Today on the Book More Show I'm talking with Betsey about something we haven't covered on the show for some time. Your content.

Not so much the details of what to include, but more its structure and how even this can be a motivator for people as you compel them to take the next step.

We know you know your stuff and have some great ideas to get started. We know you have an easy way for people to take the next step and begin to work with you. But, we also know that actual read rates are pretty low.

Taking time to think about your Table of Content as something that reinforces people's belief they're in the right place, and you're the one to help them, encourages you to look at this page as the stepping stones from the question in the title, to the answer in the next step.

Imagine people only came in because of the title; they saw the 1,2,3,4,5… steps of the Table of Content, would that compel them to jump to the call to action, or would it confuse them, and hold them back from taking the next step.

The great thing about the BookBlueprintScore.com is that it helps amplify each of the parts of your book, and it's little considerations like this that can add up.

Book Blueprint Scorecard

Don't forget, you can see how your book idea stacks up against the Book Blueprint by going to BookBlueprintScore.com and, if you want to be a guest on the show to plan your successful book, just head over to 90MinuteBooks.com/guest

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Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com 

Transcript: Book More Show 085

Stuart Bell:
Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Book More Show. It's Stuart Bell here and, today, I'm talking with Betsy Vaughn. We're going to dive into something that we haven't spoken about on the show for a little while, worth revisiting, and that's the layout of your book. Not so much the formatting, but the content portion, how you can move people from the title and the promise of a solution through to the best next step, so they can take in a call to action at the back, and really look at the benefits of spending some time thinking about that table of contents view and how it's really the roadmap to move people forward. Great episode, it got into a couple of interesting points. I think you're going to get some value out of this, whether or not you're working with us directly or you're trying to get this created by yourselves.

A great show. We wrap up at the end talking about some changes to the 90-Minute Book product as well that are coming up soon. As you're listening to this around about the release date, it's going to release on August the 24th, so a couple of details about some changes coming up just after Labor Day. Okay, so excited to share this. Let's get to it. Betsy Vaughn.

Betsy Vaughn:
Stuart Bell, how's it going?

Stuart Bell:
Good, thanks. How is sunny Florida today?

Betsy Vaughn:
It's hot. It's hot. Yeah, I bought four new sweaters at the store that was having a big sale. I have them sitting on my dresser in my closet. Every day, I want to put them on. I know I should put them away because they're not going to be able to be worn until like November.

Stuart Bell:
There's like a good few months yet.

Betsy Vaughn:
I mean months. We're not talking weeks, we're talking months. I should put those away, yeah.

Stuart Bell:
We've got a conflict of interest up here. I'm back in Philly this week. Lucy loves the summer, hates the fall and winter, really detests being cold, whereas I'm slightly more the other way around. The house has got window air units, not central air, so it's pretty warm up here. I spent the summer walking around with no shirt on looking forward to the days when it's kind of reasonable temperature. Or looking for the time of going back to Florida where there's central air everywhere , and the only time without it is between the door and the car and the front door.

Betsy Vaughn:
We take that for granted.

Stuart Bell:
I know, right? Yeah. I was listening to... So this week is or last week rather was the week of PodCon down in Orlando. Dean and I swung by there to catch up with a couple of the guys when we were talking about the Dial Talk Done stuff and moving that project forward. In the subsequent week, now, of course, all of the podcasts that are coming out that I listen to this week are all talking about being at PodCon. A few of the people were saying, "I went down to Florida. Man, it's hot as anything down there." You know what? It is absolutely freezing cold because everywhere in Florida is air conditioned down to 62 degrees. Spend most of the time being colder than you are wherever you actually live.

Betsy Vaughn:
It's so true. It really is true. My son's in Denver and his apartment doesn't have air conditioning at all. No air conditioning. He's also in a basement. When he was home the whole time, he wore a long sleeve shirt and even at one point said, "Do you have a sweatshirt I can put on?" I mean he was like, "It's so cold," and he's used to being comfortable, but not freezing cold so yeah, yes. Yeah.

Stuart Bell:
Crazy stuff. Okay.





Stuart Bell:
Let's talk about some book stuff.

Betsy Vaughn:
Right.

Stuart Bell:
I think today, let's circle back to something that we haven't talked about for a long time. A couple of questions have come up about it recently when we've been dealing with some of the white label projects that we've set up, and that is the structure of the book. We spend a lot of time talking about picking the target market and how important the title is to really engage people and the call to action, because you'll lead people towards a particular thing, we don't spend that much time focusing on the content. There is one bit in particular that is important and that's the outline. I thought we'd dive into that a bit today.

Betsy Vaughn:
Super, let's do that.

Stuart Bell:
The other thing that I'm going to try and do is enunciate more clearly. Having been diving into transcripts a little bit more recently from some of the podcasts work we've been doing, it amazes me how in tune Dean's voice is, as an example, to all of the AI. It's as if all of the AIs out there were trained on his voice, because the automatic transcription is almost perfect for Mr. Jackson. Then, I come in quickly, do something on one of mine and either, it could be a blend of two things, either one, my accent isn't quite as neutral American as it could be or I just talk gibberish and don't realize. I'm not sure which it is.

Betsy Vaughn:
That's funny.

Stuart Bell:
I'm hoping it's the accent one.

Betsy Vaughn:
That's funny that you say that. I was talking to Mike, my fiance, and he said, "Yeah, sometimes I don't understand Stuart." I said, "I guess because we speak so much that I don't have that. I almost don't hear it anymore, you know?" Or I just sort of understand everything you're saying which is great.

Stuart Bell:
I was talking to Dave the other day, so someone that we're working with a lot more closely now though than we have done in the past. He was saying the same. He said, "Still, as we talk more and more..." We're maybe into the 10th or 11th hour of calls now, he gets more and more tuned in. Do you remember there was a movie with Antonio Banderas years ago? Something about Vikings, the 11th Viking or the 11th Warrior, 12th Warrior, something like that.

The scene is where he is, I'm guessing, he's kind of Spanish or South American background and then he gets taken by these or works with these Vikings. Over time, as they were around the campfire night after night, the language then all starts coalescing on English as he's learning more of the words and starts understanding more of what they're saying. I always think it's like that, a combination of me talking fast, poor enunciation and questionable British-isms rather than American-isms. It's the perfect combination.

Betsy Vaughn:
I like it. That's great. That's great.

Stuart Bell:
With that being said, anyone that's still with us, let's get into some content.

Betsy Vaughn:
Let's do it.

Stuart Bell:
Okay, so the content. There's the expectation really that everyone has got their content dialed in, in the sense of they know what they're talking about. We position the books and the products generally as saying, "You already know what you want to talk about. You've got years worth of experience. The hardest part is just getting it down on paper and that's where we come in." With that assumption in mind, there's the underlying expectation that people will take out the content themselves, in the sense that we don't really need to coach people on what they should be saying.

They know what they should be saying. The step that we do take an active interest in, and this is really the purpose of the first 30 minute call or if you're thinking about doing this yourself without our help, this is the work that you need to put into. It's kind of like the homework stage before you actually record.

The aim of turning up on the recording, the actual call itself, is that all of the work's been done so that you can just turn up with your A game and then run through an outline that's already predefined, answering questions that you're already comfortable with and, therefore, the content that gets captured is the best possible way to present your idea, your program, your manifesto in a way that ends up on the pages and makes sense.

This homework stage, this setup or outline stage, is really the key to get nailed down before you start thinking about writing. Otherwise, you find yourself in all of the problems that we talk about, writing in circles or a never ending sidetrack on a point you don't necessarily need to make. The aim is to have this structure outlined in a way that takes people from the title through the content to the call to action. It's a very definite journey.

It's not just writing words for the sake of writing words and then, suddenly, we're at the end. It's this orchestrated journey, this chess player mentality of I know where people are when they're thinking about asking the question in the first place, and I know what I want them to do as their next step. What words are there in-between those two points that, a, give them some valuable information and, b, lead them to the point where the next step makes sense?

Betsy Vaughn:
It's funny that people, I speak to them in the beginning and we're talking about the process and I never assume that anybody either has or hasn't worked on an outline. Sometimes it comes up. So many times people will say to me, and every once in a while someone will admit to it later on, "Oh no. I have this, I have this, I know exactly what I want to do. I have my outline, I know exactly how I want this book to go. It makes perfect sense and this is how it should flow." Then, once in a while... And I always chuckle to myself because I'm just jotting those ideas down. It's a great place to start by all means, right?

People should do that. When they get through it and really start talking to someone else and talking it out, particularly our team that's worked on so many books, some people will come back and say, "You know what? I thought I had my stuff together and I really didn't. I didn't realize how important the order was." They're trying to have a call to action in the middle of the book. When they stop and look at it, they're like, "Oh wait." You know? Yeah, it really is interesting. I'm sure there's many more who just don't care to share. They thought that, but yeah.

Stuart Bell:
I think it's that challenge of being too close to the... It's the cobbler's shoes type problem of being too close to the metal too close to the actual thing. You've got all of these assumptions that are in your head that if you're outlining in isolation, you're not necessarily questioning it through the eyes of someone that doesn't have all of that experience. I think that's the real benefit of talking through it with someone else.

Like you say, obviously our guys, we've worked with over 500 people now to get these things outlined. There's a natural ability and a specialization in orchestrating that journey of setting up the beginning, middle and end in a way that makes sense. I think even if you're not working with us, if you're just by yourself and you don't have anyone else to bounce the idea off, then write out the job of work that the book's doing, so kind of like the title, what is it that you're trying to answer for the people?

Then, write out what the next step is, so this idea of the first page and title page and the end page, the call to action, write out those two things first at the top of the paper, then do the outline. Then, leave it for a couple of days and come back, and then just see if that outline actually does get you from A to B in a way that you come into it with a colder set of eyes a few days later. Then, you might not be working on the same set of assumptions that you were a few days before when you first wrote it. At least that then will give you a second bite of the cherry and validate the path that you thought you were going down. Obviously if you've got someone else-

Betsy Vaughn:
That's great advice, yeah.

Stuart Bell:
Yeah, I think it just gives a cool set of... Gives a new perspective or a blank perspective to go into it. Then rather than going in with all of that, all of those assumptions in your mind about how it's going to turn out, you'll go back into it just looking at the title, looking at the answer, and then answering the question of does it get from A to B?

The next point which builds on that is... So we've agreed that the title is the thing that captures their attention. The call to action is the thing that we really want them to do next. The middle part, the content, we want it to be as comprehensive as possible to answer the question that you promise to answer. You don't want to write a book that effectively says, "Well, there are 10 things. I could tell you them, but actually you really want to come in and see me because it's too complicated for you. I'm not going to tell you unless we have a consult." That's just offensive or people would be disappointed with that.

Then, equally, you don't want to find yourself answering the wrong question, which is kind of what we just talked about. Make sure you follow the path that you think you're following. The third one is you don't want to find yourself in some rabbit warren of ancillary or supporting information that's one tier out from the core question. Honestly, no matter how simple the question seems... You could be answering the question of how to boil an egg. I'm pretty sure that you could get into the thermal dynamic components of different pan materials and how water boils at different altitudes if you really got stuck in the weeds.

Or it could be as simple as, "Well, you don't really want to boil an egg. You want to get an omelet instead," and then start talking about an omelet. Obviously a silly example. I'm sure as you listen to this, you can imagine those similar degrees out from the core question that you're trying to answer, those one degree out, two degree out, three degree outs, that you could very easily find yourself talking down or getting sidetracked by if you're not very disciplined about staying on subject.

You, as the person who knows all this knowledge, where the more basic information really seems like this 101 level stuff that you just want to get past, it's very easy to jump away from this core direction, this core stepping stones of title, overview of the problem, reminder of what the solution could be, restate the issues towards the end and how people can take a next step.

Those stepping stones towards the back cover copy, the next steps that people should take, very easy, as the expert, to get sidetracked into the weeds because you've got all of this assumed knowledge. That being said, the thing that we want to narrow down is... The thing that we want to narrow down and get specific on are those steps. A great way of doing that is to break it down into bite-size pieces, which is really the table of contents. The table of contents, as far as the content goes, is really the most important thing given the assumption that you actually know what you're talking about. Then, you can fill in the gaps for the chapters.

Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, if you don't know what you're talking about, then it's difficult to fix that problem but definitely you do. The table of contents is this 10,000 foot view of how to get from the title to the back cover in reasonable steps that carry the journey in a direction. If you were to look at the table of contents and the chapter headings and it bounced all over the place and it didn't really make coherent sense and, just before we started recording, you were talking about having a call to action ending up in the middle somewhere accidentally because just the way the content flowed in someone's original outline, then looking at the chapter headings is a check and balance that it is a logical progression from the beginning to the end.

The general way that we try and structure things is stating what the problem is, reinforcing a little bit what the downsides of that problem is. In someone's mind, making the point in as helpful a way as possible, but making the point, "Listen, if you really don't make a change, there are some long-term consequences to this." Just as a motivating compelling element to keep people reading. Then, introduce what the solution is. Then, go into details of what the solution is bearing in mind, as we said, you don't want to go too deep.

There are always these third, fourth, fifth level things that you can get into. That is a great thing to cover further down the track, further down the funnel, but answer the level one ones comprehensively, so the details of what the solution is, the benefits of what the solution is, reinforce the light at the end of the tunnel. Then, an easy next step that people can take to take it even further.

In the book, you've introduced the concept, you've given people maybe some initial first steps that they can do, some actions that they can take to move themselves towards this perfect solution. Then, the real next step, the meaty next step of actually getting into it is probably starting to work with you. If we think about financial advisors, because that's an easy step to take, then the homework might be to bring together all of your bills and look at where the outgoings are going and categorize things together.

That's something that someone can easily do at home, doesn't take any technical understanding. They've got all of the stuff there, doesn't need an especially big calculator to work it out. That's an easy step that you could put in the book towards making a difference.

Then, the first step after that, working with you, might be to come in for a review of your savings or a review of your outgoings or a retirement plan assessment, whatever that easy first step is. In the book itself, you've still given them something of value. The florist example, we used the florist example a few times, which I still haven't quite worked out why that became a thing.

Betsy Vaughn:
It's on brand.

Stuart Bell:
Yeah. It's on brand now for the podcast. The florist example might be in the book, you're talking about times of years and some local places to go and see flower types, homework that people can do to start moving themselves in the direction towards wedding flowers. Really, the first detailed piece of work they'll need to do is come into see you, so that you can assess their budget and see what flowers they like and see if there are any outliers that might cause a problem if this particular flower isn't available at that particular time of year. It's that kind of level of detail and direction that we want to do in the content, because that answers the promise of the title.

It gives people a light at the end of the tunnel, thing that they can have a good feeling about moving in the right direction. It very obviously leads them from, here's the problem that you don't know how to fix to here's a couple of steps that you can take yourself to get you moving in the right direction and feeling good about the direction. Then, here's an easy way of getting started with me to really now put some gas behind it and get this thing moving properly. Looking at the chapter headings in those examples are going to be the way that you can check that it's in the right direction and that you're staying on topic when you're recording and not getting carried away or sidetracked.

Betsy Vaughn:
Okay, all right. I'm following you now.

Stuart Bell:
That as a structure, I know we don't talk very much about about the content side of things. We're usually focused on either the title or the call to action or the longer term follow-up. Yeah. That, as a content step, is really the most important advice that we can give. It's think about the table of contents as the 30,000 foot view of keeping people on the right path.

The other way of looking at it as well is we've already talked in the past about read rates and the fact that it's actually a pretty small number of people who actually read all of the content. As people are flicking through, thumbing through the book, the title on the front cover is the thing that gets them to raise their hand. The picking up the book and looking at the back of it for the call to action, the majority of people do that. Then, thumbing through it, the table of contents is the thing that almost everyone sees and then it's a dwindling number after that.

That table of contents, if it's comprehensive enough and it's worded in a way that gives people the assurance that they're in the right place and heading in the right direction, it may well be the case that that's enough to get them to take the next step, to reach out and call you or to fill out an assessment or to ask for a copy of the scorecard, whatever the next step is. Just knowing that they've seen the table of contents and they're in the right place and the journey makes sense to them, they might just skip all of that part of reading it and jump straight to the call to action.

Betsy Vaughn:
People don't know this, you know this, but for part of my job, I read every book that leaves the office. I honestly didn't even pay attention the table of contents. Then, for some reason, I got into that habit. I can kind of skim through it, really know what the subject... What I'm expecting so when I'm reading it, it's not just completely foreign. I've transferred that to my personal life. When I pick up a book, that's where I go now too. Of course, everybody goes right to the back of the book, but I find myself really looking at the table of contents now to see, okay, and that'll be my decision. Like, "Okay, am I going to read this book based on what I've seen in the table of contents?" It gives you a lot of the meat and bones there without going too deep.

Stuart Bell:
Exactly. You almost get 80% of the overview with only 20% of the work. It's so interesting that reassurance... Because, really, particularly because we're not talking about fiction at the end of the day, although I guess the same applies to fiction, but we're talking about something that moves people towards answering a problem that they've got. It's the resolution of a problem. It's not entertainment and reading for the sake of reading. If you're on Facebook and thinking about buying a lakefront home. You see the guide to lakefront home prices and you request a copy of that book.

It says in there, as you flick through the table of contents, it says, "There's only this many lakefront homes, so you're picking from a small group of people. Here's the changes that have happened in this year, the 2019 price data changes. Here are the five pointers that you really need to look at and the five things you need to be aware of or concerned of. The very best next step is to request a pricing analysis or a pinpoint guide on a particular home." Then, the outcome that I want is to get closer to buying a lakefront home. I didn't want to read all those words. I just want the outcome.

Betsy Vaughn:
Yeah, yeah.

Stuart Bell:
If the table of contents does the job for me, it's enough to give me the reassurance that I'm in the right place and the call to action is the obvious choice. I'm not here for entertainment. Why am I going to waste my time reading it? There's a clear next step. I've been reassured that I'm in the right place because the table of contents makes sense, and that's the thing that I thumb through, maybe one or two of the other pages. Therefore, jump straight to next step. It's really that different way of thinking about it as the book isn't the product. The next step is the product. Identifying the person in the first place is the product. Everything is just about reinforcing the message that people are in the right place.

It's like the... I don't know that we've got a copy of it anywhere. I'll maybe see if I can find a copy for the show notes. The Email Mastery ad that we run in Success Magazine is a advertorial type piece of one page content that talks about the nine word email, which we've talked about here in the past, but that article is a five, maybe less than that, 400 word article that talks about the nine word email. Pretty high level, just gets the headline details out there.

Gives people a next step, and then it says, "If you want to read something about the seven other email secrets that can make a difference, go to this page and request a copy of Email Mastery." Now the landing page that they go to, it's literally just exactly the same heading and subheading as the ad copy around the bit that says, "Go to emailmastery.com and request a copy of the book."

It's just that headline, that sub-headline, and then the place for them to put their name and address details and an image which is exactly the same as the one before. There's none of this long form sales letter. There's no video on there. We're not trying to convince people to do anything else, because they've already made that decision. The only reason they're on that page is because they've already made the decision, because they've clicked through from the ad or they've typed in the URL from the print article, they've already made the decision that they want it.

The only purpose of that page is allow them to execute on it. Your book is very similar. They've already made the decision that they want the outcome that the title promises, the next step is how they get closer to it. Then, the book's job of work is just to, as quickly as possible, get them to that stage and for some people, for a lot of people, the table of contents is going to be enough to do that. It's going to be enough to compel them or to reassure them they're in the right place. They're on the right path. The next step is the logical one to take and, therefore, how quickly can I take it?

Rather than thinking about the book being the product, I need to write enough content in there that the sales price is justified. I need to put all of this information in there because, whether or not I've got other products or services to sell, I'm thinking about this as the book being the product, which is the exact opposite of how we're talking about it. It's the compelling, reassuring steps to take them to the next stage. That's not to say put then 70 empty pages in because it doesn't make any difference. That's then a repelling force rather than a compelling force.

Betsy Vaughn:
Right, right. Yeah.

Stuart Bell:
Yeah, you've still got to know what you're talking about and give something of value.

Betsy Vaughn:
Now, I'm going to be interested to see after this podcast goes out, the interest that our clients or potential clients are going to take in their table of contents.

Stuart Bell:
Right.

Betsy Vaughn:
They look at it but never... I mean I can't think of anybody's ever come back and said, "Oh you know, let's change that. That's in there." I mean I don't even know most of the time if they even look at the table of contents. It's going to be interesting to see if they circle back to it now and realizing the importance of if nobody ever reads the content of the book, but maybe just the table of contents.

Stuart Bell:
Part of it, I think, is a benefit of the way that we've got things structured. As people are working with us in that first 30 minute call and the outline that we guide them towards knowing that this is the outcome, that outline is the table of contents really. We do that for them. We structure and word it in such a way that, "Hey. These are just the questions that we're asking you to prompt the content." We don't hammer home this message quite so much because we're trying to, as people come on board, we're trying to very quickly hold people's hand through the process so that you don't get stuck in your own head about it and overthink it and then, six months later, are still overthinking it.

Betsy Vaughn:
Overthinking it.

Stuart Bell:
Yeah, yeah. We try and move you through the process as quick as possible. I think it's a-

Betsy Vaughn:
I think we do such a great job. We, as in us as a whole, but the content team, they do such a great job with that. I don't think people question it, but I wonder now if they might.

Stuart Bell:
If they will. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Betsy Vaughn:
Yeah, yeah, no, be interesting to see.

Stuart Bell:
Be a good test to see who is paying attention.

Betsy Vaughn:
Right.

Stuart Bell:
Want to keep the next couple of shows a little short because we've got a couple of long ones with some interviews mixed in here, so sticking with the idea of giving people a great single answer and not get too sidetracked in the weeds, let's draw a line under it there. One resource that I will point people to though is Dean actually recorded an Outline Workshop last year or earlier this year, I forget which, where there was actually Dean's perspective on the table of contents, which is slightly, I mean in the same ballpark as mine, but it's a different way of wording things. Always good to listen to a different way of saying something similar. Then, there was a Q&A call that followed that.

It's a good opportunity to hear real people's questions and that's always great to get a different perspective. That is over on the website, 90minutebooks.com, head up to the resources tab at the top. Then, under there, is workshops and it's the Book Outline Workshop. I'll also put a link directly to it in the show notes as well, so that is another way of getting to it. This is going to be episode 84, so head over to the podcast tab and episode 84, and I'll put a link directly to the Outline Workshop in there.

Betsy Vaughn:
Perfect.

Stuart Bell:
Then, the last thing to mention is we're recording this the week before Labor Day. We've actually just sent out an email to the people who've already opted into the list talking about some upcoming product changes. We've got some changes to the product structure. People have often asked for things that are slightly different to the way that we have the three products structured, so we've just changed those around a little bit. Some of the prices are changes as well. If you are listening to this before September the 4th, then you can head over to the site and really lock in the existing products, if the existing ones is the way that you want to go.

There's also this idea of a buy now, write later type thing. If you're not quite ready to go yet but you know you're going to be in the next six months or so, then, again, you can buy today and there's no pressure to get started until next year. That's just something timely in this show. If you want to check out the new products, so, well, to get through to the existing products, just 90minutebooks.com and follow the get started links.

If you want to get a early look at the new products, then if you head over to 90minutebooks.com and then, can't speak, and then get-started-new. Until September the 4th, we've just got that under a separate page and then we'll migrate it all across. At the moment, if you head over to 90minutebooks.com/get-started-new, and then you'll get a early look at the new products setup structure that we've got. Again, if you want to get an early start and pick one of those, all of those cart buttons are live now. Jump on board and we'll be waiting to guide you through the process, including setting up a fantastic table of content.

Betsy Vaughn:
We will, for sure.

Stuart Bell:
Perfect. Okay, well, thank you Betsy. Thanks for your time. Thanks everyone listening, and we will catch you all in the next one.

Betsy Vaughn:
Take care.

Stuart Bell:
Cheers. Bye.