208: The Ebook Challenge Show

5 min readMar 9, 2018

Ep131 is about my new project, Write The Life

Show Notes for Ep131:
The Ebook Show

Episode Summary:

Today’s episode 131 is a behind the scenes episode as I wanted to introduce you to my self-imposed writing project, Write the Life.

Today’s episode begins with a brief overview of ebooks and then I jump right into my eBook challenge which you can find in its early stages at Write the Life.com

What is Write The Life?
Why did I start the project?
What is my vision and long-term goals for me and others like you?

What is an eBook?

An eBook is short for electronic book. It is a book made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on computers or other electronic devices such as your iPhone or iPad. The electronic version of a printed book.

Benefits of eBooks?

People like eBooks because they are generally inexpensive, there are endless titles to choose from and they are convenient to read on smartphones, tablets or dedicated eBook devices such as the most popular Amazon Kindle. EBooks allow you to highlight text and bookmark pages and add notes to a book, search text and they take up no room in your luggage.

How do you get eBooks?

You can buy from Amazon, Apple iBooks, Google eBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo and many more, but Amazon and the Kindle Store dominate the market.

Amazon has made it very accessible for self-publishers and creators self-publish and sell books. Amazon is where I will put my focus, but like podcasts, my eBooks will be distributed to other smaller eBook sellers.

Price of Ebooks?

EBooks are generally under $10 and most common price points in the Kindle store tend to be around $2–3.99 with lots of ebooks for free or $.99.

Purchasing:

If you have an eBook reader such as the Kindle or Nook you can purchase them on the device from their respective stores.

If you are using your iPhone or iPad you have to purchase eBooks first on Amazon and then use the free Kindle app to access them, but the syncing process is easy. I read all of my eBooks primarily on my iPad Pro with the Kindle App.

What is WritetheLife.com

It is a new blog I built to challenge myself to start blogging and publish an eBook on Amazon by April 15th, 2018.

Parkinson’s Law which is the concept that whatever time you give yourself, it will take that long even if it seems like a stretch.

I launched this podcast in 30 days without knowing how to launch a podcast or to record audio. I had nothing to start, but made it happen.

The challenge:
To self-publish an eBook and document the process on the blog along with the steps and all of the tools I use.

There will also be a 5–10 episode podcast episode and a class.

Why did I start the project?

It’s pretty simple really.

My vision for my entire business of Mike Murphy LLC is to create educational and motivational content and teach creatives and creators like you tech and all the stuff I learn while building an online business. This gives me the framework to put it all together.

Content today consists of audio (podcasting), video (tutorials & classes) and words (articles and books). These are all skills that I have been working on really hard for many years now and they are the skills of the future and I want to create products that will make it really easy for people to get up and running by making the tech and process step by step and simple.

EBooks are the perfect medium for my style of writing and teaching and tech how to books and online business eBooks are quite popular still.

How Long are eBooks?

I currently have 131 podcast episodes.
Each podcast script is approximately 3,000 words.
My eBooks will be about 10,000 words.
That means I have about 40 eBooks potentially.

Writing is one of my strengths and I want to do more things I am good at.
I know I can write and I have always had a fascination with words and the literary world.
I did graduate with an English degree after all.
I also secretively has always wanted to make it as a blogger, but have not pursued it seriously since my first blog and I think that is a mistake.
This is a kick in the pants scheme to hold my feet to the fire and force myself and create some products that have been weighing heavy on my shoulders but busy work and life always seem to get in my way.
It’s also a very realistic and practical goal as I have a lot of content to pull from and I am more than capable of writing 10–15,000 words at a time. I’m looking for forward momentum.

Aside:
The companion podcast and course, I plan on keeping them pretty simple, but they make sense for what I am trying to accomplish so I am going to give it my all, but publishing the eBook and getting some good material on the blog is priority number one and if all goes well, there will be another right behind it and a pretty helpful site in writethelife.com.

What is my vision and long-term goals for me and others like you?

My vision and goal for this project is exactly what I have always wanted. To build a platform of tutorials and educational content on my own website and blog that teaches people and generates passive income through products and affiliate links, etc.

EBooks are great marketing products
Small brands and businesses can use eBooks much like having a business card, but the process can be technically challenging for many and I hope to make it really easy from how to set up a blog or podcast or social media channels and of course how to self-publish ebooks or traditional books.

Conclusion:

That is my Write the Life eBook challenge. I have set the goal that eBook #1 will in the Kindle store by April 15th, 2018 and I am going to start populating the blog by sharing the steps and everything I am doing. What tools am I using to write and manage the project and if there is anyone out there looking to join the challenge with me, I would love it.

Everything today will be in the show notes at mikemurphy.co/ep131 and if you go to mikemurphy.co/wtl as in write the life you will see a mailing list sign up
form.

Follow Write the Life Blog Project:
https://mikemurphy.co/wtl

Links Mentioned (Past Shows):
EP72: The Self Publish Show (Pt. 1)
EP73: The Self Publish Show (Pt. 2)
EP74: The Self Publish Show (Pt. 3)

Can I Help You?

I create content and help people figure things out.

I make podcasts and videos that teach people how to make better content.

Check out my YouTube Channel

My name is Mike Murphy, I’m a one man band and podcaster.
Learn. Create. Move Forward.
@mikeunplugged on Twitter or Instagram