11 common ebook writing mistakes to avoid

Writing an ebook is not an easy task. All the authors would make a huge success if it was that easy. They would have published their bestselling ebooks and earned a lot of money. We know fair well that it is not happening. It is easy to make mistakes during writing of an ebook. For all authors, we have devised a list of most common ebook writing mistakes. Read the article to find out how you can avoid them.

Writing mistakes to avoid – table of contents:

Unspecified goal
Writing an ebook about unknown subject
The subject of an ebook doesn’t match the target group
Copying your competitors
Writing without an outline
Working without a schedule
Writing an introduction first
Writing and editing at the same time
Lack of cooperation between the editor and the proofreader
Not keeping back-up copy
Giving up too quickly

Unspecified goal

The main mistake made by novice authors while writing their first ebook is not specifying a goal for their book. All projects have to preceded by making detailed, concrete plans and the author has to know why he is using his time and resources for this specific task. What is his goal?

This issue can be discussed from two distinct point of view: from the perspective of clients and from the perspective of the author. In the first case, you should concentrate on the type of problems you ebook may solve for its readers. Think twice, why your clients may wish to buy your ebook. Would you be able to persuade them to get your ebook and finalize the transaction right now?

The point of view of the author is different – give a second thought to your reasons. Do you expect to get another source of steady income? Do you want to strengthen you expert position in the field? Or maybe your ebook is a way to spark your clients interest in your other product that you wish to sell?

Writing an ebook about unknown subject

The ideas for ebook creation were discussed in the separate article: What to write an ebook about? This article had to be created because the ideation stage is one of the most important ones when writing an ebook. The author always has to consider many aspects of the subject and search for ideas patiently in his niche field.

Most importantly, the author should chose the subject he is familiar with. Writing about the subject: that is beyond our main area of interest, is not connected to our everyday work duties, or has nothing to do with our hobbies means that our ebook will present low value. You will be able, possibly, to address the most basic problems of the field, but your content will not be any different from the all free samples available in the internet.

Furthermore, writing about one of our interests makes our work less tedious. Writing about unknown, unfamiliar subject may require from the author putting a significant amount of effort into such work and the problem is that there is no guarantee that his attempt will be worth it.

The subject of an ebook doesn’t match the target group

Our projects ideas cannot be based on personal, intimate hunches. We may know who belongs to our target group of readers, but still we need to specify why our idea is right from the start. To do so we to have find out about more about the needs of our target group.

It is worth to spend some time to analyze the most frequently searched phrases and keywords that are used in the Internet. You may examine all relevant discussions about the topic made on the portals and social groups in the internet and this way to find out what kind of problems your ebook could be solution for.

Copying your competitors

The next huge mistake that ebook writers make is copying from their competitors. Usually, when somebody is successful we try to copy his strategies, we are under the illusion that we can achieve similar great results.

Such behavior puts us at risk of wasting time, energy and resources. Internet users easily spot such practices – copying from competitors results in loss of customer’s trust. Additionally if plagiarism is found and proven the author may have to face legal consequences.

Writing without an outline

Each book that is at its initial stage should have an outline. It is best to start with the table of content. It is obvious that with time and progress of work our introductory idea for an ebook may be modified. We have to create an overview, because having such document that we can frequently revise and go back to should protect us from erratic and directionless writing.

Even having the general idea for our ebook we should not forget about the main goal of our work. We should remember that our ebook must form a solution to a problem and this idea should be written down in our outline. To keep up with the main idea and the purpose of the whole piece you should have all chapters and subdivisions of your ebook organized orderly and systematized.

Working without a schedule

You won’t be able to finalize your project if you work on it only when you have time and when you feel willingness to do so. Constant delay will make you feel irritated and you won’t meet your own expectations.

To help with the project create a schedule where you break down the elements of the project into specific tasks accompanied with completion dates. Remember to devise achievable goals – take into account your abilities and the amount of time you can spare to work on your ebook.

Writing an introduction first

Why it is not worth it to write an introduction at the beginning of your project? First of all, it is not possible to predict which content exactly will be in your ebook at the end of writing. Having great outline doesn’t mean that you have to write about everything that you have planned for. You may decide to omit some topics or extend some of the chapters. Some of your initial objectives may need to be changed in the meantime – new ideas may emerge during more detailed research.

If you decide to write your introduction first there is a huge chance that you will have to rewrite it after you ebook is finished. That is why it is better to leave this task till the end of project. The knowledge about the exact content of your ebook will help you to write really good introduction that will encourage your followers to read it.

Writing and editing at the same time

Writing and editing at the same time means that you spend much more time on working, but what is wrong with such approach is the fact that constant editing and correcting knocks you off your writing rhythm. Each time you correct a small, just spotted, mistake, you loose your concentration. It kills the momentum – you return to your topic just to see that your focus is not the same.

It is worth to make corrections and deal with editing after some time – when all the emotions of creative process are gone. Only then you can look at your own work more objectively. Remember to see your ebook from the perspective of the whole structure, don’t focus your attention on singular sentences. Currently, even books published by popular and well-known publishing companies have some minor mistakes, but readers don’t notice all shortcomings, because they don’t focus on nonessential matters.

11 common ebook writing mistakes to avoid

Lack of cooperation between the editor and the proofreader

It is difficult to spot out all own errors in the text, hence it is worth to employ the right person for this task. If we search for somebody, who could edit the whole content of the book and deal with: structure, style, logic, consistency, grammar, orthography, and punctuation, we should use the help of professional editor. Editor will analyze your text and suggest all necessary changes.

Another professional who could see your text, just after the editor, is a proofreader. This is the person who deals with all the mistakes remaining after the typesetting process and deals with: incorrect formatting, wrong hyphenation and other linguistic errors that were not corrected by the editor.

Not keeping back-up copy

Having back-up copy is essential. It is the best protection in case of deletion or losing of the main ebook file. Back-up copy protect you from unnecessary stress and worries, therefore you should always keep at least two copies of your file.

Giving up too quickly

Any author may lose his enthusiasm and inspiration at times. It is important to be able to reinforce own motivation again and again. If the ebook creation comes with a delay maybe it would be a good idea to analyze the schedule one more time and readjust it to our abilities. Setting achievable, real goals helps with productivity more than holding to very high, excessive self-demands.

Summary

Writing an ebook is not as straightforward as it seems. All mistakes during writing an ebook may be avoided as long as you are aware of them. Knowledge about writing techniques should protect you from frustration and make your work pleasant. In the next article, we are going to discuss mistakes made by authors during publishing and marketing of their completed ebooks.

Now you know what ebook writing mistakes you should avoid. Follow our “Creating and Selling Digital Products” category to be up to date with more articles in this series.

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Author: Martin Sparks
E-commerce enthusiasts which constantly digs around the internet in order to make sure he hasn’t missed any important information on the topic of starting and scaling profitable online stores.
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