That's why ebooks are hottest products on Internet. It's digital information that's downloadable and therefore brings instant gratification to user. In just a matter of minutes, you can have expert knowledge saved on your hard drive that you can read at your leisure. It can be printed out and made into a regular book. It's an incredible medium for writers and experts who would have before Internet needed a publisher or magazine to print and sell their knowledge in book form.

The good news is just about anyone can write an ebook and sell it on internet with virtually no cost. If you happen to be an expert on a particular subject then that's a definite plus but you need not be an expert on a subject to write an ebook. If you think that sounds ridiculous, just think back to your school days. How many times were you given an assignment to write a lengthy report on a subject you knew nothing about? I remember writing several reports in high school and college on subjects I knew nothing about. The end result was always a report that read like an expert on subject had written it. How did I do it? Research of course. That's how we all did it. That was whole purpose of assignment. It was teaching you to conduct your own research and fact finding and then compiling that research into a report. You can use this same technique to write an ebook.

Sometimes a prospective employer may offer guidelines or forms, and when those are online they help everyone. Check your local adult education center’s website to see if it offers online proposal guidelines. Read whatever information you can find for online writing classes at your favorite writing sites, too.

In most cases a proposal will need to include at least five basic elements:

1. Your contact and personal information (such as citizenship status, for payment purposes) as well as your professional biography.

2. Your sense of target audience for your class.

3. Your sense of what students will gain/learn from your class.

4. Your sense of course expenditures (including costs for guest lecturers or other needs, especially for “live” classes).

5. Contact information for individuals who will serve as referees for you.

Still, if you can’t find specific program proposal guidelines and requirements that you need online, you must contact program directors at local colleges/continuing education programs by phone or e-mail, yourself. Explain that you are a writer who is interested in learning about procedures for proposing courses. Be forewarned that institutions and programs operate on different schedules; some may plan ahead just weeks at a time, while others may have an entire academic year already set previous winter.

Fine. What if, after all that, you're simply instructed to send a cover letter and a general course proposal? What then?

I trust all professional writers to handle cover letters. You should also take this opportunity to update your resume or c.v. and review your list of references in case you are, indeed, asked for that information as screening process continues, too. It’s also a good idea to review your clip file and consider which of your writing samples you might submit if requested to do so.

As for proposal itself, here are some additional elements that will render it immediately more professional and complete: