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One of the common problems of writing an eBook, is the need to create a professional looking cover. This is something you’ll either have to do yourself or hire somebody to do it for you.

There are a couple of different options available.

Create Your Own eBook Covers

The first is to create it yourself in your favorite image editing program. But this is very time consuming and tedious and takes a great deal of skill. And after all that work, you’re likely to find that the resulting image lacks that true professional look.

Download eBook Covers

Another option is to download a free eCovers and edit them. While this is a better solution than the one above, these free eBook covers are still very limited and won’t give you a truly professional look. But if you’re just starting out, this may be a good solution if you don’t have money to spend.

Download eBook Creation Software

Another option is to purchase software that will create eBook covers for you. Some of the popular eBook software programs include:

• Dynamite Covers
• CoverFactory.com (free trial available)
• Virtual Cover Creator

Hire Somebody to Create Your eBook Cover

The next option is to hire somebody to create your eBook cover for you. There are several different sites that will create your eBook cover for you:

• MonsterCovers.com

The downside to this method is that it can be very costly. While each cover typically only costs $50-$75 … keep in mind that you will often need covers created for your free bonus eBooks too. So by the time you add all your eBooks together, this can be an expensive option.

Use Photoshop Actions to Create Your eBook Covers

The last option (and my personal favorite) is to use Actions in Adobe Photoshop. The only catch to this solution is that you have to have Adobe Photoshop 6.0 or higher on your computer (Adobe Elements won’t work).

If you’re not familiar with Actions, they’re little scripts that run in Adobe Photoshop to automate certain actions. And there is an Action script that will create great looking eBook covers for you - all you need to do is edit your cover text and images.

This is how I create all of my eBook covers. The really nice thing is that these actions are so flexible and powerful, that they can be used over and over again to create an unlimited number of eBook covers. To learn more about the eCover Actions for Photshop, click here.

Splash screens are small screens (or windows) that people see when they open some software programs. When your customer opens your eBook (created with eBook Pro), they see a small graphic that tells them the eBook is loading and to please wait.

The purpose of the splash screen is to assure them everything is working and that it will just take a minute to open the eBook.

When you bought eBook Pro, it came with eBook templates and splash screens to make things easier for you. But you can edit these or create new ones.

The first eBook I created using eBook Pro was an eBook about trout fishing. Although there were some nice splash screens, I wanted one that reflected fishing. So I created my own. Here’s how I did it …

First I opened the folder that contains the existing splash screens. If you kept the default paths when you installed the software, you should find it in the path below:

C:\Program Files\The Internet Marketing Center\eBook Pro 6.0\ Splash Screens

Open the Splash Screens folder and you’ll see the existing images. You’ll need a graphic or photo editing program to create your own splash screen. I used Adobe Photoshop (my favorite photo and image editing software).

I opened an existing graphic (doesn’t matter which one) so that I could see it’s dimensions (500 x 200 pixels at 72 dpi). Then I created a new blank image with the same dimensions. I then inserted a fishing related photo and added some text (similar to what was already on the pre-existing splash screens).

Once I was happy with my new image, I flattened the layers (to reduce the file size) and saved it in the same folder under a new name (although I kept the same naming convention).

Now when you configure a splash screen in eBook Pro, you can select the new image you just created (it will be in the right folder to make things easier).

Just be sure to make a copy of any splash screens or templates you create so you’ll have them if you ever need to reload the eBook Pro software.

Writing and publishing your own eBook is an easy way to create your own product. And because you created it, you can keep 100% of the profits! So writing your own eBooks can be a great source of income.

Here are some more advantages of writing and selling an eBook:

• They’re digital (so you don’t need to pay for printing, binding, and shipping)

• People can download them immediately after purchase (they don’t have to wait a week for it to be shipped)

• Once created, you can keep selling them over again at no extra cost (so as long as people are interested in your eBook, you have a continued source of income).

• You can incorporate affiliate links into your eBook (so you can earn even more money on other resources relevant to your readers)

• You can add audio and video to some eBooks (depending on the software used)

• Including long links is easy for you and readers since they can easily click on them to go to another relevant site or resource (as opposed to trying to type in that long URL later).

• You can offer free viral marketing eBooks too which drive more people back to your site

As you can see, there are some definite advantages to selling eBooks. So how do you create one?

You can either write it yourself or hire somebody to write one for you. Most people choose the first option. Of course, the first step is still doing keyword research to see what kind of information people are looking for and not finding much help (this step is critical for success).

Once you figured out what you’re going to write about, you just have to research your material and start writing. You can start writing your eBook in Word or use eBook creation software.

Writing in Word is easy (and you have advantage of spell-check!). It’s okay to do this and you could always convert it to a PDF later and sell it in that form.

But here’s the thing … PDF’s are not very secure. Sure you can configure it to require a password so that only your customers can open it. But what happens if that customer wants a refund (no matter how good your eBook is, there will always be some people wanting refunds)? Your customer already has the password, so even after you refund their money, they can keep reading (and printing) it. Even worse, they can share the eBook and passwords with others. You have no control over this.

Another option is to use eBook creation software that is secure. My personal favorite choice is eBook Pro, created by IMC.

eBook Pro is VERY SECURE. With eBook Pro, you can:

• You can generate a unique username and password for every customer

• You can set a limit to the number of times they can open and register their eBook (so they can’t share it with others). After they reach the limit, they are prevented from registering it again (unless you allow them to).

• You can control whether or not readers can print your eBook. This can prevent photocopying and scanning (although I usually let my readers print the eBook so they don’t have to be on the computer to read it).

• You can lock people out remotely. So if they want a refund, no problem (you can push a button and prevent them from having further access to the eBook). If somebody steals it from the server, or you discovered that it was shared without your permission - no problem (just lock them out of it).

You have a LOT of control over who has access to your eBook. Now having said that, there are a few other things to consider.

First, eBook Pro is PC based software - so MAC users can’t open eBook Pro (not yet anyway). Luckily, MAC users are a very small percentage of the population. But you can work around this limitation by providing a PDF version of the eBook (which is the easiest solution). I just don’t recommend advertising that you offer a PDF version of the eBook so as to cut down on fraud.

I’ve been using eBook Pro a while now and really like it. You can use existing built in templates or create your own to give your eBook a nice look and feel. It’s designed to work like a web page, so users can click back and forth between chapters quickly and easily.

There is one more thing worth mentioning. After you create your eBook using eBook Pro, you need a way to deliver the usernames and passwords to your customers. You can do this manually - but it really should be done automatically so as to allow 24×7 delivery (and lessen work on your part).

So far, I have not seen cases where people have been able to automate this process in Aweber or other online autorepsonder services. If you have, please let me know.

But the majority of us using eBook Pro are also using Mailloop (IMC’s email management solution). Since IMC created both software programs, they work together well. And Mailloop can be automated to send eBook Pro usernames and passwords automatically (keeping your business up and running 24×7).

So if you’re going to use eBook Pro, I highly recommend using Mailloop as well.