How To Create Your Own EBook For Free

Have you ever stopped to think about all the eBooks you see offered for sale on the Internet? Obviously people are buying them or there would not be so many. Their subject matter ranges from "How To Make a Baby Stop Crying", "How to Train Your Poodle", and "How to Catch Catfish", to serious Internet Marketing subjects.

Perhaps you have realized that eBooks can mean big bucks for those who produce and market them successfully, and maybe you have even toyed with the idea of creating one yourself. But, then you began to realize that there could be a few drawbacks. How do you begin? Buy software? Hire someone to put your articles into a PDF file for a price? And, what about the eBook cover? That has to be expensive as well...

Once you find the right subject, you may be able to afford to have an eBook cover created for you by someone who has the software already, and they will charge for it. But, the monetary rewards are well worth it if you can just create a PDF document yourself in a subject that will sell well. You probably think it is an expensive endeavor and you will have a hard time learning to use some strange new software.

What if you were told that you could create an eBook PDF for...

FREE!

Yes, Free! And the ability to do so has been around for quite some time. Most of the Gurus will never mention it because they want to sell you the software that will do the same thing!

The resource being referred to here is called Open Office (a free multi-platform office suite that, in many peoples' opinion, is better than MS Office) and it is available - FREE - at www.openoffice.org/ The reason this is free is because it is "Open Source". That means that anyone can try to add, improve, or otherwise make the end product work better (if you have the proper skills, of course) and no one actually owns the copyright or license on it.

This looks, feels and functions much like any word processing program you have used, only it has more...much more. You have the ability to save the text in many different platforms. You can even save the document as an MS Word document and open it in that program. What is important here, though, is the fact that you can save the document as a PDF. That's right! It has a built-in PDF Converter! If you were to search on the Internet right now for a PDF Converter program, you would find that it can cost much more than you want to pay, especially since you can get it for Free with Open Office.

Now that you have Open Office downloaded and see how easy it is to enter text, add pictures, and add hyper-links to the document, as well as save it in PDF form, you need to actually begin creating your eBook. It takes several steps to create an eBook, and finding the right method to create it is only the first part of the process. Now you actually have to decide what kind of eBook you want to create.


Step #1. Decide Your Subject Matter

First, you must choose a subject for your eBook. The best place to start is to choose a subject that you know a great deal about. Realize that your subject also has to pass the test of popularity, or you will have no one willing to buy it. Very few people will buy an eBook about how to make a chicken go into a trance!

Go to ClickBank's Marketplace and put a keyword into the search box that is the most relevant to your subject, and see which are the most popular eBooks on that subject. If you come up with less than five or six results, that kind of eBook probably will not sell very well. Keep using this method until you find a subject with at least a dozen results that are sold more than 50% of the time through affiliate referrals. Those are the subjects that sell the best and can be successfully promoted.


Step #2. Gather Information and Make An Outline

Begin to search on the Internet for more information on your chosen subject to supplement your own knowledge (you will be surprised at how much you do not know sometimes).

Now make an outline of how you want to present your information. Start with the logical 'what, why, and how' categories of your subject, and then break it into sub-categories.

One very important caution here: Do not assume that everyone else has the same level of knowledge on your subject as you do. Never try to sell an eBook that basically "starts in the middle." If the author/creator decides to leave out the most basic information from an eBook, which the new reader may not know, it makes the eBook unusable to that buyer. This kind of mistake leads to an unhappy buyer who will demand a refund. Just one more paragraph or page of explanation could cure that problem. It is better to let someone who knows the basics of the subject already to feel that you added the 'extra' information as a 'filler' than have someone request a refund.


Step #3. Now Decide on A Heading

What? Shouldn't that be the first thing to do? No, and here is the reason why... Until you gather all of your information and start putting the outline together, the actual heading my need to change if you decide to emphasize a different point than originally planned. Also, creating a heading first forces the author to try to fit the article to the heading. This has a limiting effect on the article which could have evolved more naturally had it waited until the outline was finished.


Step #4. Add Graphics and Pictures to Enhance the eBook

Yes, you do need some colorful graphics and/or pictures to add interest to the eBook and break the monotony of the text. Do not, however, use large graphics and pictures as 'fillers.' The graphics should be appropriate and not take up half of the page. If you have too large, or too many pictures and not enough information of real value, you may find yourself handing out refunds as a result.


Step #5. Create the Actual eBook in Open Office

Type up your text, add pictures and graphics, and then proof-read your document over and over. Be sure to check spelling and grammar. Nothing is worse than reading an eBook with incomplete sentences, poor spelling, and improper grammar that your third grade child could point out.

Once you have done all of the above and are satisfied with your work, you should save it as a PDF Document.

Now all you need to do is figure out if you want to pay someone to create an eBook cover, or if you want to buy the software to do it yourself. This will be your only expense using this method of eBook creation.

If you have followed all the advice and all the steps above, then, Congratulations! You just created an eBook on a budget!