Recipe for Success: How to Recruit an Ebook Writer that Fits Your Brand like a Glove on a Bride’s Hand

Is there such a thing as the perfect chocolate chip cookie? 

You might like your cookie crispy and crunchy—one that sits on the pan a bit longer and hardens after it comes out, while your sister prefers a soft, gooey cookie that's been whisked away from the pan while it's still hot. Your dad, on the other hand, might like walnuts in his, and your mum might go for the milk chocolate chips instead of the semi-sweet. 

While this might make it difficult to bake for the family party, the truth is that no recipe's going to produce everyone's perfect cookie. We all have different cravings, palates, preferences, and needs.

The same is true for recruiting an ebook writer. Because every company has its own taste buds, you need the smart cookie on your team that will fit your company's needs.

The Essential Ingredients: Compile a List of Basic Requirements for Recruiting an Ebook Writer

Save for the basic requirement of, of course, being a "good content writer," you'll need to pinpoint—and prioritize—your ebook writing wants in order to attract the right candidates.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Level: Would your new ebook writer be senior, junior, mid-level, or a mix? If being an industry thought leader is your ultimate target (we want to believe that it is), then you'd want a writer that doesn't just compose quality content but also weaves it in such a way that it's foundational, meaty, and well-circulated for your evolving industry.

Industry: Should they be familiar with a specific industry, like legal writing or medical writing?

Format: What will they be writing on a day-to-day basis? Will they be spending all their time churning out one quality ebook after another, or perhaps they'll be wearing a different hat every now and then? Maybe focus on blog writing three days a week?

Other responsibilities: Outside of ebook content writing, what will their responsibilities be? Do they need to know how to use ebook writing software? This could include managing external vendors, augmenting your marketing efforts, performing blog content analysis for competitor blogs, conducting marketing analytics, and more?

Success: How will you measure success?

These are your basic needs—the "flour and sugar" of every chocolate cookie recipe. But those ingredients aren't enough. To drive success, you need a candidate that goes beyond the basics--and by basics, we mean everything there is to know about writing a marketing ebook.

The Secret Ingredients: Consider Your Candidate's Unique Strengths

With that said, it can be difficult to tell through a cover letter or resume—or even a writing sample—what really makes your candidate special. You want your new ebook writing recruit to fit seamlessly into your company culture and possess the appropriate skills and desirable personality traits that are necessary for the job at your company.

Therefore, when evaluating a candidate's strengths, here are some questions you might want to answer:

1. Pace

Is the pace of your content marketing—and your company culture—strategic and thoughtful (requiring deep insight and meticulous execution), quick and productive (requiring fast work and precise deadline orientation), or something in between? At what pace does your candidate operate?

2. Strategy vs Execution

Do you need creators or executors? Another way to ask this: if you had to choose one, is it more important that they contribute to your big-picture strategies or be painstakingly attentive to details and the writing process as a whole (such as your brand voice and tone)?

3. Logic vs Creativity

If you had to choose only one, would you want your ebook professionals to be brilliant at logical left-brain narratives (think beefy, well-ideated ebook content and insightful, stat-padded blog writing), or creative right-brain concepts (think sparkling ebook ideas, creative social media posts, catchy ebook cover)? How does your candidate think? 

Hint: A writer that's both a logical thinker and a creative canon will accelerate your quest to becoming a respected industry thought leader. Choose wisely.

4. Reporting

Can it be tough to pin down time with the industry experts and thought leaders in your field—and extract information from them? Is it a heart-wrenching job to dig deeper about your target audience with the information that's available on the net? 

If so, you may need a particularly gifted and inquisitive content writer-cum-reporter to chase them and draw them out. Does this sound like your candidate?

Don't Forget About the Weaknesses

Okay, so you've vetted your interviewees and found a fast-paced, strategic, and creative ebook writer —the delicious combination your brand is looking for. Yaay! But it's true what they say: nobody's perfect. Even the best in the ebook creation biz can't do it all.

Maybe your candidate nailed the interview and presented exceptional ebook content samples. Perhaps you've borne witness to the slew of online courses they pursued, the social media posts they crafted not too long ago, and maybe even scoured through a few physical books they've claimed to write in the past.

But when you speak with their references, their former boss says they're a pain to work with. Or, your candidate was previously an all-star in the journalism industry; even the most stellar reporters can fail to write a quality ebook. It happens. Or perhaps they depicted exceptional logic and creative writing skills, but their blog posts and ebook samples are riddled with spelling errors. Or your candidate turns in an eye-catching ebook sample—three days late.

Even if your candidate showcases top-of-the-line talent, you have to discern which weakness you can deal with. In other words, the cookie comes out of the oven too hard and crusty; do you eat it anyway, or do you start over?

Delicious Ebook Copy, Baked to Perfection

Recruiting a copywriter whose words can make your ebook readers melt can leave you beat.

Identifying your requirements. Evaluating every candidate's strengths and weaknesses. Partnering with a recruiter, in some instances. The drawn-out interviews you're likely to have to conduct. Ugh!

While the process could bring you your dream hire, it could also be a recipe for disaster. 

If you're looking for an easier solution that will deliver high-quality, meaty assets that encapsulate your message and tunnel your influence, our team of creatives is ready to rise to the challenge.

In between breathing life into your digital products, clarifying your core idea with crisp copy, and dazzling your potential audience with valuable, insightful perspectives, there's little chance for you to get the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Not with our team.

At Zoey Writers, we breathe, eat, and live perfect copy. Don't believe us? Get in touch today, and we'll show you how it's done!

Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels: Thanks Vlada : )