords (words or phrases that people use to search). My site for the sales page is a top keyword and so are my individual eBooks for the Backyard Oasis Projects gardening toolkit.

I have the articles ready for Backyard Oasis Projects and they are being proofed. While they are out being checked for any errors I will take the titles for each project and make sure they are keyword rich. Google keyword tool and Market Samurai will very my keywords.

Once that is done it’s time to lay out the chapters in my book. I have twenty articles for the Backyard Oasis Projects eBook. This should take an hour to organize the titles and when I am done I’ll get a second opinion.

The serious work for setting up the eBook is done so I will check on graphics for the eBook cover and photos for the eBook. This step always takes time. Its difficult to find the right image and make sure that there is no copyright or that I am following the photographers rules for use.

Tomorrow is the section of the book that may prove challenging for me. Getting the eBook in PDF format and adding the eBook cover and hyperlinks.

To change the article into a PDF format I will use Open Office.

Open Office is much like the program Microsoft Office but it can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Open office also has a built in PDF creator that is actually quite good.

One of the last steps in eBook creation is assembling the product that looks professional and pleasing to the eye. The following programs will help

Gimp is a free program for working with photos and other graphic needs
Photo Impact is very reasonable and will do as well as Photoshop for your eBook project.

And if you want, outsource the graphics to elance or one of the other services that are available for freelance graphic work. You can advertise for designer to create headers, ecovers, banners and more for your eBook project at these sites and select the best price. If you have the funds this will save you time.

Create an eBook in Five Days Daily Journal

If you set up a list of goals and make sure you set time aside each day you should be able to get an eBook done in five days – or be really close

I have decided to give this challenge a try so today I worked more on my Backyard Oasis Project articles. They are now ready for their first proofing. As I read the article one more time I made notes for what images I thought would go best with the writing.

Now to find images. More than half of the images will be from my collection but I will have to buy some images to go along with the articles.

You can use photos that are royalty free but there is a chance someone might say you broke a copyright rule so for important projects the images are mine or bought. There are several reliable places you can purchase images for a very reasonable price.

I spent about three hours on the eBook project. I also worked on my other eBooks for the project and fixed articles that have already been proofed.

Once you have your articles proofed and images set aside you will need to think about an ecover for the eBook, any additional graphics and which program you will use for creating your PDF file of your eBook.

For creating the DPF file for the eBook I am using Open office. It’s easy to use and it’s free for downloading from the Internet.

Here is a link to the first day of creating an eBook in five days. EBook Creation: Create an eBook in Five days.