Hello! I thought I would update you on the challenges of writing an E-book. I am finding I was quite naive to the process. My idea was to just put some projects together with stories I had written into a PFD file and send it out there…LOL. Little did I know there was so much more involved!
How much to put in?
I had several Christmas stories I had written to choose from. When I posted them on Facebook, all of them had been well received. Narrowing it down to just a few was difficult. Finally I decided on those that would relate well to projects I was thinking of putting in the book. After all it was a project book!
Which Projects to choose?
Right away I knew which ones I wanted to put in the book. The problem was it was only about a third of what I thought the book should have. As the list began to build with other ideas it became very overwhelming! How am I going to take out any? I wanted to give all types of crafters a project they could do. It was becoming apparent that I would have to start eliminating. Boy! I never dreamed the challenges of writing an e-book would involve so many decisions!
How to write the book?
I was starting to feel pretty good about everything. I had the projects narrowed down but now the big question was where was I going to write it. Should it be in Word, a PDF or something else? There would be stories, patterns & videos! I looked at a couple of sites for help; Blurb and Amazon. Again I was feeling like this would never happen!
Using my resources
I am in a community of entrepreneurial women and I have a business coach. She was very helpful and told me to ask my group. Great! They suggested a format to use and I was back in business again. Next step; completing projects I did not already have samples for. After all there had to be pictures to go along with the patterns.
Learning new things
Projects were getting done. The next step was to take pictures and start assembling everything into one file. One of the many challenges of writing an e-book is putting all the different types of files, Publisher, Word, PDF’s, into one document. I am finding that some, once transferred, can not be edited! That meant re-writing some of the patterns and retaking pictures…..UGH! Oh, and it was around this point I decided I still had too much content for my original vision. What was going to go next?
Editing, Formatting, Sale page
Oh gosh, what else. Now I had to find someone to edit and format the whole thing. Back to my community I went and they were very helpful. I am almost at the stage of sending it off to people to put it into a nice, pretty format! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Fun stuff along the way!
It hasn’t all been challenging. For instance, when I decided to put in a family recipe with the Bonus project, it was fun going through the family cookbook. Naturally I had to try out the recipe to see if it was worthy to be in the book. My husband tested them for me; and I didn’t have to twist his arm…hahaha! He also helped me decorate the Christmas Cutouts. That was a fun night.
What’s Next?
My goal is to have this all completed and out there by the first of March! I am having a hip replacement mid March and want this all to be behind me. I have been given ideas for another book and my mind is already in gear for another. This is looking like a possible series of project books in the future! If you have an idea of a book, contact me an on my website and talk to me about it! I would love to hear from you.
Happy Creating!
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