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How to Structure a Winning E-Book

According to a compilation of predictions from the Content Marketing Institute, "fat" content will be the focus of marketers in 2015. What, exactly, is "fat" content? Anything that is lengthy and meaty is considered fat, including white papers and e-books. If you are thinking about putting together an e-book as part of your marketing strategy this year, here are a few things you need to know to develop a winning e-book.

Choose Your Topic Carefully

When people download an e-book, they are looking for an in-depth look at a particular subject, problem, or idea. You do not want your topic to be so general that you are unable to get into detail, or so thin that you cannot justify dedicating an entire e-book to it. Consider splitting broad ideas up into more than one e-book or converting skimpy topics into a white paper or blog post. Topics can come from a variety of sources although the best always come from the readers themselves. What are they talking about on various social media feeds? What is the chatter in the blog comments? Listen carefully, and the readers will tell you exactly what information to cover.

Structure Matters

An e-book is different from most other forms of content in that it is structured in multiple chapters. Each of these chapters should be organized fairly similarly to one another to avoid a disjointed, disorganized flow of ideas. For example, you may want to start each chapter with a quote or an interesting statistic. If you do, be sure that each chapter has one and that they are formatted with the same font, color, and indentation. An e-book should also have a clickable table of contents to help readers jump around the book and easily return to parts of the book they would like to reread.

Keep the Energy Up

Depending on the length of your e-book, your readers may not consume the entire book all in one sitting. Still, you need to keep the energy level high throughout the entire book to keep readers interested to the very end. Here are a few ways to inject enthusiasm throughout your book.

  • One Idea Per Page. HubSpot recommends sticking to one message per page to help readers focus on your content. By sticking to a single idea or message, it will be easy to understand what each page is about and decide whether or not to read it.
  • Use Headings. Just like blog posts, e-books need to be skimmable. Even though e-book readers tend to read more of the actual content than blog readers, they still want to be able to jump around and decide which sections matter the most to them.
  • Use Images. The difference between using images on blog posts and using them in e-books is that e-book images need to be more than just eye candy. Choose graphics, charts, diagrams, and photos that complement your words and help readers understand the points you are trying to make.
  • Ask Questions. People are naturally curious. When we hear a question, we have to stick around long enough to learn the answer. Copyblogger suggests using questions to pique reader interest and to get a reader's train of thought moving.
  • Make it Meaty. Copyblogger also suggests using a lot of specific details to hold reader attention. Vague and abstract discussions can be confusing and tiresome. Instead, support your content with statistics, specific steps to completing a task, and detailed narratives about an unusual situation.

Stay Focused

Throughout the entire writing process, make sure you stay focused on your goals. You want to give readers an in-depth look at a topic while also solving their problems. At the same time, an e-book is usually part of a larger plan to draw in more qualified leads or to get more customers. Make sure the information you are providing is helpful to both the reader and the end goal, and you will have the winning formula.

Topics: ebook writing

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