These days, anyone can publish and sell ebooks online quite simply so long as they have a great concept that they can effectively convey to the reader. This article clears away an mystery that may exist about how to get from the germ of an idea to a PDF ebook.

All good books start with the initial concept. You can brainstorm some ideas or run some market research to establish what your customers wish to read. Once you have set the books goal then this drives all content for the book. Note these thoughts down on paper/notepad/a word processor.

Start compiling your ideas into chapters or scenes (if it is a dramatic/fictional piece of work). For non-fiction work choose a format for the sub-sections of your book. Take some inspiration from the types of sub-sections you were impressed by in one of your favorite books.

It is now time for the implementation phase – writing the content of the sections/chapters. Some ebook authors choose to outsource sections of writing (for example, to experts). Start this process early and agree the file formats of the content you wish to receive (so that you may more easily collate the content into one single file).

Most word processors can export files to various formats so it should be possible for you to settle upon a single format. While compiling the content for your ebook make regular backups, preferably versioning the file (by appending the date or version number to file-names) and store backups in multiple locations and not only on your computer (just in case something happens to it).

Decide upon the look and feel of the ebook. You could pay a graphic designer to create a template (of the header, footers, fonts, etc) or choose one of the freely available templates from the internet. This may be overkill if your ebook is purely textual, in which case a simple format and font will complement the content.

For added impact, don’t forget that the ebook will probably be read on a monitor/laptop screen/ebook reader so traditional page formats can be toyed with. Some great ebooks have been written with relatively little content but they have added impact through strategic use of images, varying font sizes to emphasize important points and using color to highlight/structure content in a pleasing manner.

Lastly, to create a PDF file you simply export the file (or use ‘Save As’ in Microsoft Word) a copy of the ebook in PDF file format. Other alternates to Word include the Open Office Suite word processor. So, by using little other than a word processor it is possible to create a PDF ebook ready for distribution.

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