But it’s been more difficult transitioning from non-fiction writing to fiction writing than I anticipated. Sure, I’ve got plenty of crazy fiction ideas rattling around in the noggin. But the constraints of non-fiction writing have these invisible shackles on me. It’s been tough shaking them off and really writing freely…as fiction really NEEDS to be written.

My solution? Read plenty of fiction. Immerse myself in it. And it’s helped. I’ve read murder mysteries, chick lit, literary fiction, you name it. And I’ll keep on reading it as I keep on working on my writing.

My current project is Woof! And it’s involved a fair amount of research. And I’m not a huge fan of research. But in the end, it will help the book…because if I don’t know what the hell I’m writing about, then the whole book will ring false. And we can’t have that, now can we??

Another fun thing I want to share is a new book – 199 Internet-Based Businesses You Can Start with Less Than $1000 – and yours truly is featured in it. Well, my ebook coaching & ghostwriting biz is featured. You can check it out on pages 182-183. The book is great for anyone looking into home business…plenty of informational nuggets in there and case studies.

For many of us, it’s true!

We have information locked inside us that others would LOVE to have!

Many home biz owners are stumped for what they should write about, what they could possibly put into an ebook to use as a marketing piece or a money maker. So here’s my ultra-simple idea when you get stumped:

My Flip camera arrived and I put it to use! After trying to mess around with my pricey HD cameras with no luck (okay, so perhaps some of the issue is operator error…I’ll take some blame here…) I picked up a great deal on a Flip and you know what? I flippin’ love it!!!

(okay, a bit cheesy, but at least I’m crackin’ myself up)

With no further ado, I present my first ebook writing tip via video:

Comments? Suggestions? I would love to hear your feedback on the tip, or on the video itself. Thanks!!

Here are a few ideas:

- throw in your bio; Okay, this isn’t an “extra.” It’s a must have. You wrote the book, now make sure you introduce yourself to your readers and go the full mile. Let them know all about you (especially how it pertains to the ebook), give them contact information, a picture and info on upcoming work-related things.

- add a checklist; checklists are great for condensing your information to one page…something that can be printed out and used. (Just don’t forget your url in the header or footer of that checklist page!)

- provide discounts…have a discount to your services/products. Think of it as a gift to your readers. Perhaps you can work out a discount or some sort of special deal with a colleague on their services.

- add testimonials; no, not a kazillion of them. People don’t want to read page after page of how great you are. But a single page with a few testimonials of you and your product/service is nifty. (and it feels good, right?)

- add statistics; do a little research and find some stats out there to support your claims, to bolster your ebook. Make sure you state clearly where the stats are coming from. Or, you can even conduct your own surveys (check out Survey Monkey or Easy Internet Survey).

- add trivia; quotes, fun stats or interesting little tidbits of information that help augment your book can be sprinkled throughout, or added on a bonus page. Here’s a post with a bunch of trivia site links.

- add a FAQ page on your products/services; you get asked the same questions all the time, so head some of your prospects off at the pass by providing a “Frequently Asked Questions” page in your ebook.

- include a “Thank You” page; there are people who have supported you in your work. And here’s where you can acknowledge them. If they have a business and url, mention it and spread the link love!

- add a list; this is different than a checklist. You’re listing a “top ten” or some other number of listed items. You can add a list of web sites that would be useful. You can add a list of possible software resources.

- top it off with some graphics or pictures; some people like to print out their ebook…so I don’t typically recommend overloading your ebook with graphics that suck up a lot of ink. (Sprinkling throughout – good, overload – bad). But, if you have a subject that could use some picture or graphic representation, think about creating specific graphic pages and then referring to them through the text (as in, “see Picture 1-A on page 52″ or “Check out all the photos on page 52″). By having a page or two of the heavy graphics separate from the text, your prospects still get the visual element but can choose whether to print those pages out or not.

What do you think would make a great “extra” for an ebook?

Carlin, a veteran of Desert Storm, had written a diary during the war. And he had letters from Americans who had participated in the whole “Any Servicemember” letter writing campaign back then. He wanted to get it all into a book. And he thought he needed my ghostwriting help.

Carlin was wrong.

I remember the day Carlin told me he wasn’t sure he had 100 pages worth of material to fill the book.

Carlin was wrong again.

But these are the good kind of “wrongs” in that it turned out Carlin needed a coach and editor…not a ghostwriter. And he didn’t have 100 pages worth of material…he had 300 pages of material!!

Carlin worked on his diary entries and then sent them to me. I cleaned them up a bit, working to keep his voice intact while keeping the grammar in check (sorta like how I write on this blog – winky wink). And then I formatted it all up pretty and stuff.

And Carlin had his book. That he wrote all on his lonesome. And instead of an ebook, he went and published it!! Very, very cool stuff!! (By the way, another strong urge of yours should be checking the Desert Storm Diaries book out over at Amazon).

It was an experience that in large part brought me to coaching in addition to writing and editing. Because, really, there are plenty of people out there who are completely capable of writing their own book, they just need some guidance, some accountability and all that.

And along the way you may just find yourself having fun! Carlin and I had some great conversations, and really, the whole process wasn’t this blood, sweat, tears deal. Which is nice. When you’re tossing about 10-20 emails back and forth in a given day on the last little changes you have for your book, you want to be able to do so with a sense of humor.

I asked Carlin for a testimonial. I was going to throw it on the new Coaching Packages page. You know, gotta show the peeps I know what I’m doing and all that. But what did over-the-top Carlin do?? He wrote an entire post about my awesomeness. How cool is that??

To wrap up this post about awesomeness…the main points you should take away are:

1 – Carlin is awesome and you should check out his book!

2 – Carlin thinks I’m awesome and who am I to disagree?

3 – You may not need a ghostwriter but you may need a coach to give you a good kick in the rear.

4 – If you go with the whole coach thing, find one you can have fun with. Because it SHOULD be fun!

But more important than my poolside work ethic, earlier in the week I was the giddy school girl who got interviewed by Kelli Claypool of Diva Talk Radio…we talked all about ebooks, my client/friend Carlin Comm talked about his Desert Storm Diaries book I edited, I talked about some ebook tips…you know, the good stuff!! Did you miss it? No worries – you can listen to it now:

I think pretty much everyone has a book in them. The difference between an ebook and a book-book? Well, ebooks are better suited for non-fiction. And maybe not everyone has a non-fiction book in them.

But most business owners and entrepreneurs have an ebook just simmering inside…

So, yeah…I would say you could write an ebook out of nothing.

I used to make tombstones for a living. Yes, those granite memorials you see in the cemeteries. (Hold the “people must be dying to see you jokes” – I’ve heard ‘em a kazillion times). Immediately a couple different titles come to mind:

- How to Market Your Memorial Business to the Masses Without Turning Them Off

- How to Handle Emotional Customers Through the Sales Pitch and Beyond

The marketing book would obviously be a very defined niche, only interesting to those within the industry…but guess what? Sometimes the niche titles are best!!! You have a clearly defined audience and that makes it easier promote and sell.

The Emotional Customer ebook will have a wider audience, but it’s still a good topic. I’m sure I could think up other industries that experience customers who are crying, or are pissed off at the world.

So…if you’ve been tossing around the idea of writing an ebook, here’s what you do:

Think about what you know. Ideally it relates to something you are doing NOW. Because your ebook will either be a marketing piece for your business, or it will be a sales product. And there’s no point in creating a marketing piece on something that doesn’t not relate to your biz. And it’s easier to sell something that has to do with your active work. (Point in case, my WAHM Agent series…yeah, I’m still licensed as a real estate agent and I still work a transaction here and there…but you don’t see me updating a real estate site, or talking real estate all the time. Yes, I’ve sold some ebooks…but it would be oh so much easier if I had written something that actually pertains to what I do on a daily basis – writing and managing a writing/coaching business.)

Think about who could benefit from the information. There are people out there in the world who want to know what you know. Seriously. By unlocking the vault of information in your head (trust me, you DO have something in that noggin of yours) you are helping others. Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Something else that might make you feel all warm and fuzzy is the traffic driven to your site from a free ebook you’re giving away, or the sales you make off your ebook while you’re sound asleep in bed. VERY warm and fuzzy.

Think about how you can provide the information to your audience with a “twist.” This is especially important if there are other books out there. What angle of the subject can you provide that is different? Nobody wants to read the same ol’ stuff over and over again. They want something new, something fresh. You need to give it a twist!

Think about how you can present the material in a way that makes sense. This means structure. Start jotting down the various points you want to make in your ebook. I’m an outliner. But some people like to use mindmapping. Do what is comfortable for you, it really is a personal thing. Brainstorm yourself silly. But in the end, you need to organize all those ideas and thoughts and place them into an understandable, logical order so readers can follow.

Guess what? Out of “nothing,” now you have something…the beginnings of an ebook. Now all you need to do is keep writing…

It doesn’t really matter WHAT you are doing with your ebook – the fact remains that you should keep in mind that updating your ebook can be a great way to keep your name, your business, in front of your peeps.

One of the best things about ebooks is that they are timely. They can be whipped up in days and then available to the public. No months of waiting for a  book to go to print. And then worrying about information being out of date by the time the book is available to the public.

Ebooks take that concern out of the equation.

But don’t assume that once you create your ebook you don’t ever have to update it again.

Okay, well, depending on your topic, maybe you don’t have to update it. If your ebook is a very specific topic then maybe you fully intended it to be a one-time hit to the market. Make your money and move on. But if you want your ebook to stand the test of time, you may think about updating it from time to time.

Weekly updates are pretty time-consuming and actually, silly, when you think about it.

Monthly updates are more manageable, but still – work on your part.

I suggest quarterly updates. Every 3 months or so skim through your book and take a look. Are any of the links outdated or broken? Is any of the information stale? Has anything happened since the last publication to necessitate new dialogue?

Sometimes, you may find everything is fine and dandy. Cool. But other times, you may find that an update is the right thing to do.

If the ebook is a freebie, then it’s easy enough to update and then use that update as a way to generate new interest in the ebook. People like the latest in info, especially when it’s FREE!

But if your ebook is a sales item, then you need to think about your options:

- provide the update FREE to previous buyers of your ebook

- provide the update at a discount to previous buyers of your ebook

- charge both new and old buyers for the newly updated ebook

If you go with option 3, you may find some disgruntled previous buyers. And that can hurt you in the long run. So I suggest going with options 1 or 2 to save face and make nice with the peeps.

And, many may think that a re-writing job should cost them less than if they have a ghostwriter write something completely original up.

Wrong.

Many times, re-writing someone else’s work is actually more difficult than coming up with something completely original. Why? Because you are guided by another person’s writing and format…be it well or poorly written. And it takes time to wade through that written product and then formulate something original out of it.

Sure, a written product may spark a great idea. And if a client has a written product, it makes sense to look it over and glean some ideas and perhaps some of the formatting and layout from it.

But if you think it takes less time to work on it, you’re sorely mistaken. The writer has to read the product. The writer has to make sense of the product. The writer needs to come up with a way to bring a fresh voice and write an original product for you. And the fresh voice and original end product comes with the same fees.

And for a limited time, Teresa is holding a very cool Twitter Article Special! If you are on Twitter, go check out @TeresaWrites4U. Click on the link in her profile and you will be taken to the article special.

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Not on Twitter? Well, why not? Sign up! Just do it!!

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