Writing your first ebook may seem like a daunting task. But like many projects, it won’t seem so bad when it’s broken down into manageable chunks. Not all projects are successful, so don’t be too disappointed if your first ebook isn’t a best seller. Whatever the outcome of your first ebook, you can at least say ‘You did it’.
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Like many things in life, what often seems impossible can be attained with the right attitude and the right equipment. It could be a marathon run, climbing a mountain or finding parking space at the supermarket.
If you want to play golf, you will need clubs, balls and some practice. There’s no guarantee you will become another Tiger Woods but you will become a golfer.
If you want to write an ebook, you will need a computer, software and some directions. Assuming you have a computer and software or access to them, here are some directions.
Establish Your Reasons
Your reasons for wanting to write an ebook will have a major impact on your success. It may be for financial gain, promoting a business, advancing your career, education, self satisfaction or something entirely different. Whatever your reasons, write them down. It will help to motivate you if the going gets tough.
Choose Your Subject
There are countless subjects that you can write about. It’s wise to choose something you have an interest in or knowledge of. It is worthwhile spending time on this. The more you know about your subject, the easier it will be to write about.
Choose Your Title
After you’ve chosen your subject, you’ll need a title for the ebook. It’s worth writing down a few different ones before deciding on the one you’ll use. This will help to keep your focus and may give you some other ideas. The title should give a clear indication of the content in your book. A catchy title may help to sell it, but remember to balance this with clarity to keep it in context. I’ve written down two examples. Feel free to use them if you have a sense of humor.
A Clubbers Paradise - Golfing in Ibiza
20 Minutes Late – The Future of Trains
Choose Your Audience
The subject and style of your writing will determine your audience. Decide who your desired audience will be. Age, gender, culture, social background and education are factors you may want to consider. What you write should be targeted at your desired audience.
Write Your Thesis Statement
Although it’s possible to write your ebook without a ‘thesis statement’, it is not recommended. If you are unfamiliar with this term, there are many sources available that will provide you with all the details you need. Unfortunately, there are some differences of opinion that may lead to confusion.
The ‘thesis statement’ deserves a separate article of its own but for now I have written a general definition of a thesis statement for ebooks. This may leave the door open for criticism but is a small price to pay if it removes some of the confusion. More importantly, it will give you a base on which to start. Only use it as a guideline. If you want a more specific definition, Google is a good place to start your search.
A thesis statement is a sentence or two written to clearly show the reason(s) for your ebook and what you expect to write about.
Although I have referred to this as a general definition, keep in mind that your actual statement should be as specific as possible.
Think of it as the foundation for your ebook. It should contain the following:
1) Your subject2) Your opinion on the subject3) A supporting reason for your opinion4) The significance of 1), 2) and 3)
Create Your Document
Now that you have the foundation, you can begin writing. A standard application like MS Word is a good choice. While you are writing your document you can revise your thesis statement at any time up until it is published. This provides a good degree of flexibility.
Choose the format and layout of your document, including chapters, headings and introductions. Dependent on your subject, you may wish to add photographs, anecdotes or testimonials that keep the reader’s attention.
Since an ebook is generally read from a screen, you may want to break up the text more than in a printed book. Experiment with a few different fonts and look at other ebooks for ideas you can use. Spell check and save your document regularly. MS Word has an auto recovery feature. This is useful if you don’t save the document on a regular basis and later experience a system crash. Always backup your document. As a precaution you should also keep a copy on another media such as CD.
Choose Your Ebook Format
This is a personal choice. You may decide to create an executable (.exe) file or a Portable Document Format (.pdf) file. By no means an exhaustive list, here are some points to consider before you choose.
EXE files are compiled using an ebook compilerEXE files may offer features that are not available with PDFsEXE files can only be read on a PCEXE files don’t require any other software to be readEXE files are easy to open, easily branded, and good viral marketing toolsEXE files may be susceptible to viruses although some compilers offer virus protectionMore information on the better compilers can be found athttp://www.ebook-site.com/ebook-compilers.html
PDF files can be created using Adobe AcrobatPDF files can be created with several other 3rd party applicationsPDF files are an industry standardPDF files can be read by both PC and MACPDF files require Adobe Reader to be readPDF files are highly unlikely to become infectedMore information on PDFs can be found on the Adobe website
Create Your Ebook
Create your ebook in your chosen format. Congratulations you are now an author.

When I started public speaking in about 1986, I was deathly afraid of public speaking--for one thing, working for the division run by Steve Jobs was hugely intimidating: How could you possibly compete with Steve? It's taken me twenty years to get comfortable at it. I hope that many of you are are called upon to give speeches--it's the closest thing to being a professional athlete that many of us will achieve. The purpose of this blog entry is to help you give great speeches.
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1. Have something interesting to say. This is 80% of the battle. If you have something interesting to say, then it's much easier to give a great speech. If you have nothing to say, you should not speak. End of discussion. It's better to decline the opportunity so that no one knows you don't have anything to say than it is to make the speech and prove it.
2. Cut the sales pitch. The purpose of most keynotes is to entertain and inform the audience. It is seldom to provide you with an opportunity to pitch your product, service, or company. For example, if you're invited to speak about the future of digital music, you shouldn't talk about the latest MP3 player that your company is selling.
3. Focus on entertaining. Many speech coaches will disagree with this, but the goal of a speech is to entertain the audience. If people are entertained, you can slip in a few nuggets of information. But if your speech is deathly dull, no amount of information will make it a great speech. If I had to pick between entertaining and informing an audience, I would pick entertaining--knowing that informing will probably happen too.
4. Understand the audience. If you can prove to your audience in the first five minutes that you understand who they are, you've got them for the rest of the speech. All you need to understand is the trends, competition, and key issues that the audience faces. This simply requires consultation with the host organization and a willingness to customize your introductory remarks. This ain't that hard.
5. Overdress. My father was a politician in Hawaii. He was a very good speaker. When I started speaking he gave me a piece of advice: Never dress beneath the level of the audience. That is, if they're wearing suits, then you should wear a suit. To underdress is to communicate the following message: “I'm smarter/richer/more powerful than you. I can insult you and not take you serious, and there's nothing you can do about it.” This is hardly the way to get an audience to like you.
6. Don't denigrate the competition. If you truly do cut the sales pitch, then this won't even come up. But just in case, never denigrate the competition because by doing so, you are taking undue advantage of the privilege of giving a speech. You're not doing the audience a favor. The audience is doing you a favor, so do not stoop so low as to use this opportunity to slander your competition.
7. Tell stories. The best way to relax when giving a speech is to tell stories. Any stories. Stories about your youth. Stories about your kids. Stories about your customers. Stories about things that you read about. When you tell a story, you lose yourself in the storytelling. You're not “making a speech” anymore. You're simply having a conversation. Good speakers are good storytellers; great speakers tell stories that support their message.
8. Pre-circulate with the audience. True or false: the audience wants your speech to go well. The answer is True. Audiences don't want to see you fail--for one thing, why would people want to waste their time listening to you fail? And here's the way to heighten your audience's concern for you: circulate with the audience before the speech. Meet people. Talk to them. Let them make contact with you. Especially the ones in the first few rows; then, when you're on the podium, you'll see these friendly faces. Your confidence will soar. You will relax. And you will be great.
9. Speak at the start of an event. If you have the choice, get in the beginning part of the agenda. The audience is fresher then. They're more apt to listen to you, laugh at your jokes, and follow along with your stories. On the third day of a three-day conference, the audience is tired, and all they're thinking about is going home. It's hard enough to give a great speech--why increase the challenge by having to lift the audience out of the doldrums?
10. Ask for a small room. If you have a choice, get the smallest room possible for your speech. If it's a large room, ask that it be set “classroom style”--ie, with tables and chairs--instead of theatre style. A packed room is a more emotional room. It is better to have 200 people in a 200 person room than 500 people in a 1,000 person room. You want people to remember, “It was standing room only.”
11. Practice and speak all the time. This is a “duhism,” but nonetheless relevant. My theory is that it takes giving a speech at least twenty times to get decent at it. You can give it nineteen times to your dog if you like, but it takes practice and repetition. There is no shortcut to Carnegie Hall. As Jascha Heifitz said, “If I don't practice one day, I know it. If I don't practice two days, my critics know it. If I don't practice three days, everyone knows it.” Read this article to learn what Steve Jobs does.

It's taken me twenty years to get to this point. I hope it takes you less. Part of the reason why it took me so long is that no one explained the art of giving a speech to me, and I was too dumb to do the research. And now, twenty years later, I love speaking. My goal, every time I get up to the podium, is to get a standing ovation. I don't succeed very often, but sometimes I do. More importantly, I hope that I'm standing and clapping in the audience of your speech soon.

By: blog.guykawasaki.com/

Here are some notes for someone who is about to give his first ever public presentation:
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1. Tell stories. Seriously. People could care less about the five ways some XML vocabulary will enable enterprise whatever. Rather, put a screenshot of your project up, tell people what you learned while doing it, then give them a slide that reiterates those ideas in easy to digest bullets. That'sdo not go from bullet-point slide to bullet-point slide trying to tell people what to think.
2. Show pictures. Got a good metaphor? Use it. "The Web is like a school of fish." But go to images.google.com and type in "sardines" or "school of fish" or whatever. Make it a slide. Then say the Web is like that. Much more powerful and memorable.
3. Don't apologize. Ever. If something is out of order, or if something occurs to you as a mistake during the presentation, keep it to yourself. They'll never know. Besides, nobody cares about the presentation itself. This is really hard, because you know the whole backstory, and you'll be tempted to explain why something isn't quite perfect. Skip it. Also, you don't need to apologize about the color on the projector, or the fact that your mic just popped off your lapel, or that a staff person spilled a pitcher of water. Commiserating is fine, however. "If it gets another 5 degrees colder in here, I'll be able to see my breath!"
4. Start strong. I can't believe how many presenters forget this. Do not get up there and say, "Um, well, I guess we should probably get started." Instead, say, "Hi, I'm Jeff. It's really great to be here, and thank you so much for coming to my session. Today, we're going to talk about...." Make sure those are the absolute first words you say out loud. No need for a joke or an opening or any of that. Just start strong and confident.
5. End strong too. "...so that's why I like social software. I appreciate your attention today. Thank you." Then stand there and wait. Everyone will clap, because you just told them you were done. When they've finished, ask them if they have any questions. If nobody asks anything, break the uncomfortable silence with "Well, I guess I told you everything you need to know then. [heh heh] I'll be around after if you think of anything. Thanks again!" and start packing up your stuff.
6. Stand. Away from the podium. Out from behind the presenter table. Keep your hands out of your pockets. Take off your conference badge (the lights will catch it and be distracting). I pace a little bit around the stage, timed with my points, saying one thing from over here, and another from over there. But don't move too much.
7. Pause. When you say something important, leave a gap after it. Let it hang there for a few seconds. Try it when talking to your friends. "You know what I think? (pause...two...three...four...) I think Bush is bankrupting this country for the next twenty years. (pause...two...three...four...) Here's why..."

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Top 50 Atheism Quotes
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