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A review of ePublishing for Dummies

by Victoria Rosenborg

An excellent guide to ePublishing for intending eBook authors

Reviewed by: Lisa-Anne Sanderson
About Lisa-Anne Sanderson

ePublishing for Dummies Clearly and simply written, ePublishing for Dummies is the perfect book for anyone thinking of writing an eBook. This step-by-step guide tells you all that you need to know about choosing your topic, researching it, writing the book and marketing it.

The best feature about this guide is that it makes the technical details much easier. Useful figures and tables are provided which you can refer to while working at your computer.

Ms Rosenborg starts where all good technical writers should start - at the beginning. She describes the different types of eBooks and eBook readers, such as the popular Microsoft and Adobe readers, and provides pictures of the different formats. She also tells you where and how to download the readers and provides a list of websites of eBook publishers.

Perhaps the most difficult decision for any eBook writer is choosing a topic. Here you will find a set of helpful guidelines and questions that will make this choice simpler. Ms Rosenborg gives advice such as 'put a unique spin on the topic' and 'stand out from the crowd' giving examples suggesting how to do this.

Her questions give intending writers many ideas to think about so that they know where their skills lie and tells them how to pick a target audience. She gives readers a list of question, such as 'Does your topic help readers save money?' along with examples of general subjects that would enable the intended audience to do this.

The chapter on researching your topic is especially helpful. As Ms Rosenberg writes: "You don't need to be the first to cover a specific topic, but you do need to cover the topic in a unique way. If 100 authors write about how to design insanely great Web widgets, becoming Author101 is pointless." She tells you how to check out the competition and latest trends and shows you how to research your topic by using the main search engines and reading ezines.

Ms Rosenborg provides an excellent step-by-step guide to the actual process of outlining, writing and formatting your eBook and shows you how to include graphics and links. She shows you how to build a simple eBook.

She even shows you how to design a website and distribute your own eBooks if you don't want to go through a publisher.

Many intending writers don't like the process of marketing. However, as Ms Rosenborg shows this is essential. She provides excellent tips on marketing and promoting eBooks and the many blunders to watch out for, such as editing in a hurry and writing infomercial texts.

The CD-ROM includes Chapter 1 in various eBook formats and contains form and templates to help writers organize their content. An intending eBook writer, I found this book an essential reference to keep by the computer while I write.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: ePublishing for Dummies

Copyright © by Lisa-Anne Sanderson, 2002

Reviewed by Lisa-Anne Sanderson:
-- ePublishing for Dummies - by Victoria Rosenborg
-- My Forbidden Face - by Latifa









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