Philippa Moore. Photograph by Soolin Cottle.
Philippa Moore:: Health and lifestyle blogger, writer and editor
Philippa Moore is the author of ebook "The Latte Years" - An ebook based on her award winning blog "Skinny Latte Strikes Back"
Have you any advice for writers/bloggers in putting together an e-book?
Go for it! It’s a lot of fun.
If you’re a blogger, and you have quite a catalogue of posts to choose from (like me!), try to decide as early as possible what the aim of your e-book is. While it’s absolutely fine to put a collection of blog posts together, and readers really do like having all your best stuff in one place, try and do something that differentiates it from the rest of your blog’s content. Pull it all together with a helpful twist or some added value.
Try to make it look as professional as possible. I was originally going to get a designer to do the whole thing but the person I wanted to do it wasn’t available so I taught myself InDesign instead and was very happy with the results. I deliberately kept things simple so I would be able to do it myself to a high standard, but if I wanted anything flashier or more complicated next time, I would definitely get some help from a professional designer. I think you have to invest in the product – be it with your own time or in getting a professional to do what you can’t – because otherwise you can’t expect your audience to.
Edit and proof like a mofo – I work as an editor and journalist so it’s kind of built into my DNA now – but if you aren’t confident in your proofing abilities, get someone to check it for you. I get very turned off by spelling mistakes! But overall, just enter the fray and play, as one of my favourite bloggers Sarah Wilson put it. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes or to give things a go yourself. If you have a solid and loyal audience, they will be interested in what you’re doing and what you have to say.
Why did you do it?
I was wrapping things up at my blog, which I had been writing for about a decade. I started it when I was 24 and I’m 32, nearly 33, now! I wanted to move on from that time in my life but I also wanted to keep the blog’s core message out in the world somehow. Writing an e-book, where I could put together a compendium of posts that took the reader back through the journey, but also where I could write some new stuff as well, seemed like a great way to farewell the old blog, pay homage to the past and what I’d achieved but also take a long overdue step into the future. It was also very much an experiment too – I was keen to learn about the process of putting an e-book out and it was so much easier than I thought.
How did you go about it?
Once I had an outline, I started pulling together all the material I wanted to include – it wasn’t just posts that were in my live archive, but posts that I’d written years ago for an earlier incarnation of the blog and never republished; draft posts that had never seen the light of day; excerpts from a novel I’d written; all kinds of stuff! Then I had to find a way to thread them all together so it read more like a coherent story. I did this by writing as my present self, introducing the posts to provide some background. I also wrote an introduction and epilogue to clarify the message and tie everything together. Then I edited the material, trying to keep the original voice of my younger self but taking out bits that I thought in hindsight were not particularly well written or relevant (there were a few cringe moments where I thought “did I really put this on the Internet?!”).
I also rewrote what was possibly my most popular post of all time – “A Phone Conversation with 2005 Phil” – but instead of 2010 me calling (as it was originally), 2014 Phil called instead. That was really fun and, again, I think it helped to clarify the message of the book and the journey that I’ve made over the last nine years. I ended up using it as the prologue for the book.
I also rewrote what was possibly my most popular post of all time – “A Phone Conversation with 2005 Phil” – but instead of 2010 me calling (as it was originally), 2014 Phil called instead. That was really fun and, again, I think it helped to clarify the message of the book and the journey that I’ve made over the last nine years. I ended up using it as the prologue for the book.
The amazing thing about the project was that I had complete control over it – I could write it however I wanted, include whatever I wanted, with no publisher or marketing department to please (!)….it was something I could shape however I liked and that was awesome!
How did you decide what was worthy of being included?
To be honest, it wasn’t that hard to choose – I just picked a combination of my most popular posts, posts that had had a really great response from readers over the years and also the ones I particularly liked….they were often one and the same! But I also tried to bear in mind that I wanted to be telling a story with the book so while the posts could stand alone on the web site, it was important that they all worked together as a whole so that was definitely a factor in my decision making. With that in mind, I also put in extra material that wasn’t available online that I felt added another dimension and made it all work well together as a story.
But it all came together surprisingly quickly and painlessly. Despite not knowing the meaning of the word “discretion” in the early days (!), my voice on my blog has always been very authentic and consistently honest, so even though I changed dramatically as a person over the years, the core remained the same, which made putting a project like this together relatively simple, not to mention a fun trip down memory lane.
What were the most challenging aspects?
The layout was challenging because while I had some experience with InDesign I am not a professional designer, so I had to learn a lot of new skills very quickly! But I was surprised how easy it was to pick up. I’m not going to win any awards for design any time soon, but I thought it looked great in the end!
Did you collaborate with anyone else?
No, it was pretty much a solo effort. My husband Tom, who works in marketing, proofed it for me and pointed out if images weren’t straight or anything needed tweaking ore repositioning, but that was about it!
You're charging a very small amount for the ebook. What was the rationale?
Philippa Moore
Writer and editor
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