Tuesday’s writing tip for authors

Authors should include as many assessments in their books as possible. Assessments engage readers and provide numerous valuable benefits to authors.

Whenever possible, each chapter should contain its own assessment to help readers identify their goals and monitor their progress as they read your book.

Why downloadable assessments?
Assessments should both appear in your book and be available as a website download, as shown at Design to Sell’s assessment page.

Readers like downloadable assessments because they’re easier to use than assessments squeezed into the smaller pages of your book. Downloadable assessments also help readers avoid defacing their book by writing in it.

Download formats
Numerous options are available for download formats. In many cases, the easiest solution is to offer Acrobat PDF files created using the word processing program you used to write your book.

Other options include worksheets created with spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel.

An even better option is to use online assessments created using resources like AssessmentGenerator. (See sample design assessment here.) These can not only automatically score your reader’s understanding of your topic, but can help you obtain your reader’s e-mail addresses so you can ask their permission to add them to your mailing list.

Regardless of format, of course, authors must include the assessment’s URL next to each assessment in your book to make it as easy as possible for readers to locate each assessment on your website.

How downloadable assessments benefit authors
Downloadable assessments benefit authors by providing readers with a compelling reason to send the author’s websites, where the readers can find descriptions of other resources, as well as sign-up for the author’s e-mail newsletter.

Experienced authors realize that the sale of a book is just the start of a (hopefully) long and profitable relationship with the reader. But, for this relationship to stand a chance, readers first have to visit the author’s website and learn more. Downloadable and printable copies of the book’s assessments have proven themselves one of the least-expensive and most effective ways to drive readers to an author’s website.

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Published & Profitable will be interviewing Milana Leshinsky, creator of AssessmentGenerator, on September 19. See September interview schedule here.

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