Seven Resources That Aid e-book Writing

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We are now in the digital age. Though physical books will be relevant for a very long time, e-books, which have been around, especially in Nigeria, for more than a decade, are getting recognized daily in several institutions. Some persons prefer e-books to physical books for many reasons.


To the reader, e-books don't suffer wear and tear. They are mobile and can be accessed anytime. 


To the writer, unlike physical books, e-books can be easily sent for editing, publishing, distribution, and re-publishing (in the case of future editions of the book).


Writing e-books requires some resources that make the work efficient.


Most e-books are cheap, when compared to the hard copy alternative, so the author must find ways to reduce the total cost of production.


In no particular order, e-book writers should understand how to use the following resources because they make writing cost-effective and consistent.


1. Knowledge of conversion from Microsoft Word to PDF, JPEG, PNG, and other e-book formats.


2. Canva: The free version is enough for those who can maneuver their way through the site. The benefits of the paid version, however, cannot be overemphasized. Canva helps everyone to use pre-designed graphics that can be customized to suit one's content. Canva can also be used as a writing template instead of Microsoft Word. 

A simple logo designed with Canva.


3. Grammarly: While the writer perfects the practice of writing without errors, it's advised that the service of an editor is sought to identify grammatical gaffes before publishing any book. Grammarly is an online tool that can do the editing job pretty well. It has free and premium versions. From experience, grammarly is not always correct because it doesn't invariably understand the context in which one writes. So, you will still use your discretion to accept or ignore grammarly's suggestions.


4. Remove.bg/upload: There are some pictures or graphics you want to use for your content, but have undesired background colour or text. Remove.bg/upload helps you to remove unwanted background so that you can paste the desired picture only on your page.


5. Mockups: After writing your e-book, and have created your cover pages, mockups are catchy designs you can use to advertise your book via several media.  Mockups could be shirts, books, mugs, or flyers. There are several mockup websites. A common one is smartmockups.com. 


6. Cleanup.pictures: In a situation where you have more than one picture on a flyer you have downloaded, and you don't want all the pictures for your content, this website helps you to clean any unwanted picture and other elements. Just visit the site, upload the flyer you want to edit, and use the brush to clean out unwanted picture. Cleanup.pictures works like cropping of pictures actually. Experience shows that some elements cannot be easily cropped out. This website cleans those elements if the user is patient.


7. Plotagon: Plotagon is very useful in the creation of animation characters and videos. Characters created with Plotagon can be pasted into the e-book, especially in children's storybooks. The App has an additional benefit in that, you can create several emotions (over 30 of them) for your character.


There are many more resources. Learning continues...



Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 5, 2023 at 4:02 PM

    Thanks for sharing Pendoctor… I actually prefer e-books because it’s quite convenient, makes it easier for me to read over and over anytime, anywhere…

    ReplyDelete

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