Recently Nancy Howe and I were discussing over dinner the importance of having a book or eBook to elevate your creditability as an expert. She told me about her amazing 6 step process and gave me permission to share it with you. So here it is:
Nancy Howe knowhowe
Want to write an e-book? You may have already done it and don’t even know it!
E-books are a great way to get your message out to your client base and prospects. But, who has the time to sit down and write one? The truth is, very few of us have that kind of extra time. But, that doesn’t mean that you should give up on the idea. You just need to sit down and take a long hard look at what you already have.
For instance, chances are that you have a blog or even some white papers lying around. And, even more likely, your blogs or white papers focus on one or two main premises or categories that you deal with in your everyday work. After all, we all write about what we know best. We all have one or two areas of expertise and clients come to us for that reason. I mentioned this to a friend of mine whose first comment was that since all of his blogs are separate entities, and they jump from one aspect of his expertise to another, it just wouldn’t work out for him. Long story short, there is no unifying thread tying it all together and therefore it seemed like a really big deal to him.
And, that’s my point. I know you can see where I’m going with this… have someone else turn those blogs or white papers into your e-book in a few easy steps.
Step 1: Organize all of your blogs by subject or category. For instance group the ones on apps together; group the ones on email marketing together, etc.
Step 2: Read through each blog and mark the ones that need their content updated.
Step 3: Do you have enough material for an e-book? Since there is no required size, as long as you have enough to walk a reader through your process (whatever it may be), you have enough.
Step 4: Update the blogs that need it.
Step 5: Put the blogs in logical order.
Step 6: Give the entire set of blogs to a writer who can then create a beginning and an end and make the contents flow in a logical manner.
It’s far more cost-effective to have someone do a lot of editing and some writing than to sit down and start an e-book from scratch. And, it’s a lot faster! Try it – you probably have an e-book waiting to be released!