Since it’s almost the end of October already (can’t believe how fast it’s gone!) I thought I’d better mention my plans for the month of November. They have to do with me writing eBooks – yes, multiple eBooks – within the 30 days.
I’ve mentioned before that I got started working online by writing articles for others. What I didn’t mention is the reason I got started writing for others, is because I loved writing for myself (though it kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?).
I had a personal blog for a while, where I’d write about life in a semi-philosophical and semi-creative way. Perhaps sometimes you could call it ‘creative non-fiction’. Slightly more than my random ramblings, and a way of helping me make sense of the world.
I liked trying to be creative in that way, but I’ve never been a fiction writer. However, last November I tried to take part in NaNoWriMo – that is, National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in November. I tried, but I failed miserably. For now, fiction is not for me.
But this year I thought I’d take part, only I’ll be writing eBooks. Unfortunately this is way less creative than writing a novel, and isn’t technically something that fits with the competition, but that doesn’t matter. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, so what better way to get myself started?
The Novel Writing Preparations
I’ve already been preparing for my novel – sorry eBook – by reading up a little on writing eBooks. Yes, of course I’ve written a lot before, but never my own. I’ve always been given outlines and ideas. I’m not daunted by the thought of writing 50,000 words (especially since this will be broken down into more than one eBook) – but I am daunted by coming up with topics all on my own, and topics that I think will provide value.
Anyway, I read a great book on the subject by Tiffany Dow. Her book is ‘Building An eBook Empire‘ and it contains much of what I know, much of what I don’t – but mainly it’s very inspirational, and a clear guide to follow to help me get started. Plus it wasn’t expensive!
I’ve already read that book the whole way through, and will probably read it again before I get started. Like I said, though I knew a lot of it, it’s really given me a great guide to follow and has made me excited about my challenge!
I’ve also come up with a list of ideas. I’ve been planning to write some free eBooks, as well as try and flip some sites with unique eBooks. So some ideas are based on Internet Marketing and blogging, others will be in their own informational niche (I haven’t decided yet, though).
My Plan of Action
My general plan is to write 4 eBooks – one a week basically. Since I need to write 50,000 words in the month, each eBook will be around 12,500 words (I’m flexible, depending on how it goes). This means I need to write 2,500 words a day.
My challenge will officially start on November 1 (no cheating before then) and end on November 30. I’ll add a widget to the sidebar to show my progress, and also give updates in my weekly progress posts.
I’m really excited to get started!
PS. In case you didn’t realise, the 50,000 words is a first draft. There’s no time for editing (unless you finish the 50k early), so my eBooks won’t necessarily be 100% complete by the end of November.
~ Web Career Girl
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October 29th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
That sounds like an interesting challenge! that is a lot of words, so I can’t wait to see you little widget increasing as the month continues!
Twitter: webcareergirl
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October 30th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Thanks Tom – I’m looking forward to starting, but all the research is going to be quite hard!
Twitter: frugalzeitgeist
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October 30th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Awesome stuff… What are you planning on doing with the ebooks? They could make excellent clickbank ready Flippa’s.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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October 30th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I signed up to Tom’s (commenter above) blog flipping challenge, so I will probably write one eBook for that. I think I want it to be something I really enjoy, like green living niche. Just need to find an angle that people will want to buy. Then I’ll keep hold of that, market it etc. for a few months.
Another I might also keep for myself, not sure. I want to write probably 2 to flip. I think flipping a clickbank ready site on flippa would be great! I have even been learning about writing sales pages :-O Of course, my eBooks won’t all be completely ready at the end of this month, but they will give me a good amount of things to work on
Twitter: frugalzeitgeist
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October 30th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Awesome…. I am pushing ahead with niche sites and my frugal site in Nov, as well as some bigger flips.
Good luck.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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October 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Good luck to you too!
Twitter: pfincome
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October 31st, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I really like how you have broken down how many words you plan to write each day. It gives you a nice daily goal to reach. The thought of writing 50,000 words in a month sounds scary to me but 2,500 per day does not!
Twitter: webcareergirl
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November 2nd, 2009 at 9:06 am
Thanks John – you’re right. In fact 50,000 words seems crazy! But 2,500 is ok
I’m looking forward to it, though it’s going to be hard.
October 31st, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Sounds like a blast. I went back and took a look at my word count for my regular nine to five from the last week and it clocked in at around 16,000 words so I’d say 12,500 a week is definately possible. Tough but possible, especially since the holidays (at least for me), probably means that you need to get ahead of the curve in the first few weeks. I can’t wait to see the results as the days click away in November. Good luck!
Twitter: webcareergirl
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November 2nd, 2009 at 9:07 am
Thanks Mace. Yes I think I tend to write thousands of words every week for my clients already. Actually I am pretty sure I wrote over 12,500 last week for clients. So it’s about time I did it for myself
You’re also right about getting ahead before Christmas comes around too!
Twitter: moon_hussain
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December 17th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Hi Ruth,
My first time here; you have a lot of interesting stuff going on here. I love the tracker on the right, pretty cool way of tracking your progress regularly.
I have some catching up to do, but I’m wondering if these are your own eBooks or if a client has hired you.
Anyway, if you get a minute, please drop by my site.
Thanks.
Twitter: webcareergirl
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December 17th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Hi Moon, thanks for leaving your comment. I liked watching my ticker as it got higher and higher every month
And yes these are all 100% my own eBooks. I spend so much time writing for others that I really wanted to write some eBooks purely for myself.