Yep… in one-minute flat today…

While I was having a chat about ebooks with a freelancing friend…

I threw the formatted text from my ebook into a Google Docs file.

Dragged in the cover image.

Went to File ==> Download ==> Epub Publication.

And in seconds flat had a shiny new EPUB file. Ready to upload to my Kindle. Or to any number of other ebook readers.

Took me less than a minute.

Point is:

Sometimes the simplest option is all you need

And another point is:

Sometimes the tech stuff can weigh on our minds… but it needn’t

Granted, this isn’t how I’m generating my ebook.

But I could do it this way easily.

(I have my own more complicated, but still very quick, process for generating my ebook files. And there’s some good reasons I’m doing it my way. But it’s a bit beyond the scope of today’s email to talk about. Sorry!)

So knowing you can generate the EPUB file for an ebook so quickly…

The only really hard part left is actually writing it. Right?

And even then…

I reckon the writing bit is not actually too hard. Well, it’s not the hardest

I mean… I think it’s fair to say that getting clear on the the idea for the book is a harder part.

But that too can be made a LOT easier if you know your market well. So you can tackle something they’re longing for help with.

I think the hardest part is… creating the structure.

This is the skeleton everything else hangs on. And it’s what helps provide a coherent flow to the ebook.

Creating an outline first is so crucial.

So, for my next ebook I’ll be working on overall structure first. Then dividing into chapters. And each chapter will also have its own internal outline.

After that, it’s a matter of doing some writing to put flesh on those bones. And a bit of editing to get things as clear as possible.

And… I tell you what…

It’s a heck of a lot easier to move a few lines of an outline around than it is to move swathes of text!

Now… I did say “next ebook”.

You see… things didn’t go quite like this for my first ebook.

It started as more of a brain dump. Then some more blathering from my fingers into the document. That I then cut it up into chapters. Then late in the piece wrote an outline for each chapter. Then kept what I could. And threw out a lot. And wrote a lot more new stuff.

And wasted lots of time in the process.

But gained a lot of learning.

Maybe these tips here might help you a little… should you try biting off writing an ebook. Or perhaps a bigger book. Or some other longer piece of writing.

And all this stuff I’m mentioning here might give you a good glimpse that…

I’m not some kind of genius for doing this ebook stuff.

(Oh, I how I long for geniushood…)

It’s been another fun (and sometimes frustrating) learning curve. But not beyond the abilities of us mere mortals to pull off.

What I pulled off for my first ebook is here: https://milham.me/easy-content

I’d love to hear if you’ve got plans of writing something like an ebook in your near-ish future.

Bye for now,

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Chris Milham