It’s the 27th November, and I’m pleased to say I completed my 50,000 word eBook writing challenge before I had my lunch today!
The original goal had been to write 2,500 words a day every week day, and it was always my plan to finish my today. I did get a little behind, but I wrote more than ever today and yesterday because I knew the end was in sight!
I’d also planned to write roughly 4 eBooks of 12,500 words each – but nothing was certain, and I wanted to see how it went. Some days I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to write about a certain topic, so I ended up writing:
- 1 full eBook draft (around 13,000 words)
- 3 short reports (I might be giving these away free, I need to decide what to do with them),
- 3 unfinished drafts of eBooks (they are all pretty much nearly complete drafts).
So, as you can see, the end of my 50,000 word goal doesn’t leave me with neatly finished eBooks! It also leaves me with a lot of editing and proofreading to do before any of them will be ready, but I’d always expected that.
What Did I Learn From My eBook Challenge?
In many ways, the eBooks I’ve got as a result aren’t as important as what I’ve learnt as part of doing this challenge.
- Giving Yourself A Kick Up the Arse: Sometimes you just need to give yourself a kick up the backside to get anything done! I’d been planning on writing my own eBooks for nearly six months. All that procrastinating, then in the space of 27 days I have nearly 4 drafts for eBooks and three reports to work with!
- You Don’t Have to Be A Perfect Writer: My challenge obviously wasn’t about being perfect. If it was, I wouldn’t be setting such a huge word target each day. This is not to say my eBooks are bad – but I will be editing them in future. The point here is that sometimes striving for perfection can put you off ever starting to begin with.
- Understanding How You Work Best: One of the things I learnt from this challenge was how I work best. It’s true that I spend a large portion of my days writing, but I never wrote an eBook for myself before. By doing this challenge I discovered how I work best – and that I need to make good outlines or else the work just feels daunting. I’m always great at making outlines for my client work, but I somehow got a bit slack when it came to my own work!
- The Process is as Important As the Results: What I mean by this is that simply setting a challenge and completing it seems as important to me as the results and money that the eBooks might earn me in future. They might not earn me anything, but I would never think this challenge has been a waste of time. It’s given me something to be really proud of!
- Don’t Give Up: I did feel like giving up at some points. Especially this week and last, where it really started to feel like a chore. But now I’ve finished, it seems like those 27 days went by so quickly! I’m so glad I didn’t give up!
A few people commenting here about this challenge have mentioned it isn’t exactly a good goal to simply write x amount of words a day. I understand their point, but at the end of the day I set myself a challenge simply to take action. And I’m proud that I have taken action and set the momentum going for more in the future.
Not all 50,000 words of my challenge will stay the same: I’m going to spend time editing, tweaking, adding, and even deleting before these eBooks are out into the world. I’m also not filling eBooks with pointless content simply because I want to hit a certain word goal. Each and every one of the eBooks I’ve started will play a role in my business, whether that’s a free report to give out here, guides to help customers who buy my sites, eBooks to sell from my own niche sites, or eBooks that can be packaged with a sales page and sold on Flippa.com.
For now I’m going to forget my eBooks and relax for a while. I’ll be back to posting next week, and I’ll also be posting my tips if you’re interested in doing a similar challenge.
~ Web Career Girl
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Forest (4)
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Des @ Affiliate P... (3)
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John (3)
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November 27th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Well done Ruth. Congratulations on getting past the finishing line!
Twitter: webcareergirl
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November 27th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Thanks Des
I’m glad it’s over!
Twitter: frugalzeitgeist
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November 28th, 2009 at 9:46 am
This is awesome, makes me very happy
.
I as supposed to get 10 flips done on Nov but it just didn’t work out as client work and all sorts of things took over! Still November was an awesome month and I made some large sales and reasonably money. The sad part was that I had to buy a new apple mac and that ate up much of my revenue!!
I’m looking forward to December but I always worry about January and February!
I’m thinking of writing an ebook for my Frugal Site but no idea what will be a good seller.
Really well done. I am looking forward to seeing what you do with your writings.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Thanks Forest! Yes I know what you mean about things taking over, I had the same problem in November! I am a little worried about how things will be in the new year, but we will see. I think it’d be a good idea to write an eBook if you can. I must admit, things not being popular and big sellers is a big worry for me. But honestly if I never even used my eBooks I’d be so proud that I at least wrote them
But I will be using them, just need to find time for the editing!
November 28th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Ruth…congratulations. You have no idea how inspired I am to do my own 30 day challenge now, perhaps in February. There are several eBooks that I need to write and other aspects of my business have been consuming all my time. Now it’s crunch time.
I’ve got one important question for you. Did you enjoy it?
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Thanks Stephen, would be a good idea to set yourself a challenge. I honestly would never have got these done if I didn’t set a date and a goal.
As for your question… I really should have mentioned that in the listing!! With hindsight I can easily say I enjoyed it
But at the time it was kind of annoying, day after day only feeling slightly closer to the goal. In fact, I had a dream last night that I had to write 2,500 words for an eBook today and I was very glad when I woke up and realised I had already completed the challenge! Then again, some days were unbelievably easy and that always felt great!
November 28th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
so, you’ve actaully finished writing a book.. thats an achievement…congratulations.. keep up the good work
Cheers
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Thanks so much for visiting and leaving your message, I really appreciate it!
November 28th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Way to go Ruth!
I’ve loved following your journey.
I think understanding how you work can be so under-rated, but it’s huge! As far as writing x number of words per day, if that’s how you want to do it, then it’s the right way to do it.
Now what’s your timeline for getting these edited and out the door?
Peggy
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Thanks for your encouragement through the challenge, Peggy! Yeah the understanding how I work was probably the most important factor in getting things done.
As for my deadline for editing… hmm. I’ve got to try not to be too slack about it otherwise they’ll gather ‘dust’ on my hard drive. I have one eBook that I want to launch in January, and the rest after that. But before then I need to get my reports edited and hopefully I’ll do that this month. Just need to get to the point where I can bring myself to look at them again (it’s been nice having a little break
)
Also, I didn’t realise you had a blog, I’m going to pay it a visit sometime soon!
Twitter: MichelleRAdams
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December 1st, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Congrats Ruth, it’s been inspirational watching your progress.
I like your idea of writing a minimum number of words a day, it keeps you accountable and ensures you make progress even if it’s not perfect.
Well done to you!
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Thanks so much Michelle. Yes I think I just had to do it that way or else I never would have gotten anything done at all! It’s definitely not perfect but I’m so pleased anyway.
December 4th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Oh, good on you! Well done. I hope you treated yourself to a glass of bubbly or something. You deserve it after all the effort you put in.
Have a lovely weekend, you.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 9th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I treated myself to a bit of doing nothing for the rest of that day – it was a good feeling
Twitter: pfincome
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December 5th, 2009 at 6:18 am
Ruth – This is great news. I am very glad you reach your goals and it helps keep others like me motivated. So what is your next challenge?
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 9th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Thanks John – well I’m not sure about my next challenge, but all I can say is I definitely want to do one, they really motivate me!!
December 15th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I know I’m a little late with the congratulations but I just discovered your blog. I have been in the Internet marketing game myself for a while now and I know that one of the biggest challenges you face is yourself.
So, well done to you for finishing an eBook. I’m sure it’s a great feeling of accomplishment!
May I ask if you’re going to try to follow any of the product development plans out there? Or do you have a tactic of your own in mind?
I’ve read Kevin Riley’s (of Warrior Forum fame) Rocket Product creation and it’s pretty good.
I’ve put your blog in my RSS feed and I look forward to following your progress. Always nice to get a bit of inspiration.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 16th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Thanks for dropping by and leaving your congratulations
I have read a couple of eBooks about this, but to be honest I have hardly had any time to even think about it properly! I am going to be editing and then setting up my products in the new year.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Tweeted your post.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 19th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Thanks so much for doing that
December 17th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Congrats Ruth, it’s been inspirational watching your progress.
I like your idea of writing a minimum number of words a day, it keeps you accountable and ensures you make progress even if it’s not perfect.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 17th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Thank you for stopping by and leaving your congratulations. My eBooks certainly aren’t perfect, but I was very proud to complete the challenge.
Note – I’m afraid I removed the link from your comment. You left me another comment which seemed a little spammy to me, and a Google search showed you left the exact same comment on many other websites too.