How I Developed My First e-Book

Creating your first e-book can be a very daunting task – and rightly so. But with a bit of structure and a clear approach it's not so bad. I would start off by identifying your purpose. Why are you creating an e-Book? I decided to create one for two reasons; 1. To inform my readers about blogging from a business standpoint. 2. To create my first information product. Originally, the content of the e-book was meant to be a series of guest posts on other blogs, but decided package it as my first product. As a result my email subscriber opt-in rate exploded. The Story Since the e-book was blogging based, I needed to have a story. People generally relate well to stories and practical examples. I simply incorporated my interest which was music to the everyday blogging practices. This brought about Build a superstar blog. The book looks at blogging from a music angle and they are some great analogies in this book - That was my story. I was not interested in putting out regurgitated stuff. I wanted to do something different. The Approach I approached this e-book by jotting down all my ideas on papers. At the end I ended up with a story board that illustrated flow of events. From this exercise, I drew up chapter titles that relates to the story, action points, backstage access for further learning e.t.c. Start Writing They best way to start is in small chucks. I broke the story down to chapters, so in a given day, I would tackle a chapter. I used voice recognition software to help transcribe my voice into words, a product called Dragon Naturally Speaking. In each chapter, I spoke from three different angles, from the bloggers, Musician and a Superstar angle. This meant recording three times. Since this isn’t a blog post but a takeaway e-book, I adjusted my writing approach slightly. Although I wanted to maintain a conversational style of writing, I felt it needed to be less chatty and a little bit polished – only slightly. Flow of events It’s important to keep the reader interested. I tried to make the chapters interesting and progressive. I was also keen on keep the book short and to the point. Based on my initial survey a larger majority of readers would be reading from screen – I didn’t want to bore them. Based on the number of pages I had initially I was quite impressed to have brought it down to 25 pages, there many pages and chapters that I had to sacrifice. Proof reading Make sure the material you are putting out is of good quality. It may seem good in your eyes but probably not in the eyes of others. In my case, I gave it to a few people to proof read – It was the best move ever. They were able to point out things I had missed and gave me new ideas too. Time taken: It took  just over a month to put together after the idea was given birth to four months prior– procrastination is a killer The book was in a half complete state for a long time, moving further and further down my priority list. I finally took action by setting myself a deadline, which I announce publicly on the blog. I even installed a countdown for all to see and it worked - I got it done Story and Concept: On going Book Design: 0.5 days Writing: 3 weeks Proof Reading: 5 days Micro-site and Aweber configuration: 2 days Tools I used: Book Design: Adobe InDesign Transcribers tool: Dragon Naturally speaking Micro-site Design: Click covers Google Docs used for proof reading collaboration

Review of Build a Superstar Blog eBook

I would like to share with you latest review of Build a Superstar Blog e-book. This time the book has been reviewed by Mariam over at V.O.I.C.E a great blog that focuses on e-book reviews. I am super impressed by her review style and approach. She was able to breakdown the book into following categories Cover design, Content, Format and Styling, Ease of read and overall rating. Right, I’ve done enough talking for now, head over the to Mariam's blog to read this review. http://voicemp.com/review-build-a-superstar-blog/ Blogger: Mariam Blog: http://voicemp.com Twitter:@mariamcisse

I present to you…Build a Superstar Blog e-book

The wait is finally over and the long awaited e-book is here. Yay!! You can now download now this fantastic e-book Build a Superstar Blog Build a superstar blog is a clever concept of introducing the business model in the music industry and re-applying it to blogging world. Being a huge music lover, and knowledge of the industry, I simply brought the two worlds together this my e-book. The world of a music artists meeting the world of bloggers. The same way a music artist goes through the hustle of getting discovered, signing a record deal, developing a fan base and aspiring for superstar status likewise a blogger builds credibility, exposure, a community and ends up being a leader or authority in his/her niche. Whether you're a blogging pro or a complete newbie, this e-book throws a fresh approach on blogging from a business standpoint. I am very confident you will like it. www.buildasuperstarblog.com I also look forward to hearing your feedback. Enjoy :-)

Introducing…Build a Superstar Blog

Several months ago, I ran a poll on this blog asking readers how I could help them or what they would like to see more of. It turns out a large majority of them had a business related blog and were interested in making money online - No surprises here. Based on research and practical application, there isn't much secret to it. It's really down to applying business skills. The same principle you would apply to an offline business would apply to an online business. So my plan here was to deliver a practical example from a offline business world and apply it to the blogging world. Being a huge music lover, a former home studio music producer with knowledge of the music industry, I simply brought the worlds together in my e-book. The world of a music artists meeting the world of bloggers. The same way a music artist goes through the hustle of getting discovered, signing a record deal, developing a fan base and aspiring for superstar status likewise a blogger builds credibility, exposure, a community and ends up being a leader or authority in his/her niche. Hence the title. Build a Superstar Blog. I would like point out, the main objective of Build a Superstar Blog isn't to turn you into a blogging superstar. Rather it's about (1) Building the foundations and the right building blocks in place to propel your blog into a leader and authority. It takes you to superstar status then so be it. (more...)