11 Tips For Creating A Photography eBook

Just a few days ago I released my second eBook, Photography Projects For Practice and Portfolios. In January of this year, I released my first eBook, On The Path: Journeys Through Darkness and Light. I am not an expert on creating eBooks, but I have learned a few things that I wanted to share with other photographers who enjoy writing and may want to create a photography eBook as well.

1) Only create one if you truly enjoy writing as well as creating photographs. Unlike large print photography books that can feature just photographs, eBooks usually have written content and usually tells a story, teaches someone how to do something or is personally/intellectually reflective.

2) Choose a topic that you know well enough to discuss, though you don't have to know "everything" about it.

3) eBooks (especially instructive ones) seem to work better when they are concise. I don't know anyone who really enjoys reading eBooks that are longer than 100-150 pages (if in PDF with a page size of 8.5 x 11 or close). Most eBooks that I own are 30-75 pages. (Other eBook formats can make the page count much higher, but the content on each page is much less.)

4) You can create a photography eBook in software as simple as Microsoft Word/Apple's Pages or more complex such as Quark XPress or Adobe InDesign. Use what is comfortable for you. I don't own InDesign though I use other Adobe products, so I used Microsoft Word for my first eBook and Apple's Pages for my second. I really like Pages. Love actually.

5) Remember that it isn't just writing. Sure, you want your written content to be strong but you are also making photograph selections as well as design decisions. It really is using multiple skills that you have as a photographer.

6) Think of your eBook as another one of your photography projects and structure it accordingly. In my second eBook, I provide extremely detailed information for creating photography projects, so pick up a copy for more information on this.

7) Try to proofread as best as you can. (Maybe even have someone else proofread for you.) It seems that no matter what you do, a mistake or two will slip. My eBooks are proofread as best as possible, but I bet someone else will find a mistake or two. I have read expensive hardback books and even textbooks in college/grad that had grammatical errors and misspellings. It happens. However, repeated mistakes get rather ugly and annoys the reader.

8) Decide if it will be a free product or something that people purchase. Either way is fine. It is up to you to decide how you want to price your products. (Don't let "suggestions" from other people dictate your price. I had several photographers tell me that my first eBook should be free, yet when another "famous" photographer ridiculously priced a photography workshop at over fifteen thousand dollars, they were in support of that. I get that I am not famous, but fame or not, I decide how my products are priced. You do the same.) Remember, you are selling the content, not the medium. Whether print or digital, the content is what is purchased. When someone buys a print from you, they are buying your vision and art, not just photo paper.

9) Using social media to market the book is smart. Many people who like eBooks and utilize the technology to read them are also social media users. Thus, share tweets, Facebook statuses, blog posts and more about your eBook.

10) If you decide to make your eBook for purchase, you need a checkout system. For my first eBook, I did it manually. (Don't do this.) I got a notification email from Paypal once the person donated for a copy (I created a Paypal donation button before I made it an item for purchase) and then I emailed the download link to my book to the person. However, people ordered my eBook at all times of day and any day of the week so I had to always monitor that. Even creating email rules to manage this wasn't enough. For this eBook, I decided to use eJunkie. I was their artist of the week back in May and learned about the company then. eJunkie makes the checkout process easy by connecting the purchases to Paypal and automatically providing the customer with an eBook download link. (Look right at the cute "add to cart" and "view cart" buttons under my eBooks.) Thus, I don't have to follow up all day long...the works is done for me.

11) If you want to move beyond allowing free or purchased downloads from your website/blog (what I am currently doing...for now I want to distribute through my own channels), there are many resources out there to help you get your book on Lulu, Amazon and iBooks. Google a bit and you will see a plethora of resources. Also, see this link: How To Self-Publish An eBook

Sharing what you know with others and committing to a more complex project such as an eBook is a great thing for a photographer to do who is interested in creating one. Adding to the knowledge shared among photographers serves to help all photographers. Enjoy the writing and creating!

| Monday, October 03, 2011 | 7 Comments