12 Tips For Creating A Professional Looking Ebook

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This is part of my 30 Days To More Traffic Series

One of my favorite ways to get traffic is to build an e-mail list. And I can build my list a lot faster if I have an e-book that I give away when people join.

Creating e-books to sell or give away has become very popular with people but all too often I find that people do a poor job of formatting their e-book.

I am certainly no expert on desktop publishing but I have written several e-books and want to share a 12 tips I have picked up along the way.

1. Font choice and size

The font you choose doesn’t really matter as long as it readable. You can choose Times new Roman, Arial, or whatever you want.

Just make sure you use the same font throughout and that it’s not hard to read.

When choosing a font size I like to go with size 12 or 14.

You want the text to be large enough that anyone can read without too much trouble but not so large that it looks like you’re just trying to make your e-book longer.

2. Margins

I know some of my readers like to print out e-books and read them while sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee. Having a hard copy  makes it easy for them to write notes or questions in the margins.

Because of this I like to have at least an inch of space for all margins (top, bottom, left, and right margins).

3. Have an introduction

At the beginning of my e-books I like to put a short introduction that tells the reader a little about the author.

Here is the introduction from one of my traffic e-books:

My name is Nick Stewart and I am the creator of Nick’s Traffic Tricks:
http://NicksTrafficTricks.com

If you want to learn lots of boring facts about me then go to:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/about/

I do not like e-books with lots of unwanted fluff and miscellaneous motivational stuff so I am going to get right down to the point.

Getting Traffic is not rocket science.  And it’s not that hard.  You just need to know the rules of the game.

4. Double line spacing

I recommend having your line spacing the 1.5 or double in order to make it easier for people to read your e-book. It also makes it easier for them to write notes or questions they may have.

5. Make good use of headers

You definitely want to break up your e-book into logical sections and have a header for each section. Usually your header is a little bit bigger then your normal text and might be bolded or italicized.

For example, take a look at this blog post and you’ll see that it is broken up into different sections and each section has a header.

6. Have a copyright statement

At the very beginning of your e-book you should include a simple and direct copyright statement.

Here’s what I usually include in the copyright section of my e-books:

This guide is copyright © 2010 Stewart Marketing Inc.

This report is NOT free.  You may NOT give it away.

[NO] Can Be Edited Completely
[NO] Can Claim full ownership
[NO] Can be added to paid membership sites
[NO] Can be packaged with other products
[NO] Can be sold
[NO] Can be bundled with other products
[NO] Can be broken into multiple chapters
[NO] Can be given away
[NO] Can sell Resale Rights
[NO] Can sell Master Resale Rights
[NO] Can sell Private Label Rights
[NO] Can be offered through auction sites
[NO] Can sell product as is without changing a thing

Of course if you are giving your e-book away for free and you want people to distribute it then your copyright statement might look something like:

This guide is copyright © 2010 Stewart Marketing Inc.

This report is totally free and you may give it away to your friends, family, neighbors, and your favorite dentist. In fact I encourage you to give it away.

[NO] Can Be Edited Completely
[NO] Can Claim full ownership
[YES] Can be added to paid membership sites
[YES] Can be packaged with other products
[YES] Can be sold
[YES] Can be bundled with other products
[NO] Can be broken into multiple chapters
[YES] Can be given away
[YES] Can sell Resale Rights
[YES] Can sell Master Resale Rights
[YES] Can sell Private Label Rights
[YES] Can be offered through auction sites
[YES] Can sell product as is without changing a thing

7. Table of contents

If you have more than a couple sections in your e-book then adding a table of contents will give your e-book a more professional look.

If you’re using Microsoft Word this is a piece of cake to do.  There are lots of free tutorials on the Internet if you don’t know how to create a table of contents.

8. Have an appendix

The appendix of your e-book goes at the very end and serves two purposes.

First, it’s a place where you put a list of all of the links referenced in your e-book. There have been times when I read an e-book and it mentioned an interesting link in one of its sections. A week later I opened the e-book and spent 20 minutes searching for that link. If the e-book had had an appendix with all of the links listed I would’ve saved a lot of time.

Second, it’s a place where you can put references and links to websites where people can get additional information.

9. Contact information

At the beginning or the end of your e-book you want to have a way for the reader to contact you with their comments or questions.

You can list your e-mail address or a link to your website.

10. Page numbers

If you’re reading the e-book on your computer then page numbers don’t really matter.

But if people print it out and decide to read it on the couch then page numbers are really helpful.

I prefer page numbers in the format of Page x of y.

11. Print it out

When you have finished your e-book and you think it’s perfect then you need to print it out and see how it looks on paper.  Many people (like myself) have a printer that only prints in black and white so be sure that you print it out in black and white.

Questions you should ask:

• Does it look exactly the way I want?
• Are the margins the right size? Is there enough room to write down questions and comments?
• Does the font, size, and line spacing make it easy to read?

12. Have someone proofread it

You may think your e-book is the greatest work of literature since The Count of Monte Cristo but you still need someone to proofread it for you.

When selecting someone to proofread your e-book look for someone who is a native speaker and has experience writing (or at the very least did well in English in high school).

Tagged as: ebooks