Writing an ebook can be a difficult task if you do not know what steps you should take. We all have an author inside us which can come out at any point in time and writing an ebook is a great way to start publishing your material and sharing it with the masses. An ebook is a pretty big step to take for any writer. You can either use a workbook ebook software or standalone writing software to create ebooks. You might be wondering that writing a blog would be a great way to express your vision and idea, however, it is a little lightweight, when compared to an ebook. You might be saying what does an ebook contribute to your skills as a writer, well, it can transform you from a mere small writer to a professional author. There are several bloggers nowadays that are writing ebooks and publishing them online. However, most of these ebooks lack the quality that professionally written ebooks posses. This is down to many mistakes that are being made along the way from writing it to publishing it. Today we are going to share with you 10 common challenges and difficulties a writer has to face when creating an ebook and posting it online for the whole world to read. They as listed as follows;
No Knowledge About The Topic
You might be tempted to pick a topic that is trending right now and just write about it. However, it can be something that you know little about. As the first step in writing an ebook is to know what you want to write about. It may seem simple to just pick a topic and start writing about it, but don’t you think that it will be a waste of time writing about something you have no interest in? this is usually the most common challenge a writer faces when creating an ebook. To avoid this issue, choose a topic that you are interested in and have knowledge about. By doing this you will be able to save up a lot of time researching for material to write about.
Giving Readers What They Need
Many writers have fallen into the trap of not knowing what the reader needs to read and they just end up writing about what they want. A lot of bloggers and writers are writing and publishing ebooks without having the sense of what the reader needs to read. You can get tempted to just look at what a person wants and write about it. However, sometimes the readers and the writer both do not know what they need and what the writer should write about that will help the reader. To avoid such an issue, it is a great idea to take a survey and ask the readers to choose between 3 or 4 topics. The topic that gets the most votes, write about that.
Only Thinking Like A Writer
A book writer usually has the job of writing the material for the book and then just hand it over to the publisher. However, with an ebook, it is different. When you write an ebook, you are the writer, the publisher, and the salesperson. This is the most common issue an ebook writer faces. They write about the material and know where to go from there.
Start Writing Immediately
When the votes of the survey are in, you might be tempted to pick up your laptop or computer and just start writing an ebook immediately. Taking a step like this will cause a lot of serious problems and you will find yourself repeating things. The best way would be to plan ahead. Look into brainstorming before you start writing and plan out a mental map of how things will go in the ebook, how many chapters the ebook is going to have, and the number of words you intended for the whole ebook. Just try and pace yourself and carry on writing the ebook in stages, instead of going all out in one go.
Starting With An Introduction
Most writers usually start their ebooks with an introduction, however, this can be counterproductive and can waste a lot of time. Without knowing the material the book will contain, it will be difficult to have an idea about the introduction and it could go on for pages and pages which will make the reader lose interest. This is a challenge most ebook writers face. To remedy this, it will be a good idea to skip the introduction and start with the first chapter and draft it. As you complete the book, you will have a better idea of what to write in the introductory paragraph.
Taking Out The Time To Write
Sitting in front of your computer or laptop can be very hard. For a writer, a book is the most important thing, but it usually gets boring to sit in front of the laptop and write thousands of words in one go. Tiredness also sets in, due to sitting in one place without making any type of movement. Your fingers will also get tired due to a grueling typing session. It is the top challenge a writer when creating an ebook. One good idea is to write a chapter every day or every 3 or 4 days. This will keep you fresh and avoid getting any type of mental block or tiredness.
Making Tweaks While Writing
You might have a deadline or date that you want to finish writing your ebook on. However, you might be progressing slowly to make tweaks and corrections to your material. This happens many times that once you build some writing momentum, you might ignore little grammatical mistakes that you have done. Going back and correcting your mistakes will remedy this issue, however, it is going to take a lot of time and effort to correct hundreds of pages. A good idea would be to use on-screen editing software that can be incorporated within your writing software. This software usually displays mistakes that you might have made, giving you the correct suggestions. This will save you a lot of time.
Editing Issues
It can be said that having all the writing editing and publishing qualities all rolled in one is a difficult skill to acquire. Every writer cannot be a good editor and every editor cannot be a good writer. If you start by looking at small mistakes and grammatical errors, you are surely going to waste a lot of time. A lot of ebook writers usually face this challenge and do not know how to overcome it. A good idea would be to hire an editor and just focus on the material you want to write. If you are a writer on a tight budget, you can just hire someone to go through and correct the first few chapters of your ebook. By doing this you will have a better idea of what needs to be done and you can do it yourself on the later chapters of the ebook.
Proofreading issues
Once you have written your ebook and edited it properly by yourself or with the help of an editor. The next thing would be to go through it one more time and proofread it. However, you are probably the last person who would catch proofreading issues. As you are the one who has written the ebook, you have become so familiar with it and you might end up missing mistakes or typos that someone else might not. Hiring a proofreader would be a great idea. Hire someone familiar with the type of ebook you are writing. Ask for some before and afters from the person to get proof of their proofreading skills. You can also ask a friend who has a good grammatical sense to proofread it for you if your budget does not allow you to hire a proofreader.
Front Cover Design Issues
Many writers face the challenge of not knowing what to put on the front cover on their ebooks. Creating your front cover is a difficult task if you do not have any designing knowledge. If you do not know how to design a cover, your readers will be put off with your amateurish cover design and will avoid reading your material. The good thing to do would be to hire a professional designer to take care of it for you. Do not skimp out on this as this will ultimately decide how much your ebook is going to sell online.
The Final Words
An ebook is a great way to share your idea with the world. There will be many challenges that you are going to face along the way and overcoming them will ultimately make or break you as an author. Ebooks are not a joke and should be taken seriously. Today we have made you aware of 10 challenges a writer faces when creating an ebook, so it is a good idea to take into account to know what to expect through the whole writing process, whether you are writing an ebook for the first time or you are a seasoned writer.
