Read our short guide on how to write, design, and promote your ebook in a fast and easy way to make your digital marketing even more effective.
How to create an ebook that engages your readers: a step-by-step guide
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Turn your knowledge into powerful content
Contents:
Topic: what will you write about?
Outline: structuring your ideas
Content: putting your knowledge into words
Design: designing an ebook if you’re not a pro
Creating ebooks for your business can be fast, easy, and fun, but it can also be a frustrating process if you’re not sure how to do it right. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! We’ve come up with a step-by-step guide on how to create an ebook that captures readers’ attention. It covers everything from choosing the right topic to designing and promoting your content, with helpful tips along the way. An engaging ebook is a great way to get more quality leads and loyal clients, share your knowledge with the world, grow your mailing lists, and track how your audience interacts with your content. So, let’s get right to it, shall we?
Interactivity: adding video, pop-ups, GIFs, forms & quizzes
Launch and promotion: getting your ebook out there
Lead generation: turning readers into leads
Analytics: measuring your ebook’s performance
Inspiration: see interactive ebook examples in action
B onus tip: create an interactive ebook in four simple steps
To create engaging content, you have to choose a topic that is relevant to your audience. You can research what your potential readers are interested in this week or month, and what problems they are struggling with. Otherwise, you can share your own research and expertise on industry- related issues. You have the insight, wisdom, and practical knowledge in your subject and field of expertise. You probably take it for granted, but your deep knowledge comes from experience, which is extremely valuable for your audience.
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Topic
# Browse communities like Reddit or professional conversations on LinkedIn to see what challenges and questions people in your industry are actively discussing.
Nowadays, many different tools can help you with research. Here’s what you can do:
# Research Medium’s Top Stories: Browse popular article tags to see what people are passionate about right now. # Use Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to discover the most popular content on any theme and see its relevance, referring domains, search traffic, and number of shares. # Use AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity to quickly explore topic ideas, generate ebook outlines, and identify common questions your audience asks. # Subscribe to industry newsletters and follow trusted publications in your niche to stay up to date with the latest trends, insights, and discussions.
Pro tip: Don’t rely on a single source. Combine insights from AI tools, search trends, and community discussions to validate your topic and make sure it truly resonates with your audience.
# Explore Google Trends to discover trending topics and see what people are currently searching for.
An outline is simply a framework for presenting the main and supporting ideas for a particular subject or topic. Making an outline can really help you structure your ideas and distribute them throughout the ebook. An electronic book, as any conventional book, has a standard book format: introduction, main body, and conclusion. It is also divided into chapters. If all the chapters follow the same structure, a reader can understand what to expect.
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Outline
# Draw a mindmap This technique allows you to look at your ebook from multiple different angles. Place your topic in the centre and start adding ideas to it. Create connections with the help of lines or arrows. At this stage, put down everything that comes to you, however big or small—you can tidy the entire thing up later.
As for the tactics of making outlines, there are plenty of them, choose what suits your mindset best:
# Write a list If you’ve already written some articles and papers on your topic, you’ve probably got the main structure in your head. You can start with describing what sections and chapters your ebook will have. Then make a list of 3–5 key points for each section/chapter. # Examine other ebooks and books Look through several books and their table of contents to see what topics appear in almost every book. Is there anything that you can add to your outline?
After making the outline you reach the biggest step—writing itself. And what is the most important and often difficult thing about writing? To actually start doing it, and regularly. “Nulla dies sine linea” (not a day without a line), as the latin expression rightly suggests. To turn writing into a habit, you have to organize your writing routine. Below are a few useful tips on how to achieve it. We follow these tips every day as well, or at least try to.
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Content
Don’t edit while you write. You’re writing your first draft, the main purpose of it is to put your thoughts on paper or screen. You can come back to it in a few days and one more time at the editing stage (you may find that it works fine after all).
Make a commitment to write a certain number of words every day. Estimate how long you want your ebook to be and when your writing deadline is, then you’ll know how many words you should write daily. Write your ebook at the time of the day that is the most comfortable for you. We all have different natural rhythms. So if you’re active and focused in the mornings, write in the morning. If you’re at your best in the second half of the day, do your writing then. Focus and switch off distractions when you’re writing. Put on music if it helps you concentrate. Use the apps that keep you from distractions. A nice list of such apps can be found here.
When you finish writing, proofread your text. Go through each sentence
and correct spelling mistakes, tautologies, and unnecessary
wordiness. You can use AI tools like Grammarly, Hemingway, or ChatGPT to help identify and fix errors. Finally, review the text once more—print it out and read it again to catch anything you might have missed. Pro tip: Focus on progress, not perfection. Even a rough first draft is better than a perfect idea that never gets written.
All the previous steps were probably familiar to you, but designing an ebook might be an altogether foreign concept. However, this step can’t be ignored— an attractive design helps grab readers’ attention. Even without professional design skills, you can create an ebook that looks great.
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Design
# Choose resources for photos These can be the websites you usually use for stock photography (for example, Shutterstock, Death to Stock, Stocksnap, Unsplash). Decide what kind of images you need (landscapes, portraits, objects, color schemes, etc.) and what their sizes should be. Pro tip: Turn your ebook into a digital flipbook to make it more engaging and interactive. For example, try Canva and FlippingBook integration to easily convert your template into an interactive ebook.
First of all, you can create a style guide for your ebook and stick to it:
# Choose fonts Don’t use too many different typefaces and colors. A common recommendation is to use a maximum of three different typefaces in a maximum of three different sizes and colors. # Choose color Use 2–3 primary colors that are consistent with the style of your brand for things like the background and font color. Select 3–4
secondary colors that can be used to make certain elements stand out (i.e. buttons, links, forms).
# Choose a template You can go to Canva and select one of their pre-designed ebook templates and customize it to match your style and branding.
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How do you make readers choose your ebook over others? In today’s fast-scrolling world of short attention spans, capturing and holding readers’ attention is a real challenge. That’s why creating an interactive ebook can make a difference. Business or marketing ebooks shouldn’t look like academic publications. Interactive elements can bring your content to life, engage readers, and make the reading experience more dynamic and enjoyable.
Watch our intro video on innovation in the aviation industry.
Discover how technolo transforms global logis and travel.
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Interactivity
Once your ebook has been converted into a flipbook during the design step, you can enhance it with a variety of multimedia, including video, GIFs, images, and more:
# Image galleries Add a single image where needed or use a gallery of several images to illustrate your content and create a more visually engaging experience.
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# Videos Visual content is often more engaging than text alone. Embed videos into your ebook to showcase your expertise, explain complex ideas, or share compelling stories that create a stronger connection with your readers.
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Interactivity
# Forms and Quizzes Learn more about your readers and encourage interaction with embedded surveys, quizzes, or contact forms. Ask questions, collect feedback, and use it to improve your content or start meaningful conversations.
Development Trends
Take a quiz
# GIF images GIFs are a great instrument for bringing your content to life. With GIFs, you can literally show everything instead of saying —for example, by setting your graphs and stats in motion.
Pro tip: Use interactivity strategically. Too many videos, GIFs, or forms can feel overwhelming. Focus on elements that support your message and enhance the reading experience.
Hurrah! You’ve created your ebook. Now it’s time to launch and distribute it. You may have already decided how to promote and share it to achieve your marketing goals, so we’ll just cover the main methods here:
Create a landing page on your website to advertise your new ebook. Don’t forget to feature a CTA or a link to the landing page on a resource page or even your homepage.
Promote your ebook through your blog, if you have one. Publish an excerpt of your ebook as a blog post, or write a new blog article on the topic that relates to your ebook. Then you can link to the ebook at the end of your post, encouraging readers to keep learning.
Launch and promotion
Include the ebook into your emails or newsletters to share it with your active clients.
Leverage paid advertising and co-marketing partnerships that will help you promote your ebook to a new audience.
Post your ebook on social media to promote your content to a wider audience.
Pro tip: If you use a flipbook format, enable SEO visibility so your ebook can appear in search results on Google and other search engines, reaching a wider audience.
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Lead generation
If your goal is not only to share knowledge but also to generate leads, your ebook can become a powerful lead magnet. By using the flipbook format, you can add a lead capture form and gain the following benefits: # Analyze performance and qualify your leads If a lead leaves you their information, you will be able to see how many times they have viewed your ebook and when they left you emails. This can help you determine the quality of the lead more easily and contact them at the right time. # Get content engagement The FlippingBook lead capture form reduces the friction associated with accessing gated content—your readers simply enter their email address and name and can read your ebook at once. There’s no need for any complex landing pages. Plus, you can even set your own fields and rearrange them to your liking.
It’s a way to make them sure that your ebook is worth their valuable personal information. It can be very handy if you publish various books and textbooks so that your readers can flip through the first pages and understand if that’s what they need.
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Pro tip: You can place the lead capture form at the beginning, in the middle, or after a preview of your ebook, and customize it to collect the information you need—from email addresses to company details.
# Make a preview of the ebook This can help build trust between you and your audience.
The more you know about your content, the better decisions you can make. The same goes for your ebook. You’ve launched and promoted it—but how do you know if it’s working? Creating an ebook takes time and effort, so it’s important to understand its performance and overall impact. By converting your ebook into a digital flipbook, you can track key metrics and evaluate its effectiveness.
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Analytics
# Views and visitors Track how many people open your ebook, how many pages they view, and how much time they spend reading it. These insights help you understand whether your content is engaging, easy to follow, and relevant to your audience. # Downloads & shares Downloads are a clear indicator of interest. If users choose to download your ebook, it usually means they find the topic valuable and want to explore it further. The same applies to shares: the more your ebook is shared, the wider its reach and the greater its impact. # Geolocation One of the biggest advantages of digital content is its global reach. With geolocation data, you can see where your readers are located—by country, region, or even city. These insights help you better understand your audience and tailor your content and promotion strategy to different markets.
# Search queries Search queries provide valuable insights into your audience’s needs and interests. By analyzing which keywords lead readers to your ebook, you can identify popular questions and refine your content accordingly.
Pro tip: Combine ebook analytics with your marketing data to gain deeper insights into your audience and optimize your campaigns for higher engagement and conversions.
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inspiration
See for yourself! Click the image to open the interactive ebook and start flipping through it right away.
Now you’re fully equipped to start creating your own ebooks.
Yes, it takes time, effort, and energy, but writing and publishing your first ebook will be a great experience. You’ll create an amazing piece of promotional and lead generating content that will bring you many benefits and work for you for days and even months. It’s totally worth trying.
Want to create your interactive ebook? Try for free now
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bonus tip
3 Choose the privacy level.
Make it searchable online so everyone can discover your content, or limit access to share only with select readers
4 Share your document.
Email it via link, post on social media, or embed on your website—the choice is yours.
1 Upload your PDF to FlippingBook. It will be converted into a digital document in seconds.
Watch our Short Video Guide
2 Customize it.
Add your branding and interactive elements, like videos, links, GIFs, or fillable forms.
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Use cases
FlippingBook is a company that provides software and cloud service for creating professional online documents in a fast and easy way. It allows companies from different industries, be it manufacturing, real estate, or education, to become more effective in their marketing activities. With the help of FlippingBook, they can turn a plain PDF into an ebook with professional look and feel, marketing tools, and analytics. To learn more about how companies across industries use FlippingBook and what they say about it, check out Customer Quotes on FlippingBook.
Anna Konovalova
is a Senior Content Marketer at FlippingBook.
When Anna isn’t writing, she enjoys going to the theater, listening to music, and finding inspiration in the world around her.
You can find her on LinkedIn.
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