How to Make an eBook for Free

Last week I self-published my first eBook, Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning. Since then, a few people have asked me how I did it. Making an eBook isn't complicated and it can be totally free.

I got great guidance on how to do it from Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. He wrote an amazingly helpful and FREE eBook called, eBooks: The Smart Way. I highly recommend you check it out and subscribe/follow Pat Flynn everywhere on social media. In addition to being brilliant, he's also one of the most pleasant internet personalities sharing this kind of information.

Here's an overview of what's involved in making your own eBook:

Pick a topic. 

1. Choose something you either know a lot about or something you'd love to research. Your book should solve a question or problem for others. Alternatively, it could also fill a need or desire, especially if you're an artist or poet.
2. Identify your audience. Who are you writing the book for? Get a clear picture. 

Write the book.

1. Pick the word processing software you're most comfortable with and use it. I used Google Drive because that's what I have, it's free, and the Support/Help feature is great.
2. Start with an outline, an organized map of how you will guide people through the information you have to share. 
3. Create a template for your book. This will allow you to create formatted headers, sub-headers, footers, and more cool looking stuff that matches throughout the book.
4. Make a document for each section of the outline, using the template. 
5. Write content based on the outline. You can work in order. You can also do what I did: work on the easiest bits first then work on the harder stuff as you gain confidence and momentum. When writing be sure to take the perspective of your audience, that of someone who doesn't know what you know. 
6. Paste all the sections into a master document.  

Make a cover.

1. Take a digital photo or choose a copyright free image. 
2. Edit the image in Photoscape, a free, easy-to-use Photoshop-like program. Add the title, your name, and whatever other text you want on the cover. Make the image big enough to fill an entire document page.
3. Drop into a page on your word processing software.

Turn your content into a PDF.

1. Proofread and edit everything.
2. Download the master document (that has all the book content) as a PDF via your word processing software. Do the same for your cover.
3. Merge the PDFs for the cover and the master document using PDFFill, a free PDF editor. You'll have one document now. That's your eBook! 
4. If it didn't come out perfectly- sometimes things move over when you save them as a PDF- you'll have to have a friend with Adobe Acrobat to edit it for you. Or you can hire someone to do it via 5iverr.  (Not free, but usually pretty inexpensive.)

Sell your book.

1. Create a PayPal account, if you don't already have one, so that you can receive payments. 
2. Sign up for a 1 week trial E-Junkie membership.
3. Follow E-junkie instructions to "Add a new product". You'll be prompted to upload your PDF.
4. E-Junkie will create shopping cart and buy now buttons that will allow you to sell downloads via your website, blog, or eBay. They will automate everything for you, including collecting payments and sending out download links.

Again, this is just an overview. For more detailed information and nitty-gritty tips on creating an publishing, as well as marketing ideas, check out Pat Flynn's eBooks: The Smart Way. I'm not an affiliate for Pat Flynn. I just really love and appreciate his work.

Are you thinking of writing a book? What would your book be about? How will it help make the world a better place?

Thanks so much for reading this blog entry! I hope it was helpful. Wanna keep nerding out about creative green living? Let's stay connected: Newsletter // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // Pinterest // Bloglovin' // YouTube

Consider supporting this blog by shopping via my Amazon shop or buying my green cleaning eBook. Thanks.