How To Write an Ebook: Writing and Publishing Tips

Nearly a third of Americans have embraced the ebook—short for “electronic book”—as their go-to reading format. These book-length digital files are widely accessible on e-readers, tablets, and smartphones through ebook marketplaces like Amazon Kindle and Apple Books, or in PDF format directly from a website.

From vampire novels to chef memoirs to guides on Facebook advertising, the format lets writers and entrepreneurs turn their imagination and expertise into a digital product that generates passive income. Learn how to write an ebook, as well as popular topics.

Ebook ideas

Whether you’re a fiction writer, a business expert, or a personal trainer sharing your skills, there’s an ebook idea waiting for you. Here are some popular examples:

• Health and fitness guides. Diet plans, workout routines, or mindfulness guides tap directly into the growing personal development industry. Fitness coaches can offer their own ebook with “30-Day Meal Prep Plans” to accompany in-person training programs. Meditation teachers can reach ebook readers with guides to “5-Minute Morning Mindfulness Routines.”

• Parenting advice. Parenting bloggers and experts often compile their tips into parenting ebooks. Think sleep training guides for exhausted new parents, strategies for surviving toddler meltdowns, or confidence-building resources for anxious teens.

• Fiction writing. Independent authors can sell novels and short stories as ebooks. For instance, novelist Emily Kimelman uses Shopify to sell detective mysteries and romantic thrillers directly to her audience.

• Business guides. Many entrepreneurs publish how-to ebooks sharing their business expertise, such as building a real estate investing business or scaling a copywriting agency.

• Cookbooks. Food brands and cooking influencers can turn their recipes into digital cookbooks. How to Cake It, for example, is a baking brand that sells cookbook ebooks alongside its online baking courses.

How to write an ebook

1. Understand your ebook market
2. Research your topic
3. Create a detailed outline
4. Write the first draft
5. Edit and revise your manuscript
6. Design your ebook

Ebook writing is manageable when you break it down step by step. Here’s how to go from a blank page to a finished ebook:

1. Understand your ebook market

The right ebook topic lies where your expertise, interests, and market demand overlap. Do market research to validate your ebook idea, and check Amazon’s ebook chart or Kobo’s bestselling and popular ebooks list to see what genres and topics are currently in demand.

Whether you decide on a broad appeal genre or a niche market, determine your target audience: Are you writing a digital cookbook for busy parents? A marketing guide for spas and beauty businesses? A fantasy novel for teen readers? Look at competing content to determine what others have already written on the topic and how your ebook can offer something fresh or more in-depth. Use tools like AnswerThePublic to see what questions people commonly ask about your topic, and let that inform your content.

Get acquainted with your target readership’s online community to learn more about demand. If you write fiction, check out #BookTok to see what readers are raving about. If you’re in the self-development market, browse subreddits like r/NonZeroDay or r/GetMotivated to identify common struggles.

2. Research your topic

Once you have your idea, jot down a one-line value proposition for your ebook: What will readers learn or experience? Why should they care? This keeps your writing and research focused and tailored to your target audience.

Then, do your research. For nonfiction, research is essential for building credibility, whether you’re writing about personal finance or productivity. You’ll need up-to-date statistics, real-life examples, and insights from experts. Even if you’re writing fiction, research can help with world-building or factual details. Use books, blogs, newsletters, Reddit forums, or even interviews to gather information.

Organize your ebook content with tools like Notion to create databases for sources, quotes, and chapter outlines. Other popular options include Scrivener for its research folders and corkboard features, or simple solutions like a Microsoft Word document or the Google Docs suite.

3. Create a detailed outline

A clear outline is your roadmap to a well-structured ebook. Review your research notes and decide on your book’s main sections or chapters. For example, if you’re writing a book on interior design, your outline might look something like this:

• Introduction to design principles

• Living rooms that actually work

• Kitchen layouts and color choices

• Creating a restful bedroom

• Small bathroom, big impact

• Patios and outdoor living spaces

• Decorating on any budget

Under each chapter heading, list the sub-points or arguments you want to cover. For “Creating a restful bedroom,” these could be:

• Calming color palettes

• Bedroom lighting for relaxation

• Soothing textures and materials

• Blackout curtains and soundproofing tips

If you’re unsure how to structure your project, look at the table of contents of similar books for inspiration. What sequence of topics do they follow? An ebook doesn’t need to match the length of a print book, but it should still have a clear beginning, middle, and end. 

4. Write your first draft

Set aside regular time to write, then start with one section at a time. Don’t aim for perfection on the first draft—for now, just focus on getting the words down. You can refine the language and revise later. The key is to cover every point in your outline with enough detail or storytelling to bring it to life.

You can use a natural, conversational tone or a more formal style—stick with a writing style that’s authentic to you. To make your writing feel more relatable, imagine you’re speaking directly to a reader in your target audience. Keep paragraphs short for screens; concise text tends to be easier to read and digest on digital devices.

If you need extra motivation, consider joining a writing challenge like Jami Attenberg’s 1000 Words of Summer, where participants commit to writing 1,000 words daily for two weeks during the summer, or an in-person community writing group.

5. Edit and revise your manuscript

Think of the writing process as 50% drafting, 50% revising, and highly iterative. Once you have a complete draft, take a short break, then read through your ebook from start to finish with fresh eyes. Cut any fluff or repetition, make sure all factual claims are accurate, and fix grammar and spelling mistakes. Reading your text aloud can help catch awkward phrasing or run-on sentences. Look out for these elements:

• Clarity. Are your explanations or plot points clear?

• Flow. Does each section transition well to the next?

• Consistency. Is your tone and terminology consistent throughout?

Afterward, a second pair of eyes is invaluable. You can hire a professional editor or proofreader, or ask a trusted friend or colleague for honest feedback. Constructive input can reveal unclear sections or areas that need improvement.

Don’t hesitate to make big changes—it’s far better to restructure or rewrite now than after publication.

6. Design your ebook

Ebooks are sold on platforms like the Kindle Store, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble Nook, where your ebook cover thumbnail is the first thing shoppers see. A professional design can mean the difference between a scroll past and a click.

You can hire a freelance cover designer through platforms like Fiverr or Upwork, or use DIY design tools like Canva, which offers ready-made templates for creating ebooks. Aim for clear, readable typography—even at thumbnail size—and visuals that reflect your topic or genre.

Consider your ebook’s interior layout as well. For text-heavy books, focus on clean formatting for headings, paragraphs, and any images or charts. For more visual formats—like cookbooks or workbooks with exercises—you can use layout software like Vellum or Adobe InDesign to ensure a polished, intentional design.

How to publish your ebook

The next step is getting your ebook online and out into the world. Ebook publishing involves choosing the right ebook format, deciding which publishing platform to use, and possibly using an aggregator service to reach multiple platforms. Here are three key things to consider:

What ebook format should I use? 

You need to generate the actual ebook files you’ll distribute or sell. There are a few common ebook formats, each with pros and cons. The digital format you use determines how readers can access your book, and you can provide more than one version:

• EPUB. The EPUB format is an industry standard and one of the most popular ebook formats. It’s accepted by virtually all major platforms except Kindle. EPUB files are reflowable, meaning the text adapts to different screen sizes and users can adjust font size or style easily, making for a consistent reading experience on different devices. Most non-Amazon stores (Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo Writing Life) require or prefer EPUB. 

• MOBI/AZW for Kindle. Mobipocket ebook (MOBI) is an older Kindle format, while AZW3 (or simply AZW) is Amazon’s newer proprietary format built on MOBI. If you plan to sell on Amazon’s Kindle Store, you need your ebook in this format. You can upload an EPUB to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which will convert it to the Kindle format for you.

• PDF. The Portable Document Format (PDF) isn’t exclusive to ebooks—it’s used for all kinds of documents—but is commonly used for ebooks sold directly from an author’s website or delivered via email. PDFs are page-fixed, preserving the layout exactly as designed, and may be a good choice for graphic-heavy ebooks, workbooks, or any case where you want full layout control. The downside is that on small e-readers or phone screens, PDF pages can appear tiny or require constant zooming.

How to sell an ebook 

You have two main routes to sell your ebook online, and you can choose to do both: sell through established ebook marketplaces and/or sell directly to readers through your own website:

• Selling on major platforms. Major ebook marketplaces like Amazon Kindle Store, Apple Books, Google Play Books, and Barnes & Noble allow you to reach huge built-in audiences. You simply upload your ebook to these platforms, and they handle the storefront, payment processing, and delivery. In exchange, these retailers typically take 30% to 35% of each sale (Amazon may take 65% outside the $2.99 to $9.99 price range), leaving you with royalties of 65% to 70%.

• Selling on your own website. Selling through your own website, built on a platform like Shopify, gives you full control over pricing, branding, and customer experience. You can use ecommerce plug-ins for digital products to process payments and automatically deliver the PDF/EPUB file to buyers, all while keeping a larger share of the profit, since there are no marketplace fees. The trade-off is that you need to drive traffic to your site through marketing efforts.

• Integrating both approaches. Some authors use both methods—listing on big marketplaces while also offering the ebook directly through their own site. For example, you might sell on Amazon to access its millions of customers and sell on your Shopify store to create a deeper relationship with readers (and earn higher margins per sale).

What is an ebook publishing aggregator? 

An ebook publishing aggregator is a service that lets you upload your manuscript once and distributes it to multiple online retailers for you. Instead of creating separate accounts and manually publishing your ebook on Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo Writing Life, Barnes & Noble, and other stores one by one, an aggregator can deliver your book to all those platforms from a single dashboard. Popular ebook aggregators include:

• StreetLib

• Draft2Digital

• PublishDrive 

• BookBaby