Best Seller Secrets

Captivating Content Creation for Your Book

• Rob Kosberg • Season 2 • Episode 3

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A well-crafted book goes beyond merely presenting great content within its chapters; it also maintains a captivating flow that keeps readers enthralled throughout.

As a publishing veteran who has helped launch over 1500 books, I'm excited to share invaluable tips that will have your readers glued to the pages from beginning to end. We'll also explore various methods to structure your table of contents, such as employing a logical progression, incorporating non-sequential questioning, and organizing content into distinct segments.

By mastering these techniques, you'll be able to create a seamless flow that keeps your readers turning the pages. So, let's dive in and explore the exciting world of content creation together! Take some notes, and get ready to unleash the power of your words.

IN TODAY’S EPISODE, I DISCUSS: 

  • Three ways to create a great table of contents
  • Five pieces to making sure chapter content is great
  • The best way to structure a nonfiction book for reader engagement

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Welcome to the Best Seller Secrets podcast, where business owners learn how to crush their business goals with a best selling book. I'm your host, Rob Kosberg. And today, we're going to talk about how to create compelling content that keeps your readers captivated for your nonfiction or your business related book. Now, we're going to talk about two very specific sections here, each with having some subtopics that need to be covered. So first and foremost, we need to make sure that your nonfiction book has a tremendous flow to it, it can't be just that you have great content within the chapters, but that there's no flow. If there's no great flow to the chapters, then what you're going to find is that people are going to read, they're going to become bored, uninterested, and they're going to move on to the next thing, how many books have you picked up and started to read, you were interested, at least initially, and then you got bored with it because of the flow of the book. So we want to create a great flow with the table of contents. Now, there are three ways that I have personally looked at a table of contents. Now, remember, I don't come from the traditional publishing world, I'm very pragmatic. We've helped clients launch over 1500 books that have great captivating content. So we do know a thing or two about that. But I'm going to give you something, at least from my perspective, that will help you a great deal to think in terms of how to create your table of contents. So there's three distinct ways that I've seen to create great content. From a nonfiction books perspective, one that flows a table of contents. The first type of table of contents is what I call logical order of progression. Now, for the most part, this is what most people think about when they think about writing their business related book, their autobiography, their story, et cetera. They think about the logical order of progression. This was the first thing this is what happened then. And then this happened. And then this happened, and on and on. Many books are written this way. For example, Ray Dalio, his book principles is written this way, the beginning of the book itself, simply outlines Ray Dalio 's life, it talks about his call to adventure from 1949 to 1967, crossing the threshold 1967 in 1979. Now, let me be completely honest, this is a great book, and I've enjoyed it. But the reality is, this is a kind of mundane way for you to think in terms of writing your content. Now, look, if you're telling your story, and you want to tell your story in a logical order of progression, I understand that but truth be told most people pick up Ray Dalio, his book principles to learn what his principles are not to really hear what he did from 1949 to 1967, from 1967, et cetera, that's really not of great interest. It's a bit of the lazy man or woman's way to create content. Now, if that's the only way that it works for you, then fantastic. That is one way, I just want you to understand, there are other ways for you to do it. And with a little brain power and a little thought it might be much better for you to create compelling content using one of these other types of table of contents. The second type of table of contents is what I call non sequential questioning. Non sequential questioning is where one particular part or section of the book doesn't necessarily flow into the next. In other words, somebody can pick up the book and say, this is where I'm at in this process. And so I can read chapters, a six, seven and eight, instead of worrying about going from the introduction all the way through this obviously, leads people to be able to use the book like a manual or a toolkit over and over and over again, a great book is of course, Russell Brunson his book.com secrets, we were fortunate enough to help Russell launch this book, I've been in his inner circle for many, many years. Love what he does, and when.com secrets, you can open this book. It's still a classic in many ways, you can open the book and in any particular chapter, see what your need is, and say, Okay, well, and he's written them in secrets, not chapters, but you get the idea. One section will have all of the secrets having to do with launching your funnel, one section will have all of the secrets having to do with understanding traffic, et cetera. There is a non sequential questioning it is answering questions. Each section is answering questions that make it beneficial for the reader to really pick it up at any place and move along the third and last way that I think of a table of contents that helps to create really compelling content is what I call segmentation by content itself. And that is how I wrote my Wall Street Journal best selling book publish promote profit with publish promote profit, there is a logical order. But the reality is somebody can also pick it up at any place and say, Well, I've already written my book, I really don't need to understand everything having to do with that section though, they'd be making a mistake, because many people write it incorrectly. What I really want to learn is I want to learn about the content that's segmented in the promotion. Part fact mine is segmented as publish, promote profit, everything having to do with creating your book and content and publishing it is under that segment of content, everything having to do with promoting your book, making it a best seller is under that segment. And then everything having to do with actually profiting from your book with leads, PR and media, speaking engagements, etc, is under that section of the book. So it is segmented by the specific content that somebody may be interested in. You want to make sure that when you're thinking about your book, you're not just taking the lazy route and thinking, Well, this was the first thing I did. This was the second thing I did, this was the third thing I did sure that's great. And it may be the exact fit that logical order of progression may be exactly what you need. But truth be told, if you use a little brain power, especially when it comes to writing a business related book, there's going to be better ways for you to segment that content, or use non sequential questioning, to help somebody to be able to use your book over and over and over again, it's not just about your story. It's about really teaching somebody and helping them that's what keeps people captivated. So first and foremost. And remember I told you there were two parts to this equation. First and foremost, we need great chapters that flow into a table of contents. So we need a table of contents that that works with the content that we're creating, and creates a tremendous flow. The second thing we need to do is we need to make sure that our chapter content is really captivating, right? We don't want anybody to get to a chapter itself and feel like oh, well, this really didn't help me or this really didn't keep me interested, right. So there are five pieces to making sure that your chapter content is everything that it needs to be for your reader, as well as for you the author, number one, first and foremost of those five things is you have to keep people entertained, you have to make sure that people are enjoying the content, they're entertained by the content. It reminds me of that scene in Gladiator where Russell Crowe enters the arena, he dispatches the other gladiators. And then he throws his sword to the ground. He says, Are you not entertained. And then later he learns from you know, the kind of lead gladiator that hey, what really won him his freedom was not that he dispatched or or killed the other gladiators quickly or that he was the best? It was that he won the crowd. So that's what you have to do. You have to win the crowd. So how do you win the crowd? When it comes to entertainment? Well, your story, great case studies, right? presented in a way where there are dramatic points of the story, right points of pain, conflict challenge, the use of open loops. open loops are simply where you don't necessarily culminate the story at that moment that keeps people interested and engaged so that when you begin teaching, giving them content, giving them the points that are necessary for them to learn within that particular chapter. They're still intrigued by what happened, because you left it at a dramatic point, think of the great soap operas of the past. I don't know that they're very great. Actually, I've never really watched soap operas, but you get the idea, right? Every soap opera has multiple themes running through it, so that on every commercial break, there's always some kind of crescendo that is happening, you have to get through the commercial to find out what happened to poor Sally, if she pulled through her surgery. And then of course, the very next commercial break, there's some other drama that needs to be fulfilled, your book has to create both drama, intrigue, interest, etc. And you can do that with a nonfiction business related book, right? Because your business and being successful in your business has created tremendous trauma, I'm sure in your life, with employees, et cetera, et cetera. So first and foremost, number one, is you've got to entertain, I've given you some ways to do that. Number two, you have to educate. So your whole point in a business book is not just to keep people entertained with your stories, but that your entertainment and stories would then lead to actually teaching them something. When you teach somebody something you are showing yourself as the expert on that topic, even if your whole goal is to simply teach and then bring people back to you that are the cream of the crop so to speak, that raised their hand and say, You know what, I want to work with you. I want you to do that thing for me. I mean, that's really the idea of publish promote profit right As I give all the secrets, I do all the teaching, because I want people to know that best serve publishing, if they ever decide to save the time and the energy and the effort of doing it themselves, and instead have an expert do it, hey, we're the experts that can help them. Same exact idea. So you want to give great content, you want to educate, and you want the education to flow directly from the entertainment. So the story leads into the education point number three to create captivating content within your chapter is you want to be a magnet. What do magnets do? Well, magnets, of course, attract, but magnets also repel. In other words, if you have a stand in your business against something, and oh, by the way, you should, if you don't now, then understand some people are going to be attracted to that. And some people are going to be repelled by that, for example, I talk a great deal about how traditional publishers are really not the way not the route for most of us to go in. In fact, I talk about how traditional publishers basically have used exclusivity, they are only interested in working with an author that already has a built in pipeline to make sales. They're looking for people that have a great platform, a big email list, a massive social following. And guess what, if you already have all those things, you don't need a traditional publisher. So the idea that traditional publishing is the route for most people to go is complete fiction. And I stand on that right now there are some people that say, oh, no, I've got to have my book traditionally published, okay, well, you're kind of in the old school way of thinking, I understand that. I try to educate and help to bring you up to date in the newer ways to do things and controlling your content and owning the rights. But if I can't, that's fine, too. So magnets attract, but they also repel, you want to repel those, and take a stand for what you believe so that the right people come to you. And the right people are working with you. Step number four, is you want to give hope. You want to help somebody that as they're reading your book, and feeling like Wow, well, you're the expert, you're the You're the woman, you're the man, of course this worked for you look at, look at how amazing you are. And then they begin to get down on themselves. They feel like oh, I've tried so many different ways. I've tried so many different ways to lose weight. I've tried so many different ways to finish my book. I've tried so many different ways to be successful financially, I'm never going to get it. That is the biggest challenge to most people actually buying and making effort to change their lives. It's their own self doubt and lack of self belief. So you've got to give people hope, within your book. How do you do that? Well, you do that within your stories, you let people know where you used to be that you didn't know everything that you didn't come with this innate knowledge and massive success already on your plate that instead, you fumbled and made mistakes and came from a place of challenge, when it comes to this expertise, give people hope and encouragement that they can do it, they will love you for it. And they will take action. Fifth and final thing that you want to do to create great flow and captivating content within a chapter is you want to give people next steps. So at this point, you've entertained them, you've you've taught them and educated them, you've magnetize them, some people are attracted, some people are not you've encouraged them and giving them hope. Well, you've got to give them next steps, you got to give them something to go to you want to have a two way conversation with these folks. You don't want them to be reading your book, and you don't even know they're reading your book, you want to send them to your website, you want to send them to a place where they can opt in, they can get more information, free information, checklists, tip sheets, video series, etc. So now you can begin building a relationship with them. Abraham Lincoln was famously asked after an amazing sermon that he went to in church. Mr. Lincoln, what did you think of the message? And he said, Well, it was compelling. It was amazing. It was encouraging. But ultimately it failed. And the reporter said, Well, that's incredible. And it could be all those things and still be a failure. Why was it a failure? He said it was a failure, because he didn't ask us to do anything with the information. So you don't want to be a failure. When it comes to your book. Ask them to do something with the information that you just gave them by going to your website, learning more, being engaged with you, et cetera. This is how you create tremendous flow within your book, right picking the right table of contents that helps to create a flow throughout. And this is how you create captivating content within your chapter so that you keep people engaged all the way through they build a relationship with you. They love you or not, they're magnetized or they're repelled either way, and then they take next steps, and they begin to engage with you on your website in your email list and eventually, they become your clients and they love all the things that you can do for them. So I hope this has been helpful. Listen, if you're interested, you can get a copy because you're on this podcast and listening have published promote profit. For 95% off. The price on Amazon sold about 75,000 copies, but I want to reward you I also have hundreds of dollars of bonuses and bonus training, just go to publishpromoteprofit.com and you can get your copy. Thanks so much and I'll see you next week.