Are you planning on publishing a new book? Why not consider making it interactive?
In this blog post, I am going to share with you three reasons why you should make your book interactive.
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Why Should You Make Your Book Interactive?
What are some ways you can make your book project interactive? Here are three reasons why I would recommend making your book interactive.
1. Marketing
One reason why you should make your book interactive is to make it more marketable.
One of the things I hear over and over from authors is that they want to sell more books. I believe that making your book interactive is going to make your book more marketable so that you can sell more books later on.
One thing you can do is you can have discussion questions in the back of your book with a leader’s guide and it can be used for a book study. This is something any of you can do either for a fiction or a non-fiction book.
I specialize in nonfiction so I know that most nonfiction books can do this. But you can do this for fiction too. You can do book clubs, book studies and things like that. Groups will buy books in bulk.
My very first book “Mirror, Mirror, am I Beautiful” has a bible study in it, it has a leader’s guide, and discussion questions. When I sell that book I tend to sell it in multiple copies because people are buying for their entire group.
So that’s the first reason to make your book interactive – to make it more marketable.
2. Serve Your Audience
The second reason is to serve your audience in a deeper way.
Another way that you can have interactive content in your book is to include corresponding video teaching. In my latest book project, Broken Crayons Still Color, every chapter has a corresponding video teaching that is around 35 minutes long. It is really meaty, content rich and is intended to be used as a book study. So you can read the chapter, you can watch the video, use the discussion questions and then end in prayer. However, I am not calling it a bible study because it is more of a topical study.
Adding a bonus video training is super valuable because they can see it in action. My teaching videos, they teach something completely different than what I have shared in my chapters and it is an interactive, visual learning option. Everyone learns differently, so this is a good way to help your readers.
So that is reason number two; to serve your audience in a deeper way.
3. Standout
When you have interactive content in your book whether they are discussion questions, video content, reflection questions, etc. you are able to serve your 
audience in a deeper way because they are then able to apply what you are teaching them.
In my book Marketing Your Book on Amazon I include as a bonus to all my customers who buy that book a video training walking you step by step, what I do post publication of a book to optimize my book on Amazon. That is a very valuable bonus and it sets me apart.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of books being published on Amazon every single day. How can you serve your audience and stand out from your competition? Do something different; add some interactive aspects to your book.
If it make sense, include video teachings for free for those customers who buy your book. You just have to put a link inside your book. For my “Marketing Your Book on Amazon” I just put a link to an unlisted video on YouTube. It’s that simple.
For my current project I’m going to have a page on my website so that it brings them back to my website. I’m going to have information on there but I still have to put together those pages and what they’re going to look like.
So that’s the third reason; you will be able to set yourself apart.
Four Ways to Make Your Book Interactive
There are many, many ways you can make your book more interactive. I will share four ways I am doing it for my current book project.
- Discussion Guide – this includes a leader’s guide that walks them through how I recommend using my book and video series.
- Reflection Questions – personal reflection questions included within the book. These can also be called journaling prompts.
- Video Content – I also have a viewer’s guide in the book so they can fill it out as they are watching the videos. The videos will be available free online, but it’s just another way that makes my book interactive.
- Coloring Pages – I have one for each chapter. Not everyone will want to use those coloring pages, and that’s OK, I’ll also have them available as downloads so people can download them and print them off.
What do you think? Are you in? Is this something that you would be willing to do for your book?
I have thought about this a lot and that is why my latest project has so much interactivity in it. I want it to be valuable, serve my audience, but I also want to set myself apart from my competition, make it more marketable, and have a quality product I’m proud of.
I hope that you implement some of these strategies in your book publishing because I am always so excited to serve you.
I have a free webinar all about publishing, and if you haven’t watched it yet you can join at ShelleyHitz.com/formulas, Three Book Writing Formulas Every Nonfiction Author Needs to Know. I hope you’ll join me for that.
Until next time!
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