Making PDF books

PDF books are exactly the same as ebooks, in that they exist only as files for your PC rather than having a physical form like a regular book.

The term stands for Portable Document Format and is a file format created by Adobe to improve document exchange and distribution.

Creating your own electronic books is a popular way of a) making money b) increasing your reach on the web c) building your credibility on the internet.

It only takes time and a small amount of money - if any - to set yourself up, and it means you have your own product to sell rather than being reliant on affiliate schemes for your online income.

Making PDF books is quite a detailed subject as I'm sure you can imagine, so this is a whistlestop tour of the basic principles just to get you on your way.

Creating PDF books

You have two main options here:

1) Recommended: Use the free software provided by Openoffice.org which operates just like Microsoft Word and is compatible with Microsoft products.

Once your document is created , it's simple to 'Export as PDF' and this creates the file that you need for your ebook.

2) Use Microsoft Word to create your book, then convert your DOC file to a PDF.

You can do this using the free service offered by Adobe which comes with limits (currently 5 documents, 5 MB) before you have to buy.

Just do a Google search for 'Adobe PDF' as the versions and URLs tend to change.

3) Use Google Docs to create your ebook then use the 'Download file as PDF' option.

Making covers for your PDF books

This is the part where you'll probably have to pay, especially if you don't want an ebook cover that looks cheap and tacky.

You can either pay somebody to do it for you - and it won't cost a fortune - or you can do what I did and invest in a bit of kit that enables you to do it for yourself, as you can see in my example on the left.

A popular and very effective source of ebook covers is KillerCovers.com which gives you all the tools that you could ever need to create all the permutations - covers for books, CDs, DVDs, software boxes and so on ... and there are some free book covers in there too.

I think I'd recommend buying some kit to do this as it only takes a couple of products before you're saving money on paying somebody else to do it and they look far more professional.

Selling PDF books

1) Recommended: Use Clickbank which must be the best-known and most widely used method of selling ebooks.

You have to pay a one-time fee to sell your own products (currently $49.95) but the set-up is really good.

You can offer other people commissions to sell your products, so you end up with a viral way of getting your work on more websites.

You can set the rate of commission your affiliates receive and Clickbank also handles all of the payment process, allowing you to take Paypal and credit cards.

They also build in fraud protection, secure payments and a ready-made global audience.

The perfect place to sell your products is on Clickbank. Not selling on Clickbank yet? Get started here!

I recommend this free e-book if you want to get started quickly on Clickbank.
In addition, it gives you a simple technique to overcome a problem which stops many Clickbank affiliates getting their first pay check.

Click here to download your free copy of Clickbank for Newbies

2) Lulu is also a self-publishing website that you should be aware of and although in my view, it doesn't quite match match the power of Clickbank, it's an impressive tool and gives writers lots of support and guidance.

The advantage of Lulu is that it will allow you to create your own book cover and even provide 'stock photos' to help you to do this, so if you're just testing the waters, it saves you having to invest in any software first.

You get to keep 80% of your sale price, but unlike Clickbank, Lulu doesn't offer an affiliate arrangement to allow other people to sell your book, so you miss out on a bit of viral marketing.

Lulu will give you an ISBN number to enable you to sell your book through Amazon and other outlets, you get lots of free marketing resources and a free storefront and there are plenty of paid-for added extras like promotional cards, pre-paid Google ads campaigns and professional formatting of text.

I think the biggest difference between the two sites is a) the affiliate options b) Lulu feels that it's more geared to 'proper' authors who may end up in print rather than internet marketers who just want web product to sell.

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