Should You Write an e-Book?

June 27th, 2011 by Bob Bly

The overwhelming majority of e-books I see fall into one of two categories.

The first category is lousy quality in writing, editing, and page layout. They?are extremely amateurish?and therefore not worth reading.

The second category is e-books on the same? old topics that have been done 1,000 times before — topics like leadership, marketing, sales, starting a small business, how to get rich online. Not only are they on topics that are already overdone, but they repeat virtually the same information as other e-books on the topic.

If you are going to write a crappy e-book … or write an e-book that simply regurgitates other e-books on the same topic … I would urge you not to. The world doesn’t need more mediocre content.

On the other hand, if you think you can produce a quality e-book with original ideas, analysis, strategies, and content — fresh thinking the reader has not encountered before — then I say go for it.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2011 at 11:38 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

16 responses about “Should You Write an e-Book?”

  1. Jeff said:

    On topic, yesterday I read the following:

    Amateur-Hour Books: Do You Know the Warning Signs?
    http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/06/amateur-hour-books-do-you-know-the-warning-signs/

    It focuses more on presentation than content, and applies to all forms of self-publishing, but it is still an interesting read for those who feel their content actually merits publishing.

  2. Ken Hoffman said:

    And it’s not just Ebooks. It’s so cheap and easy for anyone to put a POD book on Amazon, there’s a lot more clutter to sift through to find books by “real” authors who have something worth saying.

    The big problems are indeed poor/reduntant ideas, lack of editing, and amateurish book cover/ interior page layout.

  3. Bodybuilding Diets said:

    I think the main reason why there are now so many e-books is because it is so easy to make one. There are even several who are paying writers to rewrite content found on other e-books and passing these off as their own material! They then put their name as the author even if they did not even do the rewrite. Crazy world, huh?

  4. Alla Goltsman said:

    There is a problem with this approach. If I wait for a brilliant idea to strike me, that might never happen. Besides, how do you know if your writing is good if you don’t know what people think about your work? By presenting your work to public you give people a chance to let you know their opinion even though it might not be all peaches and roses.

    On the other hand, putting down on paper your thoughts will lead to improving quality even if you don’t start out as a perfect writer. Nobody starts being perfect anyway.

  5. What to Invest In said:

    Well, it’s fairly easy to write an e-book. But how do you publish it and sell it to people? I think that’s what’s difficult.

  6. George Mulak said:

    Wow Bob, another great discussion post. Thank you.

    I feel much the same way. There is so much material out there that is not good, or well done.

    It is hard to do, mentally and emotionally, but there is something to be said for submitting material to someone (like a publishing house) for review. The criticism and review can make you strong and better and determined to do a better job as a writer or actor or singer.

    I know that it can be discouraging to me to wade through so much material. However, on the bright side I have learned to read faster! :-)

    How would we start and e-pub publishing house? Or perhaps you already have?! :-)

  7. nikefreeshoes said:

    Well, it’s fairly easy to write an e-book. But how do you publish it and sell it to people? I think that’s what’s difficult.

  8. Anne Violette said:

    I have found in this business “everyone” wants to be an author. Everyone has a best story to tell or hardships in life they want to share with the world. Everyone thinks they will hit it big on the NY Times Bestseller list. Everyone is egocentric.

    Maybe it is because they read a book and think they can write something similar, but with a different twist or spin that is better. Or maybe they just dream of the world caring about the thoughts that are in their heads. Or maybe it is for their own benefit just to get the words out on paper. But isn’t that what journals are for?

    Don’t get me wrong … I would encourage anyone to write a book. However, I agree that the subject should be unique and not something that has been written about a zillion times or a story that we have seen again and again except with different names for the characters. Even Hollywood is guilty. Instead of NEW ideas or creative concepts we get re-spins of movies from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s. We get sequels and “remakes”. WHERE IS THE IMAGINATION?

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