The Ten Most Effective Ways To Reward Readers for Reading Your Novel

with guest Vince Mooney.

"What Gets Rewarded Gets Done." -Michael Leboeuf

Advertisers learned over 100 years ago that if you wanted people to read your ads, you had to reward them for reading at every step along the way. That means rewarding your readers sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph and even subhead by subhead. 

"The Smartest Writing Advice I Ever Got Featuring Seekers and friends of Seekerville." 

The best writing advice I ever received was from Clyde Bedell, my boss and a charter member of the Retail Advertising Hall of Fame, who told me:

“No one has to read advertising. People won’t be bored in print. You have to keep them reading or the most powerful selling message in the world will do you no good. The way to keep people reading is to reward them every step of the way.” 

This same advice applies to fiction.  Over the years I have found that the writers who reward their readers the most often also happen to be best-selling authors.

There are many ways to reward readers. While I'll mention the top ten in this post, as a way to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Seekerville, there are many more ways as well.  As a creative writer, it would be wise to always be on the look-out for new ways of rewarding readers.  

The Golden Rule for Using Rewards:

"Attract The Favorable Attention of Those Readers Who Will Most Enjoy Your Book."

Rewards work best when they are offered to readers who already have an interest in what you are writing.  

To do the best job of doing this it is a must to know your readers and what they like. 

Consider the below headline: 

"Do You Make These 10 Common Mistakes Which Cost Investors Thousands?" 

This headline promises to offer investors valuable information as the reward for reading the ad. It also attracts the attention of investors -- the advertiser's target audience.

For fiction writers, this means you should design your marketing so that it grabs the attention of the very best prospects for your book.  This is your target audience. They are the easy to sell, 'low hanging,' fruit you simply must capture.   

The best way to grab the attention of these prospects is by having a headline, a title, and cover art that show what kind of book it is. It would also help of the cover art shows some of the rewards readers will get by reading your novel. 

For example: if a 'hidden child' theme book is set in a beautiful seaside location and the story involves ballooning, then cover art showing the seashore, sailboats, a lighthouse, and balloons in the air above, can promise these rewards to the potential reader.  If possible the cover could also show the moment when the father discovers the child is his. This is often the most anticipated scene in the book.  Of course, you must play fair with your readers. That scene must be in the book. (Ruth might even include an adorable dog in the story.)

The Top Ten Rewards  

1. Write to the needs of the reader and not just the needs of the novel. 

Write like you are around a campfire telling a story to the audience before you.

Note their reactions. Keep them entertained. Always be looking for ways to add rewards to each page. Avoid a series of low or no reward pages in a row. 'Sagging' rewards can happen anywhere in the novel, not just the middle. Ask your self: "How is my reader reacting to this page as she reads it?"

2. Write rich copy which moves the story along faster and with more information. 

I call this 'paragraph packing'. For example, a scene can accomplish its main objective like informing the hero that the heroine is upset and on her way to his office. However, the same scene could also accomplish many other objectives. I've seen eight or nine goals accomplished in a single scene and sometimes this can be done without adding many additional words.  James Patterson goes over each scene many times not to find errors but to make the story better. 

For example, a paragraph could: 
start a new anticipatory event (AE)
resolve or answer an (AE)
reveal a secret
create a secret
give a clue or create a red herring
lay a foundation for a coming event
foreshadow a turn in the plot
provide a factoid (information that is interesting) 
provide a little backstory
contain a sparkle -- a beautiful use of language
do some five sensing
spark an emotion in the reader 
mirror environment conditions to story development

Packing paragraphs with powerful story elements makes the reading richer. As the reader learns more about the story that reader becomes more invested in the story. The sooner this happens the better.

3. Make each scene important by having it change the trajectory of the story. 

If a scene does not change where the story is going, then cut it out.  This gives the story a strong sense of movement. This is James Patterson's advice. Doing this can make a 400-page novel seem to move as fast as a 200-page book. 

I've read some Marion Chesney Regency Romances that were about 180 pages long and were very satisfying romances. However, they also featured complete mysteries which were complex enough to fill a 300-page book. She did this with excellent paragraph packing. Marion eventually moved into the mystery genre to become the best-selling M. C. Beaton. 


4. Keep asking questions that the reader simply must have answered right away. 

These are often Anticipatory Events (AE) that the reader looks forward to having answered. They can be short-term (answered in a page or two), chapter long (resolved in the same chapter), medium term (answered in a few chapters) and global (answered by the book's end).  

For example: Sandra Byrd in  Asking for Trouble.

London Confidential writes about a 15-year-old girl who starts school in London when her family moves there from America. She wants a job on the school newspaper. Will she get the job? Will her lack of experience cost her? Is a new girl also coming to the school? Will she be a friend or enemy? Will she want to work on the newspaper? Will she take the job from me?  All the above is going on before the new girl even shows up. I think most writers would just have the new girl show up one day with no AEs. Also by creating these AEs the author shows the mindset of a 15-year-old.  I found this book a super page-turner with its dozens of AEs.  

5. Make it easy for the reader to read your writing. 

Readers like white space, short chapters, short paragraphs, and crystal clear prose. It's important to check each sentence for alternative meanings. A sentence which is given an alternative meaning can confuse the reader and cause her to reread the sentence several times. This will surely pull her out of the story. This is the opposite of rewarding the reader. 

Also be careful with names. Make names unique to the story. Try to use different letters of the alphabet to start each name. No Richards and Roberts as major characters in the same story. A reader should never have to ask: "Which character is this? I'm not sure. Is Richard the uncle or is it Robert?"  Be especially aware of famous names or mythical names like Phoenix -- the bird… or Butch … a favorite bully name. It's best not to color your characters with the baggage of these names unless the name's connotations actually apply to your character.
  
6. Add value to your base story.

 This additional value often makes the reader feel smarter for having read your book. Added value is a big reward for some readers. Nevada Barr sets each novel inside a National Park. This is a great way to experience national parks. I read "Ill Wind" just before visiting Mesa Verde where the mystery is set. 

Ask: "What will the reader get from reading this story besides the story itself?  

7. Give your characters a variety of emotions that the readers will also be vicariously feeling. 

I like to color code my copy with highlighters. For example: red for anger, green for jealousy, yellow for happiness, blue for sadness or depression, etc. This lets you easily check your writing to see if it is colorless or monochrome. Many readers read romances for the vicarious feelings they want to experience. These feelings include being loved, appreciated, victorious, desired, admired, etc. When your reader feels these emotions your book comes alive. This is how to reach out and touch your readers. 

Don't write a downer which is depressing until the HEA arrives. Give characters some victories along the way. Watching the tv show "Call the Midwife," can cause some highly emotional experiences. Over the years I've noticed that every emotional high (like a difficult birth being successful) there is a balancing low point (a death).  

8. Move beyond telling and showing to 'being' in which the reader feels what the character feels. 

For example: you can tell the reader that a character was angry. You can show the reader that the character was angry by showing him leave his office and slamming the door. For 'Being', making the reader feel anger, you could have the character kick the sleeping dog as he leaves the office. A writer can't always do this but it can be done more often than one might think. When the story happens to the reader that's a major reward.


9. Keep it fresh. Avoid clichés and stock romance scenes. 

Create new future clichés. Also write what I call sparkles -- colorful, beautiful or even surprising use of words when describing events or settings like a beautiful sunset or waterfall. 

Suggestion: make a list of the most popular clichés in current use. When you get a chance, like on line at the post office, try to think of new ways to say the same thing. Write these down for future use. 

10. Invest the reader quickly in the story. 

Use headers like: 

Summer 1887 
Tombstone Territory.  

By packing your paragraphs you can inform the reader as to what is happening, who the characters are, why the reader should care, what is at stake and the character's  goals and motivation. 

If you want your readers to buy your next book, make the book they are currently reading as rewarding as possible. 

"What gets rewarded gets done."

Readers, which of these reward methods are your favorites? Feel free to share authors who you've read who provide memorable rewards.

Writers, which of these rewards do you find the most challenging?

Leave a comment today. Seekerville is giving away a Seeker ebook of choice to one commenter. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition. 

 Vince Mooney is a friend of Seekerville. He’s a retired marketing creative person and college teacher who now runs a real estate school by mail and writes romances and nonfiction books on writing. A university training philosopher, it’s been said that sometimes it’s hard to tell when he is being serious. 

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