Have you dreamed of writing your own book, getting it designed, and ready for sale? Maybe you have the dream but struggle with getting the content together.

I get it, not knowing where to begin handicaps a lot of writers. Maybe you’re consistent with your blog, but writing a book seems like a daunting task. A behemoth mountain you’re not sure you can climb just yet.  But, did you know you can write an ebook in 10 minutes without spending lots of money?

Two years ago, I had that same thought. I’ve written lots of blogs, but I’m having a hard time writing a simple ebook to give away. Now, I’ve written two books but getting something together for my website seemed impossible.

I didn’t know where to begin.

You’ve already written an ebook, you just don’t know it.

You’re asking me, Did you just say that? I did. If you’re a blogger, chances are you have page after page of content for people to read. It’s accessible just by searching for it. But, not everyone searches for your past content.

If you look at your statistics for your website, when’s the last time you’ve seen someone search for your old content? It’s probably been a while. But, you also know what’s been your most popular content.

This is how I’ve been able to write 10 ebooks in the past year. It only took me minutes to put together each book. The best part, they’re professional looking!

This is where the ebook comes into play.

Go ahead and take a look through your past content. Find what’s been the most popular the past year or two. The sift through them to find common themes. Now, take those posts and clean them up. Remove any blatant errors and bad grammatical form.

There are three options:

  • You can repurpose the content and write a new post.
  • You can republish the old posts to gain new traffic.
  • You can take those posts and turn them into an ebook.

I like all three and I’ve done all three.

Put your ebook together.

This is the fun part. You’ve already done the hard part, writing. In fact, writing a book is easier when you think of it in terms of blogging. That’s how I write my books now. I pretend each scene or chapter is a long blog post. I’ll write a short version, then begin expounding upon it until I reach my desired word count.

But for this exercise, we’re going to take work you’ve already written and turn it into an ebook. This part should only take a few minutes.

  1. Compile your work. If you’re using more than one post, make sure they make sense as a whole. Each post can be a small chapter. It needs to be cohesive and easy to read and understand.
  2. Typeset your new book. This sounds a lot scarier than it is. This is where you take your blog posts and create an ebook. There are four different options you have to help make this easy.
    • Free option 1: Use iBooks Author to create your ebook. Download the software, open a template and paste your blog posts right in each chapter. It’s super easy and they give you a place to put your cover image and copyright information. Then you can export as a ePub file or PDF. Your done!
    • Free option 2: Use Reedsy.com. It’s free to sign up for a free account. Once logged in, you create a new book and copy and past your work into each chapter heading. You can format just like in Microsoft Word. Export as PDF, Amzaon Kindle and ePub. It’s typeset for you, no need to do any leg work.
    • Paid option 1: One service I love the most is a company called Designrr.io. This online program creates beautiful PDFs. Once you sign up (I use the $37/mo option), to create a new ebook you create a new project, add your blog URL, you can add up to 3. The program creates an ebook out of your blog post. The best part, they give you a book cover and PDF, Kindle, and ePub versions to download. You also get a snazy 3D image to use on your blog. It takes literally 5-10 minutes to set up.
    • Paid option 2: You can hire me to design your book for you. I have a graphic design company that can handle your needs. If you mention this blog post, I’ll throw in an ebook cover for you. The cost, $200 per book. I’ll give you up to 3 blog posts in one book, $25 per post after.
  3. Create your book cover. There are a ton of options out there. It’s easy to spend a lot of money on covers. But if you don’t’ want to break the bank, here are my top cover designers for free.
    • Canva.com. This is a free graphic design service, where you get to create your social media posts and even ebook covers for your latest book. They give you hundreds of designs to choose from and if you don’t like their images, add your own or choose from thousands of $1 per use images they offer. Personally, I use my own images, I find their’s lack quality.
    • Adobe Spark. This, again, is free. You can create several covers and social media images for use. However, their editing options are limited and feel a little clunky. YOu have to provide your own images or choose from Adobe Stock which cost around $30/month.

Now it’s time to tell the world.

Getting your ebook together is not as tough as it sounds. If you use the options I outlined above, you’ll have an ebook you can be proud to put your name on. You’ve already done the hard work of writing, why not take the time to share with the world.

Once your PDF or ebook reader version is ready, you have to choose if you sell or give away. I’ve done both. I personally like to give away the content, as I’ve already given it away on my blog.

Use your new ebook to convert people into newsletter subscribers. Upload your PDF to the website, grab the link and add it to a thank you page. If you’re using MailChimp or Convertkit, you can send people right to that page when they sign up to your newsletter.

  • Create an easy sign-up form (name and email) for your sidebar and under your blog posts.
  • Add an image. I recommend the image of your book
  • Add a little copy to sell the book.

Imagine, you’ve take your most popular blog posts, created an ebook, designed a cover, uploaded to your website, now sit back and watch your subscribers roll in.

It’s that simple. If you don’t want to give it away, that’s okay. Upload it to Gumroad or Amazon Kindle, and sell that puppy. If you sell it, I’d add a note to each blog post they can buy an expanded version of this post in ebook form.

Now go and make your own ebooks! Can you make yours in the next 10 minutes – I did!

[reminder]What did you like about this process? Easy, hard, or just right? Have you ever written a quick ebook?[/reminder]

 

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