E-books are one of the valuable products that many coaches produce to help build their coaching business.  Small e-books can be a give-away that you use for visibility and list building.  Larger e-books can be a source of passive income.  Many coaches don’t write an e-book because it looks like such a big task.  Try this step-by-step guide to getting your e-book ready to go.

1. Research the needs of your niche.  You need to know that what you write about will matter to your audience.  Spend some time finding out the problems encountered in your niche and write your book to solve one of the most important issues.  Make sure that you write a one or two sentence statement about the purpose of the book in order to guide your writing.

2. Title your e-book carefully.  There are several points to consider in choosing your title.  You want it to be catchy and at the same time be clear about your subject matter.  This is often accomplished through the use of sub-titles.  I titled my recent e-book Mind Your Own Biz (for the catchiness) and used the sub-title “Discover the Secrets to Creating a Successful Coaching Business” (to be very clear about the purpose).  Finally, think about the use of keywords in your title.  It is great if you can make sure the book title comes up when your target market does a Google search. 

3. Write an outline. You may think this sounds like high school English class, but there is no other way to collect your thoughts completely and make them into a document that flows smoothly.  The outline can be as simple as listing the important topics to cover or as complete as writing out a table of contents.  I usually list all the general points that need to be covered and then make subpoints for each thought I have related to the main point.

4.  Write the e-book.  One great way to make this happen is to schedule writing time into your calendar using ink.  If you have an outline, it doesn’t matter what part of the e-book you write first; write whatever appeals to you when your writing appointment time arrives.  As a coach, you know that it helps to break down any big project into small, doable steps and your outline helps you do that.  When you begin to write, don’t worry about whether it is good writing – just try to get your thoughts down.  Some days you will not feel like writing new material and you can use those days to polish portions of the book that you have already written.  Don’t spend too much time agonizing over word choice and sentence structure because the best e-books read as though the writer was speaking to you.  Write what you would say to your client about the subject.  The final part of writing is to add any transitions you need between sections to help the book flow more smoothly.

5.  Edit the book.  You want to make sure that the book says clearly what you are trying to say and that you are using reasonable language to do so. I highly recommend you find someone to do the editing for you because a fresh set of eyes will do a better job of evaluating your writing.  Ask a friend, find an English teacher, or hire an editor to do this work.  You need someone who is expert in the language.  Your editor will look at punctuation, grammar, word choice and meaning and is far superior to the grammar-check on your word processor. 

6. Format the book.  This is when you look at how the book is laid out on the pages, making it look clear and easily readable.  For an e-book, you want to make sure there is lots of white space on each page.  Choose your font and be consistent with it throughout the entire book, varying only the size for headings and titles.  Look at where each page ends since you may want to make sure that a paragraph is not split into two pieces on different pages.  If your e-book is more than about 20-25 pages, you will want to add a table of contents.  This is done after formatting to make sure you have accurate page numbers.

7. Design a book cover.  You will want a great looking book cover for your e-book especially if you are selling it because many sales are made by the cover.  It is very important to tie the look of your cover to your company branding so the best option is to use a graphic designer to do this job.  If you absolutely cannot afford to hire a designer then you can buy one of the software programs that generate book covers.  The downside here is that these programs have been used many times and your book will not look as distinctive as is possible with a designer.  Some e-book cover resources are Cover Factory, E-cover Generator and Absolute Covers.  You should expect to pay between $50 and $100 for the software and $100-$150 for a designer.

8.  Convert the book to PDF format.  No matter what software you use to write your book, your last step is to convert the file to the format called PDF.  This is a universally used file format that can be read by any computer.  PDF format also protects your work so that it is not so easily copied. There are many programs that convert documents to PDF format at a range of prices.  Free programs often work well if you have a little technology savvy.  PDF995 has a limited free version of their software which is ad supported.  Their suite version costs $29.95 and does not include ads.  Adobe Acrobat is the original document converter and is the undisputed leader despite a hefty price of about $400.  NitroPDF is very similar and costs only $99.

There is the eight step plan for creating your e-book.  Don’t let the size of the project stop you – just take it one step at a tme.  An e-book can help tremendously with your coaching business development.  Get started soon!