Do you have an idea, a class, a curriculum, or a manuscript? Are you an expert in a particular field? Do you have a hobby that you truly enjoy and that you’re good at? Perhaps now is the time to collect your knowledge into an e-book and sell it online.

You may use your own website and generate Paypal links with “buy now” buttons for your work, or you may use a service like e-junkie.com or payloadz.com to automate the selling process for both physical downloads and electronic downloads.

To convert your manuscript, make sure you have a Word or Pages document that’s nicely formatted and that has even margins. Black text on white background shows up the best. If you have charts, graphs, illustrations, or photos, make sure they’re as readable as possible.

Add your name and company name to the title page and to the footer, if desired.

Spellcheck and edit to make sure your document is ready. When you’re finished editing, convert your document into PDF format if possible, and make sure to print out a few pages or view the pages on your screen to make sure the layout is still correct.

When you’re ready, use your service to distribute it. Keep backup copies on a hard drive or on another location, such as e-mailing it to yourself on Gmail.com or another mail service.

Next, start selling!