Book Extract:
"I stumbled upon travel by accident... It had been quite some time since I had had a road trip. I went on one to the highlands of Kigezi. And it changed my life.
It was that rush of energy that got me hooked to the idea of adventure travel and escape the depressive rut I was accustomed to.
Adventure became a remedy to my depression, I found myself connecting with the slap-up alfresco.
I felt happier surrounded by the wide open spaces - whether in the forests, sailing on the waters or climbing hills - and seeing new places through exciting activities...
...
I aim to fundamentally inspire you to explore bold new ways to travel..."
From forest hiking to safaris on Savannah grasslands, to mountain climbing; to the best places to lodge, chimpanzee trekking and even what to wear while you are at it!
This is a priceless conduct, not just to adventure safari, but to depression free eudaimonia; titled "The TRAVELING HUNTER'S Tales"
...
After nearly 2 weeks of touring Uganda, I published "The TRAVELING HUNTER'S tales" an eBook which is a compendium of my junketeering.
Not that its proceeds would lead me to that fine house in Bugolobi estates. I published the eBook, not for glamorization but as an inspiration for all the depressed souls out there, and an enticement to the idea that adventure travel could be the answer they're hunting down!
And hey, although not super lucrative, the eBook sales would go on to finance more of my Africa (Afro) travels.
This is how I went about writing, designing, publishing and promoting, "The TRAVELING HUNTER'S Tales"
This obviously isn't a consummate blueprint, but I hope you find it inspirational.
√ Writing it:
Firstly, you've got to write the damn thing. It took me 40 days to start and finish writing this eBook.
Secondly, on this topic I had many an experience to share. If the average nonfiction books runs between 50,000 - 70,000 words, an eBook is ordinarily shorter of about 20,000 words which usually gives you 80 - 100 pages of content.
So I aimed at 18,000 words.
I indited the outline of the book in a Document, dumping all the travel tales, and then structuring the stories so the book followed a coherent flow.
Note: in terms of content, you don't have the same constraints you have with paper back!
I included some extras like an audio version of the books and some nature videos. I added a thank you page with all of the people who inspired me, or contributed in anyway to the creation of the book.
√ Packaging it:
I needed to make it look nice - I couldn't launch something ugly now, could I!
There are many ways to go about this; personally, I used canva but you could opt for Photoshop to design the cover.
Designing an eBook cover can be staggeringly hard sometimes, choosing something that's simple and eye-catching. So sourcing feedback from trusted comrades during the development phase is super helpful.
After several changes, I was happy with the cover, and I proceeded onto designing the inside of the book.
Page by page design is required for an eBook. I didn't have any of experience and hence decided to take a crack at it the way a true adventure would...
I utilized google Docs... Aye! Its actually superb what you can get done with such a simple tool.
I opted for a simple, common font, added a table of content and voila!
Or so I thought! Had I decided to just distribute the book as a PDF, I would have been through with design, but I wanted to offer it to kindle users.
After extensive research, I ended up using "Calibre." If you want to offer your eBook to people in other formats such as EPUB or MOBI, I recommend Calibre which is free and quite easy to use.
There I was, with different versions of my eBook: .PDF, .KPF (Kindle package format), .EPUB, and .MOBI
And onto pushing it live...
√ Publishing it:
Being new to this whole eBook thing, I aimed for the popular ones and there was one winner:
=> Gumroad:
Most people fervently support Amazon publishing, but here is why I opted for Gumroad;
Pros:
~ You own the customers!
Gumroad gives you access to the customers' email addresses so you can get in touch with them.
~ You can design the eBook as you want and sell whatever content you want; .ZIP, .mp3, e.t.c they accept all digital file types.
~ There is no review process: you can instantly publish your content.
~ Gumroad offers lower fees and you can price your content however you want, from $1 - $1000.
Con:
~ Quite uncommon in comparison to Amazon, some customers might feel more hesitant to feed in their credit card information.
I softly launched by posting the links on twitter and email my newsletter subscribers. The goal was to get a few sales and confirm that everything was functional.
And it did!
I couldn't have hoped for a better outcome.
Remember, whether you're working on a web app, or an eBook marketing is a daily effort where consistency pays off...
I hope this post gave you a good idea of how you could go about writing, and publishing your eBook if you so desired...
Image Source: Gumroad
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