how can I make my book interactive?

How can I make my book interactive?

This question came up most recently with some business coach authors who were concerned that their usual method of dealing with clients relied on workshops and a lot of in-the-moment back and forth.

It wasn’t a long conversation.

“Can we replicate this in our book?” “No.”

Strictly speaking, you probably could. You could come up with lots of different pathways depending on the reader’s answers, like one of those step-by-step diagrams that tells you: “If your answer is yes, move to step 2; if your answer is no, move to step 6.”

That would be a lot of fun to figure out, but the novelty would soon wear off for the reader, who would just get irritated at all the navigation.

It’s more helpful to accept that a book is more passive than a live workshop, but to enhance it where possible: perhaps by providing series of questions with keys the reader can use to analyze his or her own score; perhaps by asking them to do an exercise where they get feedback from someone else; or even by providing a weblink to an exercise that *is* more interactive.

It doesn’t matter that if a book is not fully interactive. You can do far more than you might expect with careful planning of what you have to say, acknowledging other options, highlighting different paths, and “If … or …” sentences.

If anything, the restrictions help to straighten out the message to focus on. Yep, you’ll “sacrifice” interactivity – that you never actually had – but you’ll benefit from a clearer message.