If you are planning to create an eBook or thinking to re-purpose your content, you should check this review of the Designrr eBook creator. It claims to make the process easier and create the eBooks in 30 seconds from an already existing source. Let’s check how true that claim is?
One of the most used methods for lead generation is offering something in return. Most of the bloggers use ebooks as a method of generating leads or increasing their email subscription rates.
Though, creating eBooks can be a time-consuming task, especially if you are not used to word processing. Or sometimes, you only want to re-purpose the content which you already have in text, audio or video format.
Microsoft Word or Apple Pages can create eBooks for you. You need to spend some time formatting your content and tailor content according to your book theme. Once done, you can easily export it as a PDF or convert it into eBooks.
Apple Pages also support eBook creation and comes with basic book templates. It can help you create EPUBs or more interactive books for iBooks.
Why should we look for eBook creation software?
If you can create eBooks with the free software like Apple Pages on Mac or with easy to available Microsoft Word, why should we look for eBook creation software?
First, if a software can save you a lot of time, it’s definitely worth it.
Second, creating books is not a one-time thing. Time to time, you need to update your eBooks, add new information or delete obsolete information etc. A software can make that easy by managing your eBooks as a project and make sure no other formatting issue happens because of your editing. You should just make your changes and regenerate the eBook.
Third, None of those free tools provide any support towards creating eBooks from audio or video files.
Fourth, It should take care of multiple formats. You can distribute your eBooks on multiple platforms like Kindle, as a PDF, iBooks etc. Without a software, you need to create all different format and it should be done each time you modify anything in your eBook. A software should take of this thing and convert your content into all different formats.
So these are my expectation from any ebook creation software. Do you have any other expectations?
I recently come across a service called Designrr which claims to create eBooks in 30 seconds from existing sources.
To be honest, as soon as I read it, I knew it was a marketing pitch. So rather than focusing on the 30 seconds claim, we will check if it can help in eBook creation and save some time in the process.
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Designrr eBook Creator
Designrr is a cloud-based service which allows you to create an eBook from scratch or from existing sources. It is more of a content repurposing tool which can help you convert existing content into a good looking eBooks.
What Is Content Repurposing?
Content Repurposing is a technique where you can utilize the existing content to engage readers on multiple platform.
For Example, taking an existing post and converting it into a podcast episode, slideshow presentation, eBook is repurposing that content. This can help you gain more readers by increasing your reach to many different platform.
Does this work?
In Short, Yes It works. Here is a good post about the content repurposing from Neil Patel which talks about this this technique with data points, check it out.
How Does Designrr Works?
Designrr allows you to import content from multiple different sources and formats it into PDF or Kindle eBooks. The content source can be a post, Facebook Post, Any page on the internet, Word Document, Audio or a Video file. For Audio and Video file, it transcribes and create editable text which can be downloaded or converted into a PDF.
It also allows you to write your eBook from scratch in the tool. So if you do not have the content, you can still use the template provided by Designrr and create your eBooks. We will take a look at both scenarios to understand how Designrr eBook creator handles them.
It can also be a good source of content repurposing if you host a YouTube channel or Podcast. You can use the Designrr service and generate a transcription to post it along with your Podcast or YouTube video.
So Let’s take a look how we can generate a eBook easily with any existing source.
Import From Existing Source
First, let’s take a look at import from existing sources. If you have any word document, PDF or blog posts which you want to convert into an eBook, you can use this service.
Designrr allows you to import the content from multiple different sources including Facebook Posts, Word, PDF or from any URL. On a standard license it is limited to URL, Word, and Facebook.
Once you select the source, you will be asked some more details about it and it will load the content into your ebook.
The true power of an eBook creator lies in taking multiple sources and format them according to your eBook theme. Once, you have loaded one source, you can add more content by adding additional source. This will keep appending the new content to your eBook.
Once your content is loaded, you will have to choose from many pre-created templates. There are many templates available including two column templates.
Just select the template and your content will be loaded in a specific format to create an eBook in seconds.
That’s the 30-second eBook which they claim but can you ship your eBook like this?
The answer will be “No” in 99.9% of cases.
You have to look into the text formatting, breakups, include images, branding and other things before shipping that ebook.
So you need to spend some time on the eBook editor to format it correctly before you can export your eBook.
Writing It From Scratch
You can also create an empty project and write the complete ebook from scratch in Designrr.
The steps are similar, you need to choose the template and theme for the eBook. Just that there will not be any content and you need to add your content in the edit screen.
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Edit Your eBook with Designrr
Designrr eBook Creator has a cloud editing functionality which allows you to edit and format your eBook.
Designrr divides the complete eBook into block pieces like a page, paragraph, statement etc. You can edit each block and change the looks and layout accordingly.
So while making changes make sure you are selecting the correct block. For Example – changes on Page will affect each paragraph on the page etc. You can override those settings on the paragraph block.
To start with, you need to select the overall theme of the ebook. This theme defines the key components like header, text, footer etc. in your ebook. It has around 21 themes which you can use format your ebook.
Once you have finalized the theme, you can start adding pages and content to your ebook.
There are two other views which are important – Elements and Inspector.
Elements allow you to add a page, media, Facebook post or comments, Typography elements like a link, label, list etc. Inspector allows you to fine-tune each and every element of your ebook.
Once you start editing, you just need to add pages and set the layout accordingly. You have access to divider, labels, paragraph, images etc to create a layout you want for the eBook.
Each element comes with a complete set of settings like background, shadow, text alignment, padding, border etc.
You also have a re-paginate button which can rearrange the whole eBook after you are done with your changes.
You can also include additional blog posts with a new article element. It can import the article from a URL or you can copy-paste your content in the import manually screen.
CTA
Designrr eBook creator comes with two type of CTA, inline or regular. You can easily add those from elements panel to your eBook.
There are many options available to format your CTA’s. You can include images, heading, button, label etc.
As soon as you drop the CTA on the page, you will get pre-defined CTA format which you can update. You can also add additional elements to create different layouts.
This is one of the handy features of Designrr and if you are using their services for lead generation, you will appreciate this.
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Designrr eBook Creator Plans
The service has changed their pricing structure and now it makes more sense for most of the novice as well as experience users.
There are 4 available plan – Standard, Pro, Premium and Business. A separate plan is offered for Agencies. First two plans are good for the people who are only looking content repurposing. Last two plans add a audio transcription service on top of content repurposing.
Standard Plan
The standard plan comes with 1 user and 100 free eBook templates. The limitation includes no support for any other format excluding PDF and no 3D ebook covers.
This plan is good if you want to offer the eBooks as lead generation goodies on your blog and use other services for generating eBook covers.
You have to download the PDF and edit in outside tools to convert it for Kindle or iBooks. This means another formatting effort and it defeats the purpose of having a tool in first place. If you want to do that, check Pro and Agency license.
The only reason to buy this plan is if you are looking for a tool to create PDF eBooks and not good with formatting techniques in Word or Pages. This tool might feel very simple compare to menu options and other shortcodes in Word or Pages.
If you are planning to buy this, you can use this offer of $27 one-time payment for lifetime standard license of Designrr eBook creator. This way you can get the lifetime standard license for as low as one month fee.
Get Standard License for Lifetime at $27
Pro Plan
Pro plans include unlimited books with 1 user and 200+ project templates. It also allows you to export your project as Kindle or Mobi eBooks. You also get features like Table of content, Page numbers or 3D cover generation.
3D cover generation is one of the good small tool which can help you generate displayable images for your signup forms. You would usually need to use external tool or pay someone on Fiverr to get this done, with the pro plan you can do it right from Designrr.
This tool allows you to generate the 3D image as paperback or hardcover. They also have many different mockups which include devices like smartphones or tablets, so you can generate many different images with the same cover image. Just download the image and create your subscription forms.
The only downside of this plan is cost. If you are not actively writing eBooks and utilizing the service, you will not justify the cost of this plan. I would still suggest to start with Standard Plan with lifetime subscription and test the service before upgrading to this plan.
Premium Or Business Plan
These plans are most expensive and most comprehensive. It includes everything which Designrr has to offer along with audio transcription service.
I would not recommend going with this plan until unless you are a Podcaster or vLogger and planning to use audio transcription services.
So here you go, I only recommend Standard license with the one-time payment offer. Other plans are not for regular people and will not help much in case you create eBooks once in a while.
If you are a writer and looking a tool to format your ebooks, you can check pro license. Premium or Business licence are only useful for the the people who has a either a YouTube channel or Podcast and want to use the audio transcribe service.
So, go ahead and take a pick of Designrr eBook Creator plans based on your need.
Would you even recommend it for bloggers who are very new into blogging and still not sure whether to invest in making an ebook?
Hi Mahima,
I think everyone will need it at some point in time. Their one-time payment option for the standard plan is very cheap and can give a good idea of the tool.
Even if you don’t want to write a new ebook from the start, no harm in converting existing posts into a PDF and distributing.
– Sanjeev
I have thought for a long time that I should write an ebook, but have never investigated how to actually do it. Thanks for giving me a glimpse into what it entails.
Hi Faith,
Glad this post was helpful. If you want to give it a try, use the standard version first to get an idea about the products. If you like it, you can always upgrade to higher versions.
– Sanjeev
This was so insightful. I really had no clue where to begin or the process of making a ebook and I am thrilled to learn. Well written and clear to understand directions thank you.
Hi Danielle,
Glad that you found this post helpful. Designrr can help a lot in terms of format and generate eBooks with its easy to use text editor options. Good product if you are not comfortable with the editing option on Word.
– Sanjeev
This is a really interesting post, I learned a lot about creating an eBook and your instruction was really easy to follow.
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for liking the post. Hope it will motivate you to convert some of your posts into an eBook.
– Sanjeev
I’ve used this program before and continue to use it. Although there are quirks and limitations, I find that it is super helpful creating content upgrades, saving a ton of time.
Hi Evelyn,
I agree there are some bugs but it can be worked around. Once we get a hang of the product it becomes super easy to create those good-looking PDFs from existing content.
– Sanjeev