There are many sites that offer ready-made E-Book templates, some free, some you would have to pay for.

Here's a site that offers free E-Book templates.

http://stickitsoftware.freeyellow.com/neobooktemplates/

And here are 2 sites where you can buy ready-made templates:

http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter/ebooktemplates.htm http://www.msincome.com/Templates/covers.html

If you decide to create your own format, here are some basic formatting tips. Your E-Book should contain:

(i) an Index page that serves as entry point to your E-Book. It should contain a Welcome message, your copyright statement, and a link to 'Contents' page of your E-Book.

(ii) A 'Contents' page. This should be a list of all chapters in your E-Book, with Section titles for each chapter. The Chapter titles should be hyper-linked to first page in that chapter, and Section titles should be hyperlinked to first page in that section.

(iii) A link at top of each page of your E-Book that says 'Contents' and which takes reader back to 'Contents' page.

(iv) The Chapter title at top of each page, so that reader knows which Chapter they are reading.

(v) A set of links at top of each page that allow reader to jump back and forth between different sections of Chapter.

(vi) Forward and Backward arrows (hyperlinked) at bottom right of each page which take reader back one page or forward one page.

------------------------------ STEP 4: Selling Your E-Book ------------------------------

There are basically 2 ways of selling your E-Book: either you have a merchant account and accept credit cards yourself, or you use a '3rd Party Credit Card Processor'.

Here are two 3rd Party Credit Card Processors that I recommend. Neither of these 2 companies charges monthly fees.

Each has advantages and disadvantages, which I have summarized below:

--------------------- (i) Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com ---------------------

- To sell your E-Book through Clickbank, you will have to pay a one-time joining fee of $49.95

- Clickbank charges 7.5% per sale plus $1

- With Clickbank you will only be able to offer payment via Credit Card.

- if you use Clickbank to sell your E-Book(s), you also have a ready-made affiliate program. Clickbank will track your affiliate sales and send out checks every 2 weeks to your affiliates.

- Clickbank will send you an automatic email every time you (or one of your affiliates) make a sale.

- Minimum amount before a check is issued is $5

--------------------- (ii) Ibill (Internet Billing Company) http://www.ibill.com/ ---------------------

- ibill does not charge a joining fee.

- ibill charges 15% per sale (more for telephone billing).

- ibill allows your customers to pay in a number of different ways, such as online check, telephone billing, or credit card. Many people don't have a credit card, so offering your customers alternative ways of paying can significantly increase your volume of sales.

- ibill doesn't operate an affiliate program.

- ibill doesn't send you an email every time you make a sale.

- Minimum amount before a check is issued is $150

The possibilities with E-Books really are endless - you're only limited by your own imagination.

And remember: how ever obscure you think your E-Book concept is, there will be a market for it. In fact, that's essence of 'niche marketing': more narrow your focus, more customers you will find.

Wishing you every success!

(c) 2000 by Michael Southon

The authors' program for writing your eBook in seven days contains some useful techniques for getting your creative juices flowing and getting your words down on paper - writing your material as a letter to a friend, and writing your sales copy first.

The chapter on 'Formatting Your eBook Text' contains some valuable tips, such as breaking up your text with bullets and headers. Your readers will thank you for it - one of keys to avoiding credit card charge backs is to make it easy for your readers to absorb your information.

Chapter 10 ('How To Make Money with your eBook') gives you some tried and tested formulas for turning your eBook into profits, such as selling reprint rights and 'back loading' your eBook with your own affiliate links, joint ventures and affiliate programs.

The book also contains interviews with eight successful eBook authors, including Yanik Silver, Rick Beneteau, and Jay Conrad Levinson.

The interview with Yanik Silver is worth reading very carefully. He reveals how he made tens of thousands of dollars by setting up 3 separate profit streams in same eBook: reprint rights, his own affiliate links and customization fees.

If you want to create your own information product, this book is definitely worth reading - you'll find out that it's easier than you think. You can get your copy of 'How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as little as 7 Days' at:

http://www.freezineweb.com/7daybook.html

(c) 2002 by Michael Southon