The next step to writing an ebook is to finalize all of the content, or write the final draft. For me, this can happen several ways:

• If I am pressed for time, I’ll just read it through to make sure the content sounds good

• If I have plenty of time, I’d take the time to expand or subtract on the content to make sure it flows correctly and makes sense.

Obviously, I prefer it if I can take the time to write a thorough final draft. If I know that I am on a tight deadline, I spend more time than usual on the rough draft. If I know I have plenty of time, I write a decent rough draft, but I always have the expectation that I would polish it considerably.

Find Your Personal Style

I think it’s a matter of finding your personal style. Are you the type that loves to write a detailed rough draft, with minimal work to do for the final? Or do you like to rush through the first draft and spend a lot of time with the final?

It doesn’t really matter as long as the end result is something that is polished, well written, and represents your writing style very well.

What to Do to Finalize Your Draft

So, now for the nuts and bolts. What do you need to look for when finalizing your draft? I came up with a checklist to get you started. Remember, the end goal should be an ebook that you are proud of and that is well written. These steps can help get you there.

• Check the spelling and grammar - don’t just rely on the computer to do this - the program makes mistakes all the time.

• Does the order of the content make sense? If not, you’ll need to cut and paste and change things around.

• Is it too long or too short? Expand or subtract as needed. This is especially important if there is a word count you need to stick to.

• How visually pleasing is it? Large blogs of text don’t work for ebooks. Break things up with bullet points. Make sentences and paragraphs shorter. Add subheadings when needed.

• Include pictures, charts, screen shots, and graphs as needed during this stage.

• Does everything make sense? Go through and find any awkwardly phrased sentences and fix them.

• Overall, are you happy with it? If not, try to figure out what you need to do to fix it.

Don’t worry about formating the final product just yet. We’ll cover that on another day.