Along with your blogs, social posts, author website, and newsletter, an ebook can be a powerful part of your promotional mix. Ebooks are a subtle-type selling, too, that lets you editorially showcase some of your experience and expertise, so readers start to associate you with a particular area. And despite the name, writing them is nothing like writing a book!

Why write an ebook?

They have several benefits: 

–    They have more gravitas than a post, so can add depth and authority to your author brand

–    They are not difficult to do

–    With a bit of careful planning, you make your ebook content work extra hard for you

–    You can share an ebook in exchange for email addresses or other useful info

What does an ebook look like? 

An ebook is often just an extended article, broken into sections. Format-wise, it’s a sort of glorified pdf, designed in a readable and often very visual book-like style. Some high-end ebooks will have extras like flippable formats and data visualisations – as here and here – but many just offer great copy and a simple crisp design, as with these writer examples.

What do I write about? 

Your ebook might be a series of advice articles, or examples with commentary (sometimes called a playbook). It doesn’t have to be very long with 1,500-5,000 words the typical range.

The subject will flow logically from what you want to promote. So a freelance copywriter might do an ebook of copywriting tips, or a playbook of their favourite bits of commercial copy, with commentary. A professional proofreader might set out the business case for companies to focus more on the quality control of their marketing materials. A creative writing trainer might gather a collection of exercises and prompts.

Planning your ebook 

With a bit of planning, you can easily compile an ebook from other self-marketing activities. In fact, you may already have much of the content you need. Say you want to do an ebook about helping people kickstart a freelance writing career. Start by pulling together a series of posts you’ve already done on the topic, and polishing them into something that works as a longer unit, perhaps with an intro and a few extra sections. Or start the other way round, writing a longer piece that will also easily divide into stand-alone blog articles, newsletter pieces or social posts for reuse.

Designing your ebook 

An attractive design for your ebook is vital. If design isn’t in your skillset, there are millions of people out there ready to help, at very reasonable rates. Here’s a good list of platforms for finding creative freelancers.

None of this need take a lot of time – here’s one freelancer’s story of how he put a whole ebook together in a weekend! Free templates like these are easy to find, and free image libraries like Unsplash (a favourite) and many others give you loads of options.

How to use your book promotionally

You can simply email your ebook to contacts and influencers, as an attachment or as a download link via a free service like WeTransfer. Promote your ebook in your social channels, blog, author newsletter and website if you have them – use self-contained extracts from the ebook such as quote cards and top tips to promote the main attraction.

On your author site, create a landing page for your ebook, with a call to action for people to share their details in return for a free download. This will help you to start building your email list.

BIO – Dan Brotzel is editor-at-large of digital content agency Sticky Content