Ebooks are one of the most popular information products on the web.  If you’re not familiar with an “ebook”, it is information in the form of a book that is delivered as a downloadable .PDF over the web.  However, it is not as complicated as a book, much easier to produce and very fast to go from idea to finished product.

Ebooks provide a wonderful way to market information. Information marketing is a wonderful business model and can be quite lucrative as a standalone business. You can also incorporate information marketing into an existing business model for more profits and credibility.

However, if you’re new at it, making the leap from idea to e-book can be quite a challenge. Here are a few ideas to get your idea turned into an e-book reality.

#1 Get Others to Contribute Articles. Some of the best e-books are actually collections of articles written by industry experts. For example, if you have a website devoted to dog training and want to write an e-book about training your dog unusual tricks, you could ask ten animal trainers to each contribute their favorite trick to the book. Each dog trainer would get exposure for their business in the book and you’d get a complete, and quite valuable, e-book to sell. You didn’t have to write a single word!

#2 Break it down. Sometimes the hurdle between book idea and actual product is a feeling of being overwhelmed. There’s an easy way around that challenge. Break your main topic into ten to twenty supporting topics. It may be easier to pose them as questions.

For example, an e-book on sales techniques might have the following supporting points or chapters:

  • What are the benefits of better selling?
  • How do listening skills play a role in increased sales?
  • How important is relationship building?
  • Should I network for more sales?

Each of these supporting chapters can then be divided even more into ten or more supporting points. Thus, for a ten chapter book you end up with 100 smaller, almost article size, topics to address. It makes writing a book much more manageable.

#3 Turn to audio. Some people just don’t have the time or the inclination to write a book, but still want the results. No problem. You can create an audio file instead. There are actually two ways to approach this. You can interview people on your topic, have the interviews transcribed, edited and polished. Then compile them into an e-book format.

Or you can simply speak your book and then have someone transcribe it and edit and polish it into an e-book. For some, it’s easier to flesh out ideas by talking rather than writing.  If this is you, consider recording your book instead of putting fingers to keyboard. Additionally, there is software like Dragon Naturally Speaking that will transcribe your audio for you. This saves you the cost of a transcriptionist, though you may still want to hire someone to edit and polish your book.

Finally, though we did mention it in the beginning, if you do have an idea for an e-book but don’t have the time or inclination to turn it into a reality, then consider hiring a ghostwriter. Look for one who is experienced with writing books. Discuss your needs and work together to turn your idea into e-book profits.