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. 

Day 14 of our October Birthday Celebration. Every comment today gets you in the running for our weekly $50 Amazon gift card (This week's winner announced tomorrow!) and the Kindle Fire with Alexa! 

Why Rewarding the Reader is More Important than Ever Before: Reading Has Changed with Guest Vince Mooney

For most of history reading was a well planned event. Even getting a book to read was a big deal. This was especially true when books were handwritten scrolls. The printing press made books more available but they were still very expensive. The creation of lending libraries made books economically available allowing more people to read more books. Eventually, dime novels brought affordable reading to a larger audience who now read both at home and ‘on-the-go’ in buses and trains. Reading had changed.



Books Came With A Price

However, even with greater availability, books still carried a price. Readers still had an investment in the books they purchased. A dull, slow moving, book would often still be read because of the reader’s investment in it. A physical book was also always present as a reminder to the reader that it still needed to be read. Ebooks are changing all this. Reading may never be the same.

Ebooks Have Changed Reading --  Books as Cable TV


I have over 1,200 eBooks on my Kindle. At least 95% of these books were free downloads. Many were selected only because I knew that they might be offered as free for just a day or two. Since I knew that at some point in the future I might want to read any of these books, I downloaded them when I had the opportunity.  While I own these books, I have no investment in them. I probably will never read 90% or more of my Kindle books unless I encounter a good reason to read them beyond simply owning them. Such a good reason might come about if an author or a review makes the book seem like something I would really want to read.  


Slow Books Now Get Rejected Quickly

 Having no investment in hundreds of books, makes me much less likely to finish a slow moving book than I used to be when I read print books. In fact, of the last twenty eBooks I’ve started to read, (and I paid for most of these) I’ve only finished five of them. The rest did not hold my interest. I’ve become a ‘book surfer’. This is not a good thing from a writer’s POV.


“Five Hundred Channels and Nothing to Watch” – The ‘Channel Surfer’s’ Lament

Ebooks are just ‘there’ in the ether. They are like TV shows available on demand with just a click of a button.  My Kindle is the same.  I can switch books in seconds with just a simple click of my finger. If a book drags, click! It’s gone. And why not? Isn’t there always the hope of ‘greener grass’ on the other side of the fence?  Reading is fast becoming a tug-of-war between the book you are currently reading and the lure of a more interesting book that may be just a click away. 

The Real Cost of a Book is the Reader’s ‘Opportunity Time’

Think about this: in the past a book could easily cost the equivalent of two or three hours pay for the average reader. When you paid $15 to 25 for a hardbound book, you felt obligated to read it – or at least give it your best try. But with eBooks there is often little to no monetary investment involved. 

Each day on Amazon hundreds of new books, still in copyright, are offered to readers for free. There are also over one million available free books that are out of copyright.  Readers today are more likely to regard the cost of reading a book in terms of their lost ‘opportunity time’. This is the time they could have spent reading a better book or of doing something else altogether with their leisure time. 

Is Reading this Book the Best Use of My Limited Time to Read?

With an almost unlimited supply of free books. readers are faced with this question: “Is this the best use of my reading time or could I be reading a more enjoyable book?”

The TBR pile takes on a whole new meaning in this world of digital reading. Can it really be said that books are being put aside to be read later? Were these free eBooks obtained with the sincere intention of reading them someday as are books in a TBR pile? Perhaps the books that will be read in the future will be simply those that provide the greatest incentive to be read at the moment.  Even when a buyer does buy an ebook this by itself provides little assurance that the reader will even remember that the book is owned. 


Reading Anytime, Anywhere – Entertain Me -- Prove You’re Worth My Time



Reading has moved from being a ‘sit-down’ concentrated event – often at home in an easy chair – to being an anytime, anywhere, fleeting experience. With digital books a reader can have any book instantly available in any given situation. This can include traffic tie-ups or long waits on line.

The New Reading Requires Changes In Writing

Writers now face a new reading reality. It’s not just that reading preferences have changed. Reading itself is changing. These changes will continue profoundly as eBooks become the norm.

Changes That Are Coming:

1. Readers will demand more highly entertaining books. These will be books that continually reward the reader, page by page, for their time spent reading. Expect multiple rewards per page.

2. Readers will want books that make it easy to ‘dip into and pop out of’ the narrative without getting lost. This will require short chapters, memorable characters with appropriately unique names. Character names should not look like or sound like the names of other characters in the story. (For example: a Robert and a Richard or a Carol and a Carla will not do in the same story.)

Think back to of the heydays of the soap operas when fans would follow several ‘stories’ each day. Many of the characters in these soap operas had unique names so that it was easy for fans to keep the different soaps apart in their minds. Unique names also made it easier to discuss the various soaps with other fans. You just knew that there was just one ‘Spider’, one “Asa” and one “Erica”. Usually just the character names would let you know which soap opera you were watching or talking about. 

3. Readers will seek books the move the story along very quickly and in small bites. This requires giving the reader the impression of rapid story progression. Each chapter should be treated as the start of a new book. Each should be given the same attention that is given to the first pages of a contest entry.

4. Readers will prefer sympathetic characters they care about. Caring about what happens to a character provides the greatest hook. Writers will need to create very sympathetic characters very early in the story. If a reader does not care what happens to the characters, then there is little reason to finish the book.

5. Readers will be reading more books at the same time. First, because they will have those books with them on their eReaders. Second, because some books at better read at different times and under different conditions.  If readers are reading more books at the same time, then it becomes more important for writers to make their books easy to follow and remember for those readers coming back to them after reading part of another book. 


The “Name of the Game”  is Now Getting Your Books Read!

In the past it might have been enough to get a book sold. Most readers would eventually get around to reading it. Today, however, selling a book is just the beginning!  Authors need to get readers to actually read their books.

If a reader has an author’s book but does not finish it, then that reader is much less likely to buy another one of that author’s books.  If a reader has an author’s book on her eReader, then she is less likely to buy another one of that author’s books until she reads the one she already has.


The Numbers Don’t Favor Many New Writers


Established authors, with a large number of faithful fans, may not need to change very much. However, the numbers do not favor new authors. Ebooks have made it much more likely that a writer will publish. This fact alone has greatly increased the number of books available for sale. With many established authors now publishing their out-of-print backlist books, the supply of well written books is rapidly increasing. Many of these backlist books are updated by their authors and appear exactly like new books in their digital format. All this new supply means there will be many more books available to read but there will be no more time in the day to read them.

Market Segmentation Means Smaller Target Audiences

Since eBooks cost less to produce, they can be profitable even with a much smaller target market. Smaller markets lead to new subgenres. If a reader wants an Amish romantic comedy with a mystery involving vampires, there is a chance that story is out there.

Once in America there were many profitable national magazines. Then TV killed their advertising revenue. Most of the big national magazines  have died. Yet magazine still thrive today by serving very small but highly targeted markets. Just visit a Barnes & Noble bookstore and you’ll see hundreds of magazines on sale.

Books are becoming like the magazine market. This segmentation of reading choices makes readers much more picky in what they judge as interesting enough to read. As such readers are more likely to be able to get exactly the kind of story they want. This will make them less patient with books that are not exactly what they were looking for. The future will produce more picky readers, smaller markets and readers who have little tolerance for ‘sagging middles’ -- this even includes the middles of individual chapters.

Reading Time is Finite – While Books Available to Read Keeps Expanding 

With many more books available and so many specialized subgenres for a reader to choose from, it is going to become harder for any author to make a living writing books. The key to success in the future will be in writing many books in the new ‘dip-into-and-pop-out-of’ style – while also doing what is necessary to get people to actually finish reading those books.

Shorter Books – More Rewarding Endings

I believe that books will get shorter. Endings will need to be more rewarding and more deliberately written to the author’s next book. The best time to sell the next book is immediately after the satisfied reader has finished the current one.  Ebooks should always end with a list of the author’s other books. There is some good news: books that never go out of print will provide authors with added income opportunities that were not available under the old print book system.

The Need to Build Your “Auto-Buy” List of Fans

Having Facebook friends and building a platform of fans is important. But the real prize is in building an author’s ‘auto-buy’ list of fans. These are fans who will buy any of an author’s new books -- once they learn about them.

Giving Readers Reasons to ‘Have Read’ Your Book
If an author wants to sell her books, then she will need to get readers, who already own her books, to read them. It is not enough that a reader has purchased a book. It must be read. This means writers will still need to market their books to those who already own them. This is where social media can be a great help. Even if a blog visit does not sell any books, it still can be successful if it gets people who already own any of the author’s books to read them. Authors should be thinking of ways to provide reasons for readers to read their books. Both the readers who have their books and those that don’t.

One idea would be to set the book in a location where many people visit. Get the message out that “if you are going to go to Mesa Verde Park”, for example, “then you really should read this book first”. Another idea would be to give an insider’s view of a sport or hobby that many people have an interest it. Perhaps you could select ‘ballooning’.  You might even have a book about traveling around the country going to Bluegrass Festivals. There are many ways to do this. These might be called books that do more than simply entertain. The new marketing may well center around creating many different reasons for readers to buy and read your book. 


 The Lessman Lesson & The Necessity of Writing A Page-Turner 

 By necessity, Julie Lessman has learned to write in a highly rewarding fashion. Her books offer a good example of some of the ways to write for the new reading environment. I covered this subject in my review last year of, “A Hope Undaunted,” which I titled, “How to Write a 500-Page “Page-Turner”!


As I see it, Julie has two main challenges in keeping a reader’s interest. First, her books are long so the job is just harder. Second, her stories are part of a multi-generational family saga. This often means that just when one chapter gets really interesting, the story switches to another storyline at the start of the next chapter. This can be somewhat frustrating for the reader. Just as a reader gets really hooked into a storyline, a different one interrupts the fun. This situation requires that the author always be rewarding the reader and doing so very quickly.

While reading, “A Love Surrendered,” it occurred to me that this book really has eighteen ‘first’ chapters. Each chapter could serve as the start of a new book. Each chapter would also make a good writing contest entry. In a way, there can be no ‘sagging middle’ if there is no perceived middle at all. What,“A Love Surrendered,” seems to do is have a new but interrelated segment at the start of each chapter.

“A Love Surrendered” is a particularly interesting book because it brings together eight story lines with eight individual HEAs.  There are the continuing HEAs for five of the O’Connor children, the first HEA for the hero and heroine of this final story, the HEA for the mother and father, Patrick and Marcy, and finally the HEA for the extended family as a whole. Observing how to keep all these threads interesting, as the various storylines switch from chapter to chapter, is like attending a master class on how to reward and keep a reader’s interest.

More ways to reward a reader for reading.


I’ve posted some ways to reward a reader here in past. Below are some more. 

How Making Your ‘Reading Experience’ More Rewarding Can Spell Greater Success!

What Mega Selling Authors Know That You  Could Use to Boost Your Sales


 MORE WAYS TO REWARD READERS

1. Make your dedication count. (A dedication can enhance the reading experience by validating the author’s expertise or sincerity. Remember you are dealing with the total reading experience. What the reader thinks of the writer is like the ambiance in a restaurant.)

Missy Tippens has an exemplar dedication in her "A House Full of Faith".  A heartwarming dedication like this one makes the reader feel more disposed to like the author and enjoy the story. A sincere dedication is even more important when writing an inspirational novel.

2. Make your acknowledgements validate your knowledge. Readers will enjoy their reading experience more deeply if they are assured that the author is knowledgeable about the subject matter. 

Ruth Logan Herne has an ideal acknowledgement passage in her, “A Family to Cherish.”  This is about three hundred words long but then you know Ruth. When a story covers medical problems, acknowledgments made to medical experts add an important element of trust and confidence to the reading experience. 

3. Use locations that many readers would like to visit or revisit. A great location is a way to ‘build-in’ strong marketing elements even before you write the first word.  Mona Risk has a to-die-for location in her, “Sailing With You,” which takes place mostly outdoors on the Greek island of Mykonos. I bought this book for the cover and was amply rewarded! 



 

4. Have characters with interesting jobs or hobbies. (Be sure to show the character doing that job or hobby or the reader will feel cheated.)   Mary Connealy has a hero who is a western painter in, “Wrangler in Petticoats”.  Not only are the paintings important to the story, the story is set in the Yellowstone Park area. (This is a marketing ‘two-fer’!) Marketers love authors like Mary who build strong marketing elements into their stories.

 Wrangler in Petticoats" -- A Book Mark Twain Would Enjoy"-Philosophy of Romance.


5. Have things happen sooner than the reader anticipates. (A debt paid early is twice paid.) I must admit authors are doing this much more often than they used to. It used to be that a girl would be asked to the prom and it would take two chapters for the prom to happen. Now the next scene will often open at the prom. Readers love, love, love to get to the ‘good stuff’ sooner than they expected. 

6. Avoid the use of common or popular writing expressions. Say things in a way only you would say them and in a way the reader has not heard them before. This makes for fresher and more rewarding reading. (I’ve read about smiles that don’t reach up to the eyes at least a dozen times lately.)

7. Use more poetic, fresh, and snappy, language. When I used ordinary language in advertising my boss used to draw a tired person next to the copy. This was a wakeup call. When you are layering, let one layer be a wake up call.

8. Five-sense your copy: use all the senses when possible without being stilted. Tina Radcliffe’s, “Rancher’s Reunion” has many good examples of five-sensing. Here is a good passage:

“Her senses greedily feasted on the American sights and sounds. It was the simple things she’d missed; the twang of an Oklahoma accent, the U.S. Flag hanging high in the terminal, a sign advertising Mazzio’s pizza, the chatter of the crowd in English, and American food. The tantalizing aroma of a bagel kiosk caused a pause in her steps. Onion, chive and garlic. They all called out to her.”  


9. Multi-emotionalize your writing. More than most fiction, romances are meant to be felt. Introduce a whole range of different emotions. Keep the reader feeling different things. The vicarious feelings of being loved, admired, desired, and the like act as emotional vitamins for many readers. All of Julie Lessman’s ‘edgy Christian fiction’ stories are very passionate and emotionally fulfilling. Expressing just one emotion is like a meal with only one item. Offer the reader a splendid multi-course gourmet experience.

10. Introduce the reader to new odors, fragrances and other olfactory experiences. Describe them with poetic beauty. Often these scents are expensive and have never been experienced by the reader. See if you can smell a sample of a very expensive perfume. Go and write down your description of the scent. 

11. Introduce readers to new tastes: exotic foods, wines, candies, etc. This should include the texture, color, and mouth-feel. Again, give the reader new experiences. Could a wine testing experience fit into your story?

12. Introduce readers to new sights: like the view from a high mountain, a look through a giant telescope, or what a skydiver sees when falling to earth.

13. Introduce readers to new sounds. Like what does it sound like to be diving sixty feet under water? Is there any noise? Can you hear any of the fish? What do the ships above sound like?

14. Write crystal clear copy. This is copy that never has to be reread in order to be understood in the author’s intended context. All of Janet Dean’s books provide good examples of this style of writing. 


15. Have anticipatory events that are resolved at various time spans in the story from very short to medium to book length. The reader thus always has something to look forward to happening. Give the reader lots of things to look forward to, as many YA books do, and you won’t have to rely so heavily on increasing tension or forever  raising the stakes to maintain reader interest.


16. Don’t have all depressing events. Allow your main characters to enjoy small victories along the way. The reader may well be in a character’s head for hours. Let there be some happy moments. Even if this is just having the heroine win a $50 radio contest. Small victories are like smelling the roses along the way.

17. Add factoids: these are facts that can make the reader feel smarter. Choose facts that seamlessly add credibility to a character’s knowledge. These could be ‘Rules of Thumb’ from the character’s trade.

18. Add historical facts when they fit into the story. Read books on “Things We Know That Ain’t So.”. Readers really feel rewarded when they learn something is not true that they always thought was true. Did you know that Woodrow Wilson’s first name was Thomas? Did you know that Thomas means twin? Historical facts are nice in period pieces but the facts that have the most impact are the ones where readers have to change what they once thought was true. Such facts are more rewarding than ordinary facts.

19. Add some handy ‘how to’ stuff like a good way to clean a coffee stain on a shirt. This should be knowledge that the character would have. Build credibility for your characters by having them say things that have the potential to make the reader smarter.

20. Show how other people do things differently: in Italy they wave goodbye with their palm facing the person waving. If coffee is made differently be sure to point this out.


Most of these rewards make reading more interesting. Most do not have to be in the first draft. Rewards are very amendable to being layered into the copy later. Rewards should not be in the story just to be in the story. They should be supportive of the story in some way. If the hero is just back from a trip to France, he could give the heroine a new experience like an exotic perfume or unique chocolate candy. The reader could then experience the gift along with the heroine. That is if the author writes in a way to bring that experience  to life for the reader. 


“What Gets Rewarded, Gets Done.”
Michael LeBoeuf

****

About Vince Mooney

Vince is a friend of Seekerville. He is a teacher, real estate broker, owner of a real estate school and former marketing executive. He has written nationally and internationally syndicated advertising with over 3,000,000 words in print. He has published in professional journals, wrote a real estate book for the Real Estate Education Company and has written over 100 different real estate seminars approved by Oklahoma for continuing education. He is currently writing fiction and a nonfiction book on ‘Rewarding the Reader’ which is almost finished! Vince blogs regularly at Philosophy of Romance.

Seekerville is giving away a surprise birthday present in honor of Vince's visit today. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition. 

Comment today! Check out our Birthday Presents!

How Making Your ‘Reading Experience’ More Rewarding Can Spell Greater Success!

Learn How Best Selling Authors Achieve High “Rewards-Per-Page” Scores, with Guest Blogger Vince Mooney



Classic Advertising Principle:
“The way to get prospects to read even the longest advertising copy is to reward them for reading every step of the way.”

The Greatest Management Principle: GMP:
“What Gets Rewarded Gets Done.” Michael LeBoeuf

I have been conducting an analysis of the Romance genre for the last ten years. In studying over 1,200 romance novels I have made many observations. Perhaps the discovery of most interest to romance writers is my “Rewards-Per-Page” index. (RPP)

Fact #1: People will not be bored in print.

Fact #2: No one has to read advertising,

Fact #3: The way to get people to do anything is to reward them for doing it .

Fact #4: Competent copywriters will usually reward readers by providing beneficial information that they need and can use.

Consider this headline:

Will Your Next Manuscript Be Rejected Because You Made One of These 17 Fatal Mistakes?

If you are an aspiring writer, you will probably find the above headline to be irresistible. It would almost be negligent not to read this ad. Even if the ad were thousands of words long, it is still highly likely that you would read every word of the copy -- if the copy kept rewarding you with important information. Notice that the above ad offers this valuable information for free! All you have to do is read the ad.

Fiction’s Advantage Over Advertising

Fiction has many more ways to reward a reader for reading than advertising does. Romance writers have dozens of ways to reward their readers. (My workshop manual on ‘Rewarding Readers’ lists over 100 ways.) Unfortunately, many authors do not take advantage of the many ways to reward readers. This is why they receive low Rewards-Per-Page (RPP) scores.

Why Bother to Reward the Reader?

You might wonder why an author would be concerned about rewarding the reader especially on every page. After all, the reader has usually bought the book by the time she starts reading it. Rather than RPP, shouldn’t the author be striving for literary excellence? Besides, isn’t writing to obtain a high RPP score really just pandering to readers? Isn’t a great story reward enough for any reader?

Rewarding Readers: Optional in Literature?

If you are writing enduring literature, you don’t have to worry as much about rewarding readers on a page-by-page basis. It has often been said of ‘classics’ that they are books readers want to ‘have read’ more than they want to actually read them. I’ve read classics that I am glad to have read but that were not very enjoyable to read.

Why Rewarding Readers is Very Important in Romances

In romances the reader pretty much knows how the story is going to end. The book is not being read to find out ‘who done it’ as in a mystery. The reader is not even trying to solve a puzzle as in a detective story. What the reader is doing is ‘consuming’ the story because the experience of reading the romance is enjoyable.


I find it helpful to think of a romance novel as being a consumable product -- like a chocolate cake. Both the novel and the cake will be replaced in a few days by a similar consumable item. Just as you’d want every bite of a chocolate cake to taste good, so too, readers want their ‘reading experiences’ to ‘taste good’ on every page. This desire can be measured with the RPP index.

I believe that fans read romances for how the ‘reading experience’ makes them feel as they are actually reading the novel. The HEA is guaranteed. As such, romances are primarily about the extended, on-going, ‘reading experience’ that they provide a reader.

Fans are Buying a “Basket of Feelings”

In a way, buying a romance novel is like buying a ‘basket of feelings’. Fans know that some themes, like the ‘hidden child’ theme, will provide them with a predictable set of feelings. When these feelings are in ‘deficit’, fans can actually develop a craving for a given romance theme.

Discovering an Important Truth about Romance Writing Success

Some years ago I was reading a romance magazine in which a few second-tier authors were complaining that publishers pick favorite authors to promote. Nora Roberts was considered so successful because of all the promotional money spent on her books. Publishers spend a small fortune on ads and in-store, point-of-purchase, displays to promote their favorite authors. One author from the second-tier was singled out as being superior to Nora Roberts in quality because she receives better reviews. However, because of her publisher’s smaller advertising budget, her sales were only a tiny fraction of those of Nora Roberts.

Better Reviews or Bigger Sales?

Coincidentally, at the time I read this romance article, I had just read and reviewed a book by Nora Roberts and a book by the ‘better’ author mentioned in the journal article. The ‘better’ author did, in fact, have better reviews. I will also freely admit that her book had more literary merit. (That is, it spoke to the human condition and universal values in a much more poignant and enduring manner than Nora Robert’s book did.)

I decided to see how the two books compared on a reward-per-page basis. The ‘better’ author got about 1 to 2 rewards per page (with some pages having no rewards). Nora’s score was about nine rewards-per-page. (So far, Nora Roberts enjoys the highest scores I’ve encountered. Other best selling authors like Janet Evanovich, M. C. Beaton, and Linda Howard also have high RPP scores.)

‘Reading Enjoyment’ Sells Books

The rewards-per-page scores mentioned above mirrored my own enjoyment in reading these two books. The ‘better’ author’s book had clear literary merit but was dry and dull in many parts. I believe that this ‘better’ author was writing to the needs of the novel. She wanted to get the story right. She was viewing the novel as an ‘end product’ to be judged by readers and critics as a whole. This is like a chef saying, “Don’t judge my cooking by each individual bite or course. Rather judge it only at the conclusion of the meal as a complete culinary experience.” Of course, we know that a chef is not given this luxury. All the chef’s entrees are supposed to taste excellent.

Nora Roberts & Writing to the “Reading Experience”

I believe that Nora Roberts writes to what I call the ‘reading experience’. She makes the ‘reading experience’ as enjoyable as possible on a continuous, page-by-page, basis. Some might argue that writing this way may lessen the literary merit of the work. This is possible, however, this comment reminds me of an interview I once saw on TV. A music ‘expert’ was asked about Yanni’s music. The expert said, “Yanni is really not very good. He just writes the kind of music people like to listen to.” Maybe Nora Roberts writes the kind of books people like to read.

The Rewards of Providing a Better ‘Reading Experience’

I found that the Nora Roberts book and the second-tier author’s book provided very different kinds of reading experiences. After reading the ‘better’ author’s book, I felt like the book was excellent; (I gave it 41/2 stars) however, I had no interest in reading another one of the ‘better’ author’s books.

After reading the Nora Roberts book, (I gave it 4 stars) I felt like immediately reading another one of her books. The page-by-page reading experience was far more enjoyable with Nora Roberts. Like many fans, I place greater value on having a more enjoyable reading experience than I do on how highly a book is reviewed.

How to Sell More Books

Based on my research, I believe that the way to sell more books (or get your books published in the first place) is to enhance the page-by-page ‘reading experience’. One way to quantify this experience is by the use of a Rewards-Per-Page index.

Ways to Reward a Reader.

There are many ways to reward a reader. (I keep discovering more ways all the time.)

Please Note: it is important to point out that the RPP index is ‘art’ and not ‘science’. What I might call a reward, another person might not. Some rewards might qualify as two or more rewards on the same index. Scores can also differ by which pages one chooses to use as a sample. I like to use ten pages from page 100 to 110. This is arbitrary. A more scientific study would employ more objective reward categories and use a larger sample, say 100 pages. Therefore, the RPP Index is best utilized to show which authors rate low and which rate high when the same person uses the same criteria. While somewhat subjective this information is useful for comparing individual authors. (Best selling authors have high RPP scores.)

Interestingly, a new author can have a high RPP score and still not be selling anywhere near her potential because she is as of yet little known or in a small niche market. How many books would Nora Roberts sell if she only wrote cozy mysteries? Authors with a high RPP score should consider moving to a larger target market and be encouraged to do a lot more personal marketing.

Some Ways to Reward a Reader

1. Give the reader new experiences. Take the reader to places she has never been. Treat the reader to smells, foods, and sights she is not likely to otherwise encounter. (For example, try a new coffee, tea, or other product. Show a new way to make coffee. The point here is that as you plan your novel it would be wise to also plan ways to give your reader new experiences.)

Camy Tang’s two books about of an upscale Sonoma spa, “Formula for Danger” and “Deadly Intent” do this very well. The reader is treated to an exclusive spa visit with all the sights, sounds, and smells this experience provides.




2. Five-sense your copy. Involve odor, taste and touch as often as it makes sense within the storyline. Use hot, cold, hunger, and thirst. Five-sensing can be used to provide ‘new’ experiences and also to enhance the vicarious experience your story provides the reader.


One of the most thorough ‘5-sensing’ authors is Tina Radcliffe. Here is a perfect example found in her debut novel, “The Rancher’s Reunion”.
In the scene below the heroine is just returning to Tulsa after years in Africa. She is in the Tulsa International Airport:

“Her senses greedily feasted on the American sights and sounds. It was the simple things she’d missed; the twang of an Oklahoma accent, the U.S. Flag hanging high in the terminal, a sign advertising Mazzio’s pizza, the chatter of the crowd in English, and American food. The tantalizing aroma of a bagel kiosk caused a pause in her steps. Onion, chive and garlic. They all called out to her.”

You can read my review of this book here.




3. Make the reader ‘feel’ an expanded array of emotions. The phenomenon of ‘vicarious experience’ allows readers to feel what your characters are feeling – or at least what your heroine is feeling. These feelings can include: being loved, desired, envied, jealous, victorious, cherished, prideful, fearful, beautiful, approved of, angry, sorrowful, in doubt, joyous, hateful, and feeling betrayed. Julie Lessman makes excellent use of a full range of emotions in her, “A Hope Undaunted”. In a scene between Patrick and Marcy, emotions race from sexy and very loving to hostility and a feeling of betrayal and then back again to sexy and loving – all within one page. Just wonderful!

The scene ends with: He kissed her full on the mouth, and heat shivered through her. “I suppose this isn’t one of those times when I need to say no,” she whispered, her breathing ragged against his jaw. “No, darlin’, it’s not.” And clutching her close, he fisted the satin gown and moved in to deepen the kiss, his husky words melting in her mouth. “For all the good it would do.”

BTW: this is Christian fiction with Patrick and Marcy being the grandparent, patriarch and matriarch of the family! Read the rest of this quote in my review here.



4. Anticipatory Events (AEs): Anticipatory events create situations in which the reader looks forward to finding the resolution. Secrets work well as AEs. Other AEs include: ‘going to a big event—like a dance’, ‘who will win an award’, ‘who will get the job’, ‘what will happen when Mary finally meets her ex-husband,’ and so on.

Sandra Byrd, in her YA title, “Don’t Kiss Him Good-bye” essentially writes her entire book in “AE’s”. Almost every page either initiates an AE or resolves an AE. The heroine, Savannah, creates an “AE” in almost every action she takes or that happens to her. When we meet Savvy’s sister, we are told that there is something bothering her. What is it? When we meet a friend, we are told that she may not really be a friend? Will she betray Savvy? When we should meet a collogue at the school newspaper we find she is coming in a few days. Will she be a friend? Will she take the desk and reporter’s job the Savvy wants for herself? Read this book for a ‘workshop’ in how to write in AEs.


Ruth Logan Herne’s, “Made to Order Family.” also employs dozens of AEs. In my review, I list eleven AE themes in the story that capture the reader’s interest. These are just the ‘people threads’. There are many more AEs of various types.

Read my review for addition information here.








5. Make AEs happen sooner in the story than the reader expects. It is said that ‘a debt paid early is twice paid.’ Providing AE resolutions early is a reward in itself. In Ruth Logan Herne’s “Reunited Hearts,” the most awaited AE in a ‘hidden child’ theme, the hero’s discovery of his child, happens in the opening pages. This was a total surprise to me. (Dragging out the hero’s discovery of the ‘hidden child’ is a favored way of maintaining reader interest. If you reveal it early, you have to think of more AEs.)

You can read why I feel, “Reunited Hearts, is one of the best ‘hidden child’ books I’ve read in my review here.




6. Factoids: these are facts that can make the reader feel smarter. Celia Yeary in her, “Texas Promise”, provides fascinating historical detail making the reading especially enjoyable. She has her hero and heroine travel from Austin, Texas to a ranch in New Mexico. First they take a train, then use horses for a long ride to get to another town with a train station, then they take another train, then back to the horses again. There are many interesting details along the way, like train schedules, what they buy at the general mercantile, café menus, traveling by horse alone without roads, and so on. Reading, “Texas Promise”, makes you feel like you are really taking the trip with the hero and heroine.

Factoids can also include ‘how-to’ items. (Like how an Italian cook might solve a cooking problem such as too much spice in a soup.)
Factoids are so popular that the term ‘factoid’ is now in general usage. (As strong as factoids are, a writer must be very careful to seamlessly work them into her writing. Factoids cannot be used simply because the author wants to reward a reader.)




7. Sparkles include:

-the poetic use of words
- fresh and unique ways of expression
-a selection of words the reader has never heard or seen of before

Sparkles also include new terms to take the place of worn-out romance phrases like ‘toes curled’, ‘knees turns to jelly’, ‘took her to where she had never been before’, etc.


A great example of sparkles is found throughout Audra Harder’s debut novel, “Rock Mountain Hero”, which is almost a love song to the majesty of Colorado. In the below quote the reader gets to see the beauty of Gabe’s ranch at night through the eyes of the heroine who is seeing the view for the first time. (Seeing through the eyes of a first time viewer is a very powerful technique for delighting a reader.)

Gabe followed her gaze. The inky night sky hosted tiny flecks of light, like a blanket of sparkles across the sky. “It clears up after a rain. The clouds all disappear. Makes you wonder where they came from in the first place.” “I could stand here forever.” Gabe peeked at her upturned face, her cheeks smooth and the corners of her mouth turned up. She squinted into the night as if trying to see into eternity. When was the last time he looked up into the night sky with wonder?”

Read my review here.



8. Quips, quotes, and wisecracks. These cover a lot of ground. Ideally these are sayings that the reader can enjoy and perhaps use herself in the right situation. Janet Evanovich’s books are plum full of wisecracks and are a joy to read. In an interview Janet once said that she considered herself to be an entertainer more than a writer. Wow! This goes right to the heart of writing to the ‘reading experience’.



9. What you don’t do can also be a reward: Crystal clear writing and Character Names. An author can also reward a reader by writing crystal clear prose that can only be interpreted by the reader in the way the author intended. For example, I am now reading an otherwise well written and interesting novel; however, I have had to stop and re-read at least twenty sentences, in just the first half of the book, because the sentences didn’t make sense when I first read them. After re-reading the offending sentences two or three times, I eventually got the meaning the author intended. It is important to note here that these sentences were in correct English. If you knew what the sentences meant before you read them, you would not notice that anything was amiss. A careful writer will read each sentence and ask herself, “are there any other ways this sentence can be interpreted?”



For the best example of crystal clear writing I suggest you read any of Janet Dean’s four books, “Wanted: A Family”, “The Substitute Bride,” “Courting the Doctor's Daughter,” and “Courting Miss Adelaide”. In reading these four books I never had to re-read a single sentence because the meaning was unclear. Janet Dean excels in crystal clear prose.


For my review of "Wanted: A Family" go here.




Choice of Character Names: An author can reward the reader by making it easy for the reader to easily identify characters by their names. When names begin with the same first letter or are similar in other ways, it takes a constant effort by the reader to follow the story. This takes away from the reading enjoyment. A great example of selecting character names is found in Missy Tippens new book, “A Family for Faith”.

Read more about ideal character names in this book in my review here.




Important: The RPP approach does not supersede writing rules. You still have to know how to write well. Writing a bad book that has 20 rewards per page will only produce a more rewarding bad book. Increasing the RPP may not even earn a better review. Getting better reviews is not the primary purpose of the RPP index. Getting higher RPP scores is designed to enhance the total ‘reading experience’ in order to please readers as they are reading and to make fans more likely to buy your next book.

How you might choose to apply this information:

1. create your own RPP index with rewards that you find significant.

2. score your own work – then score an author you particularly like using your RPP system. Compare scores.

3. color code your manuscript in your word processor by giving different color highlights to the five sense words.

4. color code ‘emotions’ – show what characters are feeling on each page. You can use different color type for the different emotions.

5. scroll through your WIP file. Ask yourself – how colorful and ‘rewarding’ is my writing? (Do this after your color code your work.) If you’re seeing very little color, you have work still to do.

6. try to increase your RPP score without making your writing seem stilted. (Think of this: ‘a high-concept’ movie is one that by its very nature provides many ways to reward the viewer. If you develop a ‘high-concept’ romance plot, then by its very nature, you’ll enjoy more opportunities to increase your RPP score. Think ‘high-concept’ from the start.)


Questions to Consider in Your Own Writing:

Do you try to reward the reader on every page?

Can you show examples of how your have rewarded the reader from your books.

Do you write to ‘the needs of the novel’ or do you write to the ‘reading experience”?

Do you consider yourself an entertainer?

Can you suggest some additional ways to reward the reader?


About Vince Mooney

Vince is a friend of Seekerville. He is a teacher, real estate broker, owner of a real estate school and former marketing executive. He has written nationally and internationally syndicated advertising with over 3,000,000 words in print. He has published in professional journals, wrote a real estate book for the Real Estate Education Company and has written over 100 different real estate seminars approved by Oklahoma for continuing education. He is currently writing fiction and a nonfiction book on ‘Rewarding the Reader’.



Vince and Linda Mooney


Today we're giving away the Seeker book of choice from those mentioned in today's post. Just leave a comment. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition!



AND!!! Vince is giving away three Rewards-Per-Page 5 page critiques. How do your five pages stack up to Nora Roberts? Vince will analyze any five pages (not just the first five-any five pages) using his RPP index. Are you game? Critique winners chosen by Vince and announced in the Weekend Edition. BUT YOU MUST TELL US YOU WANT IN.

Vince taking advantage of a stop in snow fall.

What Mega-Selling Authors Know That You Could Use to Boost Your Sales

Does the promise in the above headline turn you off? Does Samuel Johnson’s claim that “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money,” offend you? The answers to these questions are important to your career. While higher sales are not necessarily proportionate to literary excellence, higher sales can be achieved by doing the right things. This blog entry is about doing the right things.

If you follow the rules of writing, strive for literary excellence, and you are content with producing books that are well received and well reviewed, then I would say that you are an author who “writes to the needs of the novel.” Authors who take this approach often see themselves as producers of durable goods: namely books that can have an independent existence on bookshelves and in the hands of fans.

On the other hand, if you follow the rules of writing, while also, at the same time, taking additional efforts to create the best “reading experience” for your readers, then I would say that you are an author who writes to “the reading experience.” Authors who write to “the reading experience” often see themselves as producers of consumable goods like gourmet meals. They are creating intangible experiences – not books. One of the best “reading experience” authors, Janet Evanovich, says that she creates “entertainment” and considers herself more an entertainer than a writer.

For “reading experience” authors, books are similar to sheet music in that they only obtain a significant reality when they are being “played” in the mind of a human.

Accomplished “reading experience” authors realize that fans don’t actually want romance books – many already have embarrassingly large TBR piles. Fans don’t even really want to read romance books. What fans want and what fans buy are the “reading experiences” and thus the “bundle of feelings” these books are capable of providing.


Romance fans can actually have “cravings” for specific feelings -- just as they can have cravings for specific foods (for example, chocolate and potato chips). Even a fan who has over 100 books in her TBR pile, may still buy your book because she is craving the “bundle of feelings” she hopes she will obtain by reading your current “hidden child” theme romance. In a way, your novel is the sheet music for creating the rhythms of passion her soul desires to experience. It’s all about the reading experience. It’s not about ink and paper and books on a shelf.



Ordinarily fans do not read romances to learn how the story will turn out. They know how a romance will turn out, in fact, they are guaranteed a HEA. Fans read romances to satisfy emotional needs that when neglected become cravings. Romances can become addictive because they satisfy important needs.

Please don’t confuse this observation with escapism. To maintain that fans read romances to escape is essentially to make a vacuous claim. There are thousands of ways to “escape” -- from alcohol consumption to Zen meditation. The significant question is always this: “why do fans choose romance novels as their vehicle of escape?” This is the question that needs to be answered if you want to be in the best position to satisfy the needs of your fans and increase your readership.

Ask yourself this, “Why does anyone do anything?” The Greatest Management Principle (GMP) asserts that “What gets rewarded, gets done.” Fans read romances because the experience is rewarding. Authors who provide the most satisfying reading experiences can expect to enjoy an ever growing fan base.

In researching the romance genre over the last seven years, I have found that competent authors, who reward the reader the most times per page, tend to have the highest sales. Can you guess which romance author my research indicates has the highest number of rewards per page (RPP)? Nora Roberts*. Another high scorer is Janet Evanovich.

I believe measuring “rewards per page” (RPP) can help precinct future romance writing success. I also believe that writing to “the reading experience”, when well executed, can propel competent authors to much higher sales. However, “rewards per page” (RPP) is not a panacea. You still have to do everything else right. All the rules of writing still apply. You just have to change your focus from “your novel being judged as a totality” to “your novel being judged as a rewarding, page-by-page, reading experience”.

In future blogs (if there are any) I will cover some of the many ways that authors employ to reward readers. I will suggest a method for visualizing what is going on in your reader’s mind at any given point in your novel. I will also deconstruct the reading experience with an emphasis on comparing actual and vicarious feelings.

In the most important sense, your novel only exists when it is being “played” in the mind of a reader. It is very important, therefore, to be aware of what is going on in the reader’s mind as you compose each page. Indeed, from the point of view of increasing book sales, this approach is just as important as meeting the technical requirements the novel itself.

By the way, no one has to do any of this. There is no literary imperative that authors have to write to produce maximum sales. It is not even necessary to produce good “reading experiences”. I did not enjoy reading “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Return of the Native,” or any number of other books which I struggled through but am now glad I finished.

What I would like to do here is give you the option of expanding your fan base to the maximum and thereby allow you to enjoy the benefits of occupying the highest tax bracket.

Thanks,

Vince

WIP “A Random Walk Through Romanceland.”

*Rewards-per-page (RPP) scores are based on preliminary findings of a still evolving methodology. As the system is refined scores change but the relative standing of individual authors have remained the same. I could write an entire book on the difficulty of measuring RPP while adjusting for sub-genre differences and choosing comparative testing samples from each book.