How to Write a Book That Keeps Readers Engaged
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Include interactive touchpoints in your book increases engagement and comprehension.
Touch points help with lead generation
Short attention spans require concise, engaging content.
TAKEAWAYS
Include interactive touchpoints in your book increases engagement and comprehension.
Touch points help with lead generation
Short attention spans require concise, engaging content.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:37 The Captivate Method Explained
05:41 Engagement Strategies for Readers
08:15 Implementing Touch Points in Your Book
10:53 Examples of Effective Touch Points
13:30 Gathering Reader Feedback and Data
16:33 Final Thoughts on Reader Engagement
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RESOURCES MENTIONED:
→ Apply o the Profitable Publishing™ Partner Service to outline, write, publish, and launch your book tied to your business or brand. https://www.ProfitableSelfPublishing.com/Partner
RAW TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to another episode of Profitable Publishing™. Today we are going to be talking about how to actually get results for your clients from your book. Now, this is something that you absolutely need to know how to do because the whole point of writing your book is either to support existing clients or to help bring in new folks into your fold, into your sphere of influence. And so if they're not able to get results from your book, then they're less likely to purchase from you and or less likely to sign up as a client of yours.
I'm Ashley, your host and I help experts to package their expertise into a profitable book to build their brands. And so let's go ahead and dig in. Now, writing a book that people want to read is so important, but it might seem a little challenging or as if you're not exactly sure how it will actually work when it gets in front of your customers. Of course, there's things you can do such as enlist the help of beta readers.
I'll talk about that on other episodes. But today I want to kind of peel back the curtain on one of the strategies that I use to support authors to actually outline their book. Because you don't want to wait until you've actually already started writing it to think about how you can kind of keep people's attention. You really want to embed this into the process early on before you actually start full on writing. So we're actually gonna be using a portion of my Captivate method and this is what I use to help authors to outline their book in a way that actually gives them raving fans, meaning readers who cannot wait to read their next book, to sign up to work with them and everything in between. So Captivate stands for case studies, action steps, personal stories, touch points, insights, visuals, authority, transformation, and finally encouragement. So today we're gonna focus on just the touch points.
I'm going to show you how you can actually incorporate those into your writing. Now, if this is something you want to go through the full process with me for, can actually sign up for my Profitable Publishing Partner Service either through the self-study course or a VIP day working with me one-on-one to knock this out and get yours done. But for now, let's focus on touch points. And so these are what I like to call interactive elements within your book. They are things that are going to actually kind of tap your reader on the shoulder and say, hey, if you've dozed off or your brain has wandered, I want you to come back to me and I want you to pay attention and I want you to do this thing that will help you to better understand what it is that I'm trying to teach you. And I'm gonna put on my teacher hat and so I've been an educator for 14 plus years, anywhere from elementary education, high school, and in the author spaces. I support coaches, consultants, service providers, and speakers to be able to package our expertise into a profitable book that ties to their products and services.
And so I also am a moderator and a guest expert in multiple groups of authors. And so these are strategies I've used and that I have a pulse within the author world. And so when it comes to teaching somebody something, you have to not only tell them what the thing is, but you actually have to check in with them and make sure that they understand what it is that you taught them. So when it comes to doing this in your book, this is a strategy that works for people whether they have exceptionalities, whether they are gifted, an English language learner, whether they are hopefully not the child that got left behind, anything in between. This is a strategy that's gonna support them. And so the key point of this is that your goal is engagement. Now when you think about this, we of course know social media engagement is like the hot topic.
Everyone's trying to get you to focus on their thing. And the same is true for your book. You want people to do three things. You want them to actually read your book because the majority of books that are written, most people don't actually read the books they buy. They just buy them to look pretty. And there's actually a Japanese term for this. I cannot remember what it is, but just the art of like buying a book just to buy a book with the intention of reading it, but you might not actually read it. And then you want them to leave a review for your book.
So of course to be able to give you those reviews, because we know we love getting reviews. And then you also want them to recommend your book. And when those three things happen, that gets you to the point of where your book becomes something that is kind of regenerating on its own, and it's able to attract people that are going to be your ideal clients, because the reviews are gonna do that for you, the recommendations, people likely are going to recommend it to people who are actually also good fit clients for you. And so that's really the goal.
And so in order for that to happen, we have to get to that first part. We have to get people to actually read your book. And one way to get them to read your book is to increase the engagement that they have with the book. And so most of the clients that I work with, they typically have a college education or beyond, and they are pretty studious. They were the ones who did pretty well in school, things like that. Now, everybody might not be like that for you. And so... that's one thing, but then also some people are really just burnt out. Like you could have all those things and know how to do it, but you could just be overwhelmed and burnt out. And so we want to really help our readers to be able to focus on what it is that we're trying to teach them. And I think back to teaching during the pandemic and just the difference between being able to physically be in a space with students versus having to connect with them online. It's kind of like that with your book. You are not necessarily always going to know who your client or not client. You're not always going to necessarily know who your reader is.
And you're also not necessarily gonna know when they actually read your book, if they've read the book, how much of the book they've read. And so you wanna put in these checkpoints, these touchpoints, to be able to bring them back to you, to be able to have those conversations with them so that way you can see, they've got to this part and this is what they still need help with. Or they got to this part and this is what they're doing great with.
And so I kinda call it like a little tap on their desk of like, hey, okay, you're here, alright, okay, keep going, you got it. Or, okay, well actually, maybe you don't got that part, maybe you didn't get that part, let's kinda take a step back. And so you might have seen action items at the end of chapters, and this goes beyond that, this is not necessarily the same, you could do it at the end of the chapter, but these are more so places where you're actually going to assess, or they are going to self-assess what it is that they are learning. That way they can make sure that they're learning it correctly, as well as that they are being able to be prepared to implement it. so why would you include these in your book? So here are three reasons. First, your reader's attention span is super short. I believe that I saw recently that adults have an attention span that's about the length of a goldfish and I think that's like five to eight seconds. I cannot remember which also probably speaks to the stat. Our attendance spans are getting shorter. Amazon also has added a section for I believe 90 minute reads or short reads, quick reads and so they also are understanding and realizing that this is a thing that's happening just due to the speed with which we can get information. We know we have AI that can provide information whether or not it's accurate or not is another story.
However, people are able to get information pretty quickly. It's not like back in the day when I was growing up and I remember when the internet was put into our home, my mom was a computer teacher and I remember that first AOL disc CD that had to go in the computer and it took forever in a day for it to be set up and then once you decided to connect, you had that like, ⁓ sound and so it's not like that anymore. People have that in their pockets. They can get an answer within seconds. And so when it comes to sitting down and reading a book, that's not always something that people typically do nowadays. Now, of course we have audiobooks, which I love, but your job as the author is to maintain their attention so that you can actually get your point across and to help them get that transformation. And so you are really competing with the internet, you're competing with everything else that's going on, all of the things that are happening on the news, everything that's happening outside, all those kind of things. And so you really want to make sure that you're mindful of the things that you include and how they can support your reader.
And so with that, you have to put things in place to help them be successful. And so that's the next point. Doing this helps your readers support themselves. So you aren't gonna have the luxury of being able to always be in the same room as your readers, to be able to know where they are starting, if they've actually read the book, if they've just skimmed the book, if they skipped the first three chapters. And so you are putting in these touch points to be able to conducts checkpoints with them in a way that they are able to say, okay, I'm getting the support, but also this person actually cares about me. They're actually checking in to make sure I'm doing it properly. They're making sure that I understand what's going on. And they're not just trying to kind of bulldoze me with information. So it also helps create a better book experience for your readers because if a reader is more engaged, and going back to my teacher hat, if a reader's more engaged, they're gonna have a better outcome because they're gonna have a deeper understanding of what it is that they read.
They're going to be able to better apply the principles that you have taught them, and they're gonna remember what it is that you're saying to them. They're not going to just have it kinda go in one ear and out the other, because they're actually engaging with the text. And then if they're able to do that, then they're more likely to do the work that you were asking them to do, whether it is actually to implement a step if your book is structured that way, or if it's some type of preparedness that needs to happen before they come and sign on with you as a client.
And so I'm gonna give you an example from my book, Profitable Publishing with Pre-orders. And so if you have your copy, then you can turn to page 31. And so this is a success check-in, is what I call them in this book. And so they are included in chapters two, three, and four. And I'm gonna read you the part before the very first one that's included. So it says, starting this journey, it's important to self-assess and reframe your mind about what's possible. To do this, you'll find exercises in chapter two through four that are called success check-ins.
For the first one, I want you to stretch yourself and think through a few components that are critical to your success. And then I have an asterisk, puts on my teacher voice, please do not skip this step. Be completely honest with yourself when answering the questions. Skipping the work means you're only cheating yourself out of future opportunities and profit. It's short, sweet, and to the point. Rate yourself on a scale of one to five with one being completely disagree and five being completely agree. After you're done, review your details from the answer key and return here to continue reading. And so then I have a QR code.
and that they can scan or they can just visit the site there. And so for me, I decided to include the answer keys inside the book. however they rated themselves, then they would have, okay, if I made it from a scale of one to 29, then I got this rating. If I got 30 to 59, then I got this rating. And then 60 to this, then I got this rating. And so this helps people to be able to see, okay, I'm not quite on the lower end, or I'm not quite on the high end, I'm right in the middle, or I'm starting from the very beginning, I have a lot of work that I might need to do, or I'm not as bad as I thought I was, like okay, I'm actually on track. And this also gives your reader a little bit of a reality check ⁓ in a good or a bad way. It could be that maybe they are someone who's hypercritical of themselves and they thought that maybe reading this book might give them strategies that are beyond what they already know but it could be confirmation that like, you're on the right track, like you're doing great. Or it could be that, wow, there's so much more I have to learn that I did not even think about, and so I'm gonna keep reading because I wanna make sure that I get these strategies. And so along with that, a step that I do is with the QR code, it links to a survey that I have, a form they can fill out, and then they put in their information and I also email them the results. Now, that's automated, I'm not manually doing that behind the scenes, of course.
But with that, that gives me a gauge to get those results from those folks to see, okay, from the people that have read my book who have actually done the survey, because obviously everyone's not gonna do the survey, but from the people who have read my book and have done the survey, these are the areas that people need the most help with, or these are the areas that people are doing great with. So that helps me as a business owner to know, okay, this is the type of content I can put out about this, or maybe I need to do some additional training on this topic because there's people who are not exactly getting this concept. this, once again, goes back to my education practices of when I saw that students were struggling with a certain concept or that they were kind of accelerating with a certain concept, that would help me to adjust my instruction. So I know, okay, this group of kids need extra help with this topic, or this group of students are done and beyond with this topic, so I can accelerate them and challenge them. And this helps save a lot of time when it comes to your business because you are not fiddling your thumbs, trying to create something that people don't want. And then also, this gives you an additional touch point with people who may not have bought your book on your website. And I'll talk about that in just a bit. And so this is a strategy that I highly recommend and it's something that you can use throughout your book and it helps you to be able to get that data from your readers to help support them better.
So the third reason why you want to implement this is because it's a way to get more details about your reader. Now I've kind of hinted at this throughout, but I wanna give you more specific reasons. just this week I had someone who purchased my book on Amazon, but I didn't know because maybe you don't know, but when someone buys your book on Amazon you have no idea who it is. So they bought my book on Amazon, it was referred to them by Veronica Moore who I featured on episode nine of this podcast so check that out because she actually was able to generate $4,000 in four hours using the launch and pre-order strategies that I share. But it was one of her clients. She recommended the book to them and then they bought it or she bought it and then I got the survey that came in and I said, okay, I see this person's name. They filled out the survey and then Veronica reached out to me and said, hey, that's actually, this person's gonna be reaching out to you. They bought your book. I said, okay, I saw her on the form and so I see who this is. Now had I not had something additional inside the book to be able to see who it is that purchased and had I not had Veronica reach out to me about this person, then I would have had no idea who this person was and or not had a way to contact them. And so doing this, whether it is through some type of weed capture form or whether filling out something for you, whatever way you're conducting your touch point, you wanna have it include something that comes back to you. You don't just want it to have to be something that's in your book that you're never getting those results from it because then the data kinda stays with them and it doesn't come to you. And so this is so helpful because especially on Amazon, once again, we do not know who our buyers are. And so this is a way to kinda circumvent that. Well, maybe not circumvent, that sounds a little shady.
This is a way to encourage another opportunity for people to reach out to you. And there are people that I have that fill out the form and they don't put their real information, they put a fake email address and a fake name, which to me, okay, that's fine. Those are probably the people who are not going to want additional services or help anyway. But for the other people, I can use that information with their permission, of course, to reach out to them and say, hey, thanks so much. Like I noticed that you filled out this success check-in. Is there anything else I can help you with?
And this can be something that I automate where I'm getting to be able to reach out to them after they filled it out. Or I could do it manually, like once a quarter, I could say, hey, I noticed that you did this, or even once a month or more frequently. ⁓ And so all of that ties back to being able to support your reader, to be able to actually read your book, to review your book, and to recommend your book. And so I'm going to give you some examples of different touch points you could use. And so you might want to write these down, just kind of a quick short list.
So you could use checklists, you could use surveys, you could include reflection prompts, or it could be something that's interactive, such as a tool that they can use, and this could be AI generated or otherwise with other software, or even guided journal responses. And so some real life examples, let's say you are a personal trainer, and there's certain things that you want people to be able to have in their home before they hire you.
And it could be on a scale of one to 10, how ready are you for a personal trainer? And so there would be these certain things that they might have to out to be able to self-assess, okay, I gotta get my life together, or I'm ready to go, or maybe some mindset things that they have to have, because it doesn't all have to be tangible things. And then another example I'll use from my own books, I have a devotional on the Daniel Fast Journal, 21 Day Food and Faith Journal.
and it's a guided journal and so really it's a devotional but each day of the devotional they have a section they're reading and then action items for prompts that they have to do. I could create something that's interactive for them to be able to fill it out online and then that way that could be information that I use to better support them. And then I do also have a resource for them that gives them things they can eat as well as Bible verses to support them and so they come over to my site.
They fill out their information and then I get that. And then within that I could add something that's asking them a question. So like what's the hardest part for you for doing the Daniel Fest? And then that way that gives me data as well as gives them a place to kind of express themselves. Now a few tips before we go. Don't do so many of these touch points that you overwhelm your reader. This is not meant to be a ton of homework. It's not meant to be something that box them down. I think about
When I worked with my elementary school students, I didn't give a lot of homework because studies show that homework isn't always the most effective tool for them to learn. And also people have things going on. People have lives. So these are meant to be quick. They're meant to be just a little check in and it's meant to be something that helps to elevate them as opposed to bog them down. And then another tip is that you wanna look at the things you already have.
So you wanna consider, do I already have something that I could use for this to help my reader check in with themselves or to self-assess? And if I don't, do I have something I can use that I can just kinda tweak or tailor to fit what it is that I need to be able to do? Because we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Maybe you already have something that is a good fit and it just needs to be adjusted slightly even if someone doesn't become a client from working, through your book and using your touch points, they will be better off in general and they will have a better understanding of your framework. And if they were someone who was a good fit to buy that book, then they would and should become a raving fan because you've helped them to achieve this transformation that's happening within the book or help them to get ready for whatever transformation that you would have done had you ended up working with them. So today's episode was all about touch points that you can use within your book to be able to support your reader and three reasons why you should include them. And so first it was that readers have short attention spans and these touch points help to kind of tap them on their shoulder and let them know, hey, let's lock back in, let's focus. And then the second one is that it helps readers to support themselves because you won't always be there to do that physically in the same space with them.
And then it's a way to help you get more details about how to help them in general, which can support you to be able to create additional products and services and or just content that you need for your business or your brand.
So if this is something you need further support with, then I encourage you to sign up for my Profitable Publishing Partner Service. You can get the support that you need when it comes to writing, publishing, and launching a profitable book that builds your brand so that your clients are attracted to you like raving fans. And so you can visit profitableselfpublishing.com slash partner and you can sign up there to either apply or if you're an existing client then you can skip the application process and you have the option of either doing the self-study course or working in a longer form with me to be able to help you write, publish, and launch your book. Until next time, stay profitable.
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