Three Quick Ways to Write Your Rough Draft

It happens to us all, we want to publish an eBook but writing a book seems like such a huge, daunting, overwhelming task with the biggest question being “How do I come up with all the content?”

Here are three quick and easy ways to generate the first-draft of your eBook.

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1. Transcribe a class you’ve already taught.

Most business owners have some form of content already. Maybe it’s an audio or a video training, Or even just a series of PowerPoint slides. You can use this as the framework for an eBook. And you’ll find that BAM! A large portion of your content is already created for you.

A word of warning: Do NOT just publish a transcript! We speak very differently than good writing. Don’t believe me? Read a transcription without listening to the audio. It’s very hard to follow what the speaker is talking about.

2. Start small

When I was first getting started with eBook publishing the idea of creating an entire book was completely overwhelming. So I started with what I knew: short fiction. My short fiction tends to be VERY short, like under 5 pages per story, so I knew that just one story wouldn’t be enough for an entire book. I was able to collect the stories I already had written, write a few more, and publish my first book.

3. Look to your backlist

Chances are you already have “stuff” you’ve written: blog posts, checklists, newsletter articles, white papers, etc. Don’t feel you have to start completely from scratch when publishing an eBook. If you lay out all your articles you’ll find common themes running through them. Look for the patterns and use this as the framework for your eBook. You’ll have to fill in the gaps and write additional content but you’re not starting from scratch!

Now pay very close attention to what I’m going to tell you next:

This is your ROUGH draft!

Don’t think you can just compile this content, format it as an eBook and call it good! You’re still going to need to edit everything, make sure you’re being 100% clear, look for transitions (“In last week’s newsletter I said…”), and completely polish your book.

But this is enough to get you started and moving forward toward publishing your first eBook.

 

Your Thoughts:

Where are you going to start? How will you be using your eBook?

Kim Galloway
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