Word Processors, for Writing Your Ebook

Before you can write your best selling ebook, you will to think about word processors. More than likely, you have something installed on your computer already. There are many word processors that will do much the same job, but we will look at only two of them for a start.

Firstly, Microsoft Word™, which you will find comes bundles with the MS Office™ software package. And then the free alternative, Open Office™ which is open source software.

Back in the days when I had a "real" job, I did a lot of S.O.P writing (that's Standard Operating Procedures). I appreciated the functionality that Word offers in that situation, but technical writing is much different than the casual style you find so often on the internet. As long as your word processor will perform some basic functions, you can produce a perfectly acceptable ebook with free software.

What a Word Processor Does

When I talk about "publishing an ebook" on this site, I am not talking about a 600 page fiction novel. I am referring to a typical ebook that you find for sale on the internet: 50-150 pages, on any topic you can imagine, but generally instructional non fiction type books.

These are what sells. People buy downloadable ebooks (generally) for one reason. It offers them information they can't get elsewhere. If they want to read a fiction novel by an unknown writer, they are unlikely to drag out their credit card and buy one on the internet. Selling fiction on the 'net is hard, very hard.

So our word processor can be a reasonably simple one, we don't need all the fancy fuctionality. But it must be able to....

• Insert headers and footers
• Create clickable Table of Contents
• Preferably insert bookmarks
• Save file as .doc or .RTF