I have a pet peeve. It’s a little pet peeve.

I can’t stand when people crank out ebooks with little to no thought.

Just because it’s not going to the printer doesn’t mean an ebook should be some half-baked, crappily-written (yes, I sometimes make up words) piece of junk.

I don’t care if it’s being given away for free or if you’re selling it for $99 (or more).

Pretend like it’s going to a printer. Pretend like your ebook is a contender for the Pulitzer Prize. Pretend like you care that a reader gets full value and comes away from your ebook not only learning something, but feeling like he/she received something of value.

It doesn’t matter whether I am writing a book for print or the web…either way I treat the book the same. I give it the same attention to detail. I give it the copyright page. I place the headers and footers appropriately. Blah blah blah.

I suppose I’m a snob because I have written and edited books that have gone to print. For me, from the writer’s standpoint, the only difference between ebooks and books in print is the formatting according to the print book size. And many writers don’t get involved in that aspect of book printing anyway.

Not only do I write ebooks, but I read them. A lot of them. I like to see what is out there. I like to do research on everything from SEO to marketing to business growth to writing tips. And as I read these ebooks I see who puts thought and care into their ebooks and who just cranks it out like it’s a grade school report…or perhaps worse.

If you plan on writing ebooks (or having them written for you by a ghostwriter) for marketing, then obviously, you need GOOD material and you need to present it PROFESSIONALLY. You are marketing yourself, your company, (insert whatever you are marketing here). You don’t want to look like a goofball who doesn’t care about your marketing material, do you?

If you plan on selling your ebooks, cool! But you’ll sell a heck of a lot more if you write it, or have it written and presented in a professional manner.

You’d think this was a no-brainer, and yet, it isn’t. Because I’ve run across some baddies. Some “What the heck were they thinking??” ebooks. I won’t call any of these baddies out…but if you want to – go ahead and make a shout out in the comments.

Or, maybe you can tell me your pet peeve about ebooks.