How to create an eBook for free

We are now in the era of the digital world where things happens with the click of a button. Gone are the days when had to write letters and then post them through mail. Nowadays we can chat for free, send messages for free, video chat for on Skype and engage on social networking sites for free. Similarly, people are no longer interested in buying hard copies of books as it’s difficult to carry around specially the bulky ones. People want something that is digitised where they can turn on and off with the click of a button. Kindle eBooks and eBooks online, reading through iBooks, iPads, IPhone has become more of common thing. It’s easier as people do not have to carry it around and can read on their computer screen while still at work. Perhaps it is early to say that paper books will vanish but it is sufficient to say that reading trends are changing.


If you are one of those who wants to write a book but do not want to look for a publisher or spend thousands to get it self-published, then eBooks is the best way to go. Nowadays it’s very easy to create an eBook and easy to either give it away or and even sell and make money from it.

So how do you create an eBook for free? First things first, you need to write an eBook. The hardest part is perhaps writing it. After it has been written, it can then be published in a variety of formats. It’s about getting the word out there that you have compiled something for people to read. So after having written an eBook, you will need to convert your eBook so that people can download them and read either by printing them from their computers or downloading them on electronic reading devices. People might want to read on Amazon Kindles, or a as PDF file on their computer, or as ePub file (short for electronic publication) or through apps on smart phones. Alternative option is to create a free website and then publish them as an HTML, meaning that you can easily publish them on a website or create your own website so that people do not need to download but can easily read by visiting the website.

So the options are as follows for your eBook:

Convert your eBook into a PDF file and then upload them on file sharing sites. The word format can be converted using several free PDF converters. There are some sites that will ask you to upload your file and then convert them to the required format and then send them the file to your email account. You will need to check every single detail on the converted format. The images, punctuation marks are prone to changes when being converted from world to PDF.

There are many open source tools to assist you to create your eBook and eBook editors. Some of them include; Sigil which is an wysiwyg eBook editor that allows one to create ePub files. Alternatively you can write them in word and then convert it into ePub and other formats using Calibre.

Then you will need to upload them on document sharing sites. There are many of them. Google also provides one called Google Docs. Other ones include Scribd, DocStoc, Slide Share, Slide Six, 4shared, We Papers, AuthorStream, eDocr, issuu, Calemeo, Yudu, DocShare, eSnips, SlideBoom, Empessr, MyPlick and many more. Most if not all of them are free to use. Once you have created an account with them, you can upload your converted PDF files and then share them with others. Many of them have inbuilt electronic readers while many of them allow you to charge money for them.

Another great option is to create and publish them online. Once your eBook as been written, it can easily be published online by converting them into web pages. There are many free website platforms. One such platform is Google’s Blogger. You can sign in using Google account and create a blog. Here you can publish them for free, chapter by chapter. You can allow people to read or make it private. It’s a great way to publish and show case your writing talents on the web. You can also put some advertisements such as GoogleAdsense or join affiliate to make money from your eBook online.  

If you are hoping to sell your eBook then there are many places you can easily sell. Lulu is a book place where you can join for free and create an eBook selling system. You will also need a good cover to make the book attractive. Although the saying that “you cannot judge the book by its covers”, but you can at least attract buyers to the book and convince them in buying it. Some of the online publicators have their own eBook cover making system but it’s not convincingly good. If you are serious, you can make it a cover on Photoshop or you can make one on numerous free eBook cover makers.

There are so many places where your precious eBooks can be sold over and over again without the hassle of printing. The next question to ask is “where to sell your eBooks”? Some of the best places include other than the one mentioned earlier are your free website with integrated paypal button, PayLoadz, eBay, eBookBay, Amzon, iTunes Store and many more.

So there you have it. Write an eBook or get someone else to write it for you, and then get the word out to the world that you have written a document. The best thing is to create a buzz about it on social networking sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, writer’s forums and many other places.   

If you want to learn how to create an eBook and make money from then this eBook by Tiffany Dow called “Building an eBook Empire” tells you how to create and make money online. She is an affiliate marketer and lots of things can be learnt from her. The book has been classed as the top online making money guides. I bought the book and benefited tremendously, not only I was able to understand how to create an eBook but also how to set up websites and how to market them, from creating eBook covers, what programmes to join and ultimately make money from it.