• TRWCBlogger

The continued success of e-books is changing the way we read and write. As sales of e-books continue to increase, more authors are switching on to the idea of writing specifically for the e-book market. Yet the unique format of the e-book makes writing one a little bit different from penning a printed book. In this article, iUniverse gives you a few pointers to writing a successful e-book.

Think about SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will help your e-book get discovered, so you should think about using relevant keywords in your e-book’s title, headings, and subheadings. As an example, suppose you’ve written a memoir called Through the Dark. This title won’t really show up on anyone’s search results. You might try Through the Dark: My Battle with Leukemia because anyone searching “leukemia” will be more likely to find your book.

Cover compatibility

E-book covers perform the same function as covers on printed books—they help grab the customer’s attention. These days, customers will typically see your book’s cover as a thumbnail, which means that overly complicated designs aren’t as effective as the details will be lost in the small image size. Consider a simple and impactful design for your e-book. Also, go for something that has a high contrast because many e-readers will display only in grayscale.

Make yourself contactable

At the end of your e-book, be sure to include a little bit about yourself. It’s also a good idea to give your e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter so that you can correspond with your readers. Who knows what kind of leads will crop up as a result of an e-book? So make yourself reachable.

Add lots of links

The beauty of e-books is that you can link your text to material on the Internet. If you’re listing resources or sites, it’s a good idea to link to them to save your readers the effort of researching. You should be aware that over time many links will lose their validity, so you might want to revisit and update your e-book periodically.

Include lots of extras

Why not use your e-book to give away a few little extras? Some authors put up sample chapters from their other books. Readers will love this free content and it can also help drive your sales to your other books. Or if you’ve got a short story lying around unused, you might want to include it at the end of your e-book.

Culled from iUniverse