Cover of the e- book

How to create an e-book from scratch

We have published our first e-book as part of our barrage of free resources. But how did we go about writing it, and whom did we write it for? The answers await you in this blog.

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to create an e-book from scratch?

This step-by-step guide will show the exact process behind creating and publishing an e-book that lines perfectly with your audience.

These are eight steps on how to create an e-book from scratch:

  • Step 1: Who should you create an e-book for? - before starting the implementation, ask yourself important questions: for whom to create an e-book and why? Find answers to all questions by researching - create your customer avatar. 

  • Step 2: Choose a topic - choose the topic that best suits you; 

  • Step 3: Select a creation team - surround yourself with a creative team who will participate in the entire e-book creation process; 

  • Step 4: Assign tasks to team members - each team member should know their tasks, the deadlines for completing the tasks and actively participate in the entire creation process; 

  • Step 5: Conduct additional research - be ready for any additional research, invest time, and research in a targeted and detailed manner; 

  • Step 6: Write the content - shape the collected information into a meaningful reading; 

  • Step 7: Review and proofread your content - double check your content. If it is about a technical topic - allow an expert to do a technical overview, make sure that your content is readable and easy to understand;

  • Step 8: Design your e-book - be creative! If you are a company owner, align your e-book with your company's brand.

Today's technology advances at the speed of light, the future brings a lot of new things, and trends change and adjust by listening to the breathing of the world.

We think that learning should be available to everyone, and knowledge should also be free. So, due to the quality invested time and resources in the complete process of creating an e-book, we can do the same for any client.

Let us show you how to adapt to an ever-changing world without much effort and hours of research.

The beginning

Creating an e-book should come to you naturally and as a result of a logical sequence of events.

We spent estimated time with our team gathering information, collecting data, and comparing markets and processes that work behind them. Our goal was to write an e-book about non-fungible tokens, also known as NFTs.

We have studied the world of NFTs in detail. So, how did the writing process of our "The ABC of NFTs go?" 

We started by collaborating with multiple professional teams possessing valuable insights into the field, discussing and brainstorming with them about blockchain, and NFTs was our first point of departure in creating the "The ABC of NFTs" e-book.

With this e-book, we aim to reach out to everyone interested in being informed about the basics of NFTs or learning something new about them. NFTs today represent a billion-dollar phenomenon worldwide. They have become part of the mainstream, with celebrities and companies already involved in auctioning and minting their collections. You can also read more about this topic in our blog, "How to create and sell NFTs", in which the process of creation of NFTs is explained step by step.

NFTs represent a "game" in which even an ordinary individual has a chance of becoming rich. Since we do everything with a goal in our minds, our only goal here is to share our acquired knowledge and experience with everyone interested.

First of all, for any business endeavor, ambitious or more amateur, you need a few essential “items”: 

  • Idea - without an idea, there is no realization; 

  • All-mighty team - surround yourself with a group of people who are ready and willing to: develop your idea with constructive advice and criticism (but first - come to terms with the fact that there will always be criticism, but learn to accept it and extract what you need from it  and what suits you), complete the idea and finally realize it;

  • Detailed research - if you are not entirely familiar with the topic you will be dealing with, do quality research, take the time you need, delve into detail and study the recommendations, how others do it, research how the market breathes, determine the target audience to which you are doing something for and to whom you are addressing to, and then make a decision about what you get with the product and what your audience gets;

  • Implementation - get to work: organize your team, assign a specific task to each team member, set deadlines for implementation - let each team member complete their tasks within the allotted time and finally - achieve your goal and turn your ideas into a physical or digital product. 

In the next few steps, we will describe how we created our e-book. We hope that our advice will help you get an idea for your e-book and that we can help you with its implementation and realization of writing it. 

So grab a coffee, a few salty or sweet snacks, and get comfortable.

1. Who should you create an e-book for and why?

Whom?

After we organized our ideas, the first question we asked ourselves was - for whom to write an e-book? In order to answer that critical question and many other questions arising from it, we conducted research.

Detailed research crystallized the answer for us, so we wrote the e-book for all beginners and enthusiasts in this domain, and generally, all people interested in NFTs who want to learn more and acquire the necessary skills using our resources and sources of information.

We conducted the research in such a way that we first investigated the target audience - their age, level of education on the topic, and their most frequent questions about the topic that would interest people from that niche. We also wanted to answer any questions they didn't know the answer to or didn't know if the information was correct. 

Such questions can be found on various forums like Reddit, Quora, Discord, etc., and then you can try to find or create a similar profile of the targeted person you are addressing in your e-book.

When all of the mentioned is done, you will end up creating your customer avatar and get a specific "person" to whom you are addressing with your e-book.

Why?

At the same time, our goal was to answer all the unanswered questions about NFTs so that every beginner and enthusiast would know how to get started, how this technology generally works, which are the most famous NFT markets, etc.

Another thing happened along the way - we learned how to write an e-book and decided to share it with everyone who has knowledge and information, and maybe they are not sure in what form to spread it further. The general idea is this: create the e-book and share it for free. 

Practical tips always come in handy!

2. Choose a topic

Some time ago, our team of certified Bitcoin and Ethereum professionals performed extensive research and discovery for the client, exploring the NFT market.

In the research process itself, we focused on crucial points: 

  • Organization - every team member knew what to do and what their responsibilities were;

  • Allocation of time and prioritization of tasks - with the high-quality organization from the very beginning, we knew how much time we needed to complete the research and which tasks were prioritized to be completed along the way.

After detailed research and study of the NFT topic, which at first glance may not seem so complex but fun, we realized how much we actually learned about the NFT market. That means that we now know how things work in the background, how to get to know the market better, how to create your own NFT, etc. - we gathered all that information and shaped the results. 

Ultimately, the whole research resulted in a win-win situation: the client was completely satisfied with our organizational process and performance, resulting in us getting that much knowledge to finally be proud to admit we became specialists in the field of NFT.

We wanted to share that knowledge with the public, help others learn more about the topic of NFTs, and provide inspiration for new business ideas that we can help come to fruition.

3. Select a creation team

The next step was to choose a team.

We gathered team members from all departments who will participate in the creation of the e-book.

They are experienced in their fields, and our goal was to provide a great source of helpful knowledge. With this e-book, we strived to show our understanding of NFTs to a broader audience in a professional and easy-to-understand way. 

On the other hand, since we are writing about advanced technology, the technical part was also covered and explained. Our previous experience made it easy to determine what we would write about.

Nothing is left to chance, and we have carefully dedicated every part of the e-book to each team member. They have all contributed significantly to the ease of reading and acquainting you as a reader with this exciting topic.

After the team was selected, we all got together, discussed, and ultimately chose the best subtopics. 

Our main goal is to present what these technologies offer and thus provide all the advantages that you as a reader can benefit from if you need these services in the near future. 

Since it was challenging to eliminate any of the ideas presented, we finally agreed that there is no need to limit ourselves — we will continue to publish e-books covering all the topics that we have researched and that our development team will realize.

In that way, we decided to create a series of e-books that will help you to create a broader picture of the topics we found interesting and all the possibilities they provide.

4. Assign tasks to team members

Next stop: assigning tasks to each team member.

As you may or may not know, there is a distinction between delegating work and simply placing tasks on individuals. Proper delegation requires that the project leader allocates accountability for outcomes and the readiness to do what is necessary to achieve the desired results. 

The team should be able to visualize how to approach the task, which methods to employ, and how to achieve the intended outcome. They will be more motivated to work if the directions are clear.

With that in mind, our project leader divided the tasks of each team member according to their expertise.

For our first e-book, team members with extensive knowledge of NFTs due to previous research on the subject were in charge of the central content creation and writing, additional research on particular topics, organizing and sorting the collected materials, and processing the collected information. 

Clear expectations were set, tasks were prioritized, and deadlines were assigned to create a noteworthy e-book that would bring the latter topic closer to a broader audience.

5. Conduct additional research

Regardless of the previously collected info and, in our case, a lot of data on NFTs, creating an e-book required re-engaging in additional research and data collection to expand further and enrich our understanding and update information because the world of NFTs is known to fluctuate. 

First, we needed to do a preliminary search to determine whether there is enough information for our needs and to set the context of our research. Then we evaluated our sources because our mission was to provide credible, truthful, and reliable information. This step is crucial because although the Internet provides an abundance of information, each source needs to be checked in terms of trustworthiness so as not to compromise the whole project because data changes very quickly, some NFT marketplaces stop working or are rebranded, etc. 

By sorting and validating all of the available information, we wanted to help you as a reader to get all the necessary information in one place and not have to search for or check the credibility of the mentioned information.

Next, we examined the materials found and noted the information that will be useful in our e-book. It was very important to make sure to document all the sources because that information (the author, title, publisher, URLs, etc.) was needed later on to compile a list of references.

After we examined all the collected data, the next step was creating a rough draft which helped us organize our ideas and determine the form our final paper would take.

6. Write the content

Now that we have sketched our rough draft, it was time to start writing our e-book. Like many other writing formats, our e-book includes four main elements: a title, an introduction, the body, and a conclusion. 

But before we start explaining the “main” structure part, let us explain how we came up with a strong title. What does a strong title actually mean? We wanted it to be professional and creative, but most importantly, it had to be catchy. For example, “The ABC of NFTs” is meant to pique the interest of not only NFT enthusiasts or people who have been in the NFT business for a long time but also beginners. 

On the other hand, since we are writing about advanced technology, the technical part was also covered and explained. Our previous experience made it easy to determine what we would write about.

The introduction followed, which had and still has the goal of grabbing your attention. We set the tone of voice for the article by sharing a summary of what we planned to discuss in the body. 

We also added a table of contents, glossary, and references to make it easier for you to find your way through the text and get additional clarification for terms you may be unfamiliar with and references for further research.

Next, the body of the e-book is filled with various subtopics we outlined and added the bullet points beneath each subheader. Again, we tried to be clear and offer value by sharing our knowledge, research, and insights.

At the very end, a concluding section is added where we wrapped up our thoughts and main points since we wanted to end on an exciting note. After the extensive writing process, we passed the torch to our other departments so they could proceed further with their tasks and create a mighty e-book from which electric sparks fly.

7. Review and proofread your content

Finally, the time has come to check and edit the created content. The content needed to be reviewed for its flow, readability, and ease of understanding to provide you with a good reading experience. 

Also, providing accurate information is paramount to earning your (as a reader) trust and positioning our company as an authority on the topic. This means that the content went through a rigorous technical review, as well as the one in terms of style and grammar. 

The focus was on consistency, maintaining a professional yet lively tone, factual accuracy, and readability. Flawless grammar was imperative. After moving content from one section to another and deciding on the content relevance of each section, we transformed it - when talking about the structure of chapters and paragraphs. 

After the content was thoroughly checked, the design team took over the task of visually shaping the content into a unique identity of an e-book.

8. Design your e-book

Some of the elements that were on the design team’s mind were the typography, format, text alignment, cover of an e-book, and colors.

While content is important, how that content is presented holds a powerful sway because even the most interesting text might not find its way to the right audience — bad design renders even a masterpiece illegible. 

The reader needs to be able to catch the important information by simply scanning through the pages. This is why we needed bigger titles and subtitles, a little brand color here and there, chapter covers, quick links in the table of contents, footnotes navigation, etc.

The most challenging element was the cover page design. After a few plain and simple variations, our team came up with the idea of an animated book cover which we all agreed was the best fit.

The final version of the design reflects Barrage's brand, reflects our message, and leaves a visual impression.

Final cut

Once we got the final version of the e-book “in our hands'', that is, on our screens, it was just a matter of deciding how we would distribute it directly to you. Our goal was to make this and all subsequent e-books free - knowledge is free and always will be - is our mantra.

But regardless of your level of experience of the topics mentioned above, you will gain a deeper understanding of NFTs. You may follow us in the future for the next volume, which can pique your interest in the field of NFTs on a more advanced level and beyond professionally.

Our development team did their magic and now “The ABC of NFTs,” our first e-book in a series of many, is live on our website, so you can download it if you haven’t already.

We are to deliver even more quality content, not just about NFTs but also HPC (High-Performance Computing) and many other burning topics - which we will gradually reveal to you.

Conclusion

The process of creating an e-book is very dynamic, challenging at times, but very fun. 

When you start building your e-book, it is vital to know what topic you want to write about, research it in detail, gather the right team of people with whom you share the same passion, and get to work. Remember, anything is possible!

The results are unquestionable when you invest a certain amount of time in your project. We speak from our own experience, and we share these few essential tips and all the knowledge we've acquired for you. 

If you encounter obstacles or are not sure how to complete the entire process of creating an e-book, our team is ready to listen to your wishes, develop an idea and turn it into action. 

Don't overthink. Come to us.

Your take on the subject

They say knowledge has power only if you pass it on - we hope our blog post and our e-book gave you valuable insight.

If you want to share your opinion or learn more about e-books and maybe how to write them, feel free to contact us. We'd love to hear what you have to say!