Are you interested in offering EBooks for sale?  EBooks can be a wonderful way to get into an online business since you really do not have to carry any inventory.  I like the idea of a business that runs on autopilot leaving me very little to actually do to fill a particular order.

But this is only if you do it right and use the right tools.  No one wants to drive themselves crazy trying to figure this system out.  So we at the Village Navigator have put this article together to help you figure out the system and get started smoothly. Here is the basic outline of how to go from concept to finished product.  We will explore the practicals of making it happen as well.   

1. EBook topic idea
2. Writing of EBook into chapters via word document.
3. Setting up a simple one page website to sell the product
4. Writing a compelling sales copy for that product
5. Buying or creating EBook Cover Art for the site
6. Uploading the eBook to a distributor OR plugging it in to a shopping cart.
7. Creating an auto responder system
8. Getting a Paypal account

1.  EBook topic idea.  This is pretty much up to you.  Pick a topic that you know well and that you think has mass appeal.  If you want to get some good ideas go to clickbank.com and browse their market place.  Chances are good that you will get a good idea of what people write about and what they charge.
2. Writing of the book.  Here is where most people crash and burn the whole idea.  They state “I can’t write” or “I don’t know how to write” or “I have no idea where to start writing” Here is your solution if you fall into one of these categories:  who said you had to write it?  Hire someone to write your book for you.  There are tons of writers out there just waiting to find someone who needs their services.  Elance.com is a service that offers this very thing.  Post what job you are looking for and soon you will have tons of offers with prices to write your project.  If you are challenged to write content, this is a great way to go.  I would however highly recommend that you at least write out what you want the chapters to be about and any other information that you would like included.
3. Village Navigator can help you set up a mini website.  You also can do this fairly easily using FrontPage or Yahoo site builder which have basic html editors.
4. If you cannot write a compelling sales page (and many cannot since it’s a proven formula) then just hire it out.  For about a $100 you can have this project done for you.
5. Buying or creating EBook Cover Art.  If you are going through all the work of building a first class product, then you need a first class graphic image for your book.  Don’t chince here, this is probably the only graphic you will have on your site and you want it to look absolutely fantastic.  We can recommend a very good software product (about $100) or you can hire us to do it for you.
6. Next you want to figure out how to distribute the book to as many people as you can.  Clickbank rules this area for helping authors distribute their work.  Clickbank is kind of like a giant virtual warehouse that connects eBooks with affiliates (salesman) that want to sell your product.  On the Internet there are thousands of people that sell and promote other peoples products.  They are called affiliates.  Over the years they accumulate massive email lists that they market too.  When you agree to the affiliate program, these sellers do the work for you.  You in turn agree to pay them a commission.  Clickbank manages the sales and the commissions for you, which makes this run on autopilot.  If you were to try and promote the book yourself you would have an uphill battle and be a bit frustrated while waiting for the almighty Google to index your site.  There is a lot of competition, so you might as well make it easy on yourself.  If you elect to skip Clickbank and make your own shopping cart, you will have to find a cart that supports digital delivery and is able to manage the upload and download of the product.  This usually runs about $100 per month.
7. Next you will want to create an auto responder within your website that sends out emails to your buyers at set times.  An example of this would be a thank you email and a follow up email with a back end sale offer.
8. Lastly you will need a Paypal account or a bank account.  Most online vendors already have one.

Best of Luck!