It doesn’t matter if you're publishing a specialized marketing ebook or a juicy novel. Everyone faces the same issue: getting people to buy and read physical books and ebooks is becoming increasingly problematic.

But what causes this?

Well, we all live very busy and stressful lives and often forget to take the time to unwind with a good book in our hands.

Or we spend countless hours in front of a screen and don’t feel like tiring our eyes even more.

But don’t worry; we found a cure for this common illness that has infected most of your readers.

GIF source: Giphy

This miracle cure is called the interactive ebook and is effective in plenty of areas, including marketing campaigns. Why? Well, you’ll have to read the article to find out, as we’ll give you all the insights on how to prepare and use it. 

Let’s begin!

What is an interactive ebook?

An interactive ebook is a digital book that includes interactive elements (digital components the user can interact with, like quizzes, surveys, or clickable buttons) the readers can engage with. 

More precisely, compared to traditional books or even digital media, interactive ebooks contain more than text and static images.

You can add videos, interactive infographics, quizzes, and many other interactive features that create a unique and engaging reading experience for both kids and adults.

For example, you can have an interactive table of contents. With a single tap or click, users can go to the chapter they want, enhancing user experience and accessibility. 

This also encourages users to explore different parts of the ebooks, which significantly increases engagement. 

And the best part is that you can use this miracle cure in fiction novels, educational materials, and any other type of writing, like interactive articles, for example.

So, interactive ebooks provide a dynamic and engaging reading experience; but are they better than traditional books? 

Let’s find out. 

What is the difference between a traditional and an interactive ebook?

While both traditional and interactive ebooks are digital representations of physical books, they offer completely different reading experiences.

Traditional ebooks focus on the content itself, offering the reader limited interactive features, like animated charts and embedded discussion forums where readers can go talk about the book they’re reading. 

On the other hand, interactive ebooks focus on creating engaging experiences for the reader through interactive content.

Here are some of the benefits of using interactive content in ebooks:

• Grab and maintain the reader’s attention. Interactive features spark the reader’s curiosity and keep them engaged in guessing.

For instance, you can embed an audio file in one chapter and a short quiz in the next.  

• Improve information retention. Including videos and interactive infographics throughout the text, helps the reader understand and retain the information better.
• Increase accessibility. Ebooks are amazing because they allow you to adjust your reading experience to your needs.

For example, if you have low vision, you can easily adjust the text size and fonts to enjoy the ebook without tiring your eyes.

And, in case your vision issues are more severe, you can use the text-to-speech function to simply listen to the text instead of reading it.

• Enable effective communication. Ebooks transform passive reading into active interactions as readers, learners, and colleagues can participate in quizzes and surveys that test their knowledge at specific strategic points. 

But what type of interactive elements can you actually include in your ebook content?

Keep reading and find out.

What are the key features of interactive ebooks?

If you want to turn your static ebook into an engaging, interactive one, you need some special ingredients.

So, here’s a list of key features of interactive ebooks.

Interactivity: Engaging multimedia elements

The main feature that sets these ebooks apart is their interactivity. Here are some of the engaging multimedia elements you can use to achieve this:

• Rich media integration. Everything from high-quality animated images to videos and audio files can hook the reader. 

For example, you can use video storytelling to improve understanding and retention. By forming an emotional connection through narration, music, and visual impact, readers engage more with the content and relate with the message and characters. 

Image source: Ceros

• Interactive quizzes, polls, and surveys. These interactive elements are both fun and educational. 

For instance, you can use a survey template to break the monotony of a long and boring text and reinforce learning. They act as knowledge checks in strategic points that provide readers the opportunity to test what they learned, if they understood key concepts, etc. 

This greatly helps with content assimilation.

Image source: Ceros

• Interactive infographics. If your ebook contains complex information and figures, you can use interactive infographics to make the data easily digestible.

After all, according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine, 65% of the population consists of visual learners, a.k.a. people who learn better from visuals.

What does this have to do with interactive infographics? Infographics can present data in a simpler way and the dynamic elements, such as animations or tooltips, give users the control to interact with the infographic at their own pace. 

All so they could deepen their understanding of a topic.  

Image source: Ceros

Navigation: Seamless user experience

Your interactive ebook design should offer an amazing user experience to ensure readers will come back for more. For this, you need:

• Intuitive navigation. You should make it easy for readers to find specific info in your digital content. 

For instance, you can include interactive menus, a clickable table of contents, and hyperlinks that everyone will know how to use. These elements are common in web design, so people are familiar with using menus or clickable links. 

It’ll be easier for readers to navigate an ebook, especially since they’re so used to similar interfaces. 

• Chapter jumping. If a reader has to scroll through half the content of your ebook to reach the chapter they’re interested in, you can be sure they’ll quickly give up. 

So, offer them the possibility to quickly jump between chapters and sections, like a sidebar where you can still see the chapter names. If the reader wants to check a previous chapter, they can do so without losing their progress. 

• Interactive indexing. Traditional indexes don't offer very intuitive navigation. You usually have them at the end or beginning of the book and you have to manually leaf through it to get to the correct page. 

Meanwhile, interactive indexes in an ebook are clickable, which gives readers immediate access to the page they want to see. You can even say they’re searchable. This interactive element allows your readers to quickly search for concepts and jump to the right section of the ebook. 

Thus, they can access specific info in real time.

Feedback mechanisms: User interaction and response

One of the best parts about interactive ebooks is that they enable you to get instant feedback from your readers and enhance their reading experience in real-time. Here’s how:

• Interactive annotations. Your readers can highlight sections of the text and leave notes for you. 

This gives you the opportunity to answer all their questions and offer additional explanations that will improve their comprehension.

• Surveys and feedback forums. If you want to become a successful ebook creator, you need to constantly seek reader feedback and adjust your digital content accordingly.

The quickest way to do this is by embedding interactive surveys or hyperlinks to feedback forums or social media groups in your ebook.

Using these elements you can gain valuable insights on your audience’s likes and dislikes, as well as useful suggestions.

• Response triggers. To enhance reader engagement and comprehension, you can use interactive elements that respond to specific user actions.

For example, these response triggers can include pop-up definitions and explanations, or help features and guides. Plus, you can set these triggers automatically to provide additional context to a section of the ebook. 

If you notice frequently asked questions in the interactive annotations, you can add relevant response triggers for those sections.

That’s all well and good, but how do you create all these interactive elements?

Let’s find out.

Interactive tools to help you create interactive ebooks

If you’re new to ebook publishing and have no design skills, you’re probably wondering how in the world could you ever create such complex interactive content. 🙄

No worries; there are plenty of user-friendly interactive content tools that will make this task much easier and a lot more fun.

Ceros

Ceros is a cloud-based, AI-powered interactive content creation platform. 

Image source: Ceros

Here are some of its most useful features for ebook makers:

• Studio offers you over 150 interactive templates to use as inspiration or basis for your ebooks. 

Just import your content and use the templates and animation features to automatically build your interactive ebook.

• MarkUp is a visual commenting platform that lets your team members give you real-time feedback and leave notes and suggestions.

This saves time and makes communication much more efficient because you no longer have to send endless emails and wait for replies.

Canva

Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool.

Image source: Canva

• Use the template directory to look through ebook designs and select the parts you want to keep.
• Play with different fonts and background colors until you find the right ones.
• Choose from Canva’s pre-loaded visuals or upload your own and edit them.

Kotobee

Kotobee is an interactive ebook creation software and digital publishing platform.

Image source: Kotobee

• eBook Consultation offers ideas and advice on how to design your interactive ebook. 
• eBook Design uses skilled designers to design themes and templates and to create interactive content for your ebook.
• eBook Publishing uses specialists to help publish your digital content on the platforms of your choice.

Apple Pages

Apple Pages is a powerful word processor that allows you to create beautiful documents, including EPUB books, available on most Apple devices.

Image source: Apple Pages

• Choose a template from the pre-loaded ebook examples.
• Add text, visuals, and even your own drawings to your content and animate them.
• Export your document as an EPUB.
• Publish your EPUB book directly to Apple Books on your iPad, iPhone, Mac, or online at iCloud.com.

Now that you’ve met your highly skilled assistants, let’s see how you can start creating your interactive digital book.

How to make an interactive ebook: Step-by-Step

To truly engage your readers and rekindle their love for reading, we’ve prepared a step-by-step guide to creating

interactive ebooks.

Here’s how you can prepare your own miracle cure.

1. Define your target audience and objectives 

Clearly define your target audience so you can tailor your digital book to their needs and preferences.

You should also ask yourself what you want to achieve with your ebook.

All this will help you choose the right interactive features to engage your readers.

For example, creating an educational resource for graphic designers will look different than one for content marketers. Graphic designers will love to see color pickers and visual mockups. 

While content marketers want interactive elements that cater to their data-driven decision-making needs (think interactive content calendars, performance analytics, etc.). 

2. Plan your content

To avoid chaos and confusion during the creative process, you should always start with a plan.

You don’t need any complex tools for this stage, Google Docs will suffice.

The idea is to jot down all your ideas, and then structure them in a logical manner.

Think about the topics you want to cover and in what order. Then, do a bit of research to see what interactive elements would best fit your type of content.

For example, if it’s a guide on creating the perfect marketing emails, try to include quizzes at the end of each chapter. The important thing is to know and understand your audience, whether they’re children or business pros, so you can tailor your ebook to fit their preferences. 

Overall, write everything down so you don’t forget anything and create a structured content workflow. 

3. Choose the right tools and software

We’ve already introduced you to some of the best tools that can help you create interactive ebooks. 

Now it’s time for you to decide which of them best suits your needs and content.

No design skills or coding knowledge?

Ceros is a great choice for you.

This interactive content creation platform is very user-friendly, as you can see in this tutorial:

Video source: Ceros

4. Create engaging multimedia content

Start exploring the internet for images, videos, and audio files that would enrich your digital book.

You can even create your own video tutorials to enhance reader comprehension, but you might need a video editor for this. 

Luckily, there are plenty of solutions lying around — one of them being Ceros. You can use it to create engaging image carousels, like so: 

Video source: YouTube

5. Design your layout

Now that you have the text and multimedia elements, it’s time to design a visually appealing layout. 

How? 

You can use various methods, including brainstorming, templates, or employ the help of an AI assistant. 

When it comes to templates, Ceros is your go-to tool. Use Ceros’ templates to get inspired and try out different layouts, types, and styles until you find the right one. 

Keep in mind that you should make your layers as clean and simple as possible to make the content stand out. Luckily, Ceros’ templates are pretty easy to use. 

6. Add interactive elements

This is the fun part!

Use Ceros’ Studio feature to create quizzes, surveys, infographics, and any other interactive elements that will make your content more engaging and easy to understand.

You can also drag and drop various elements to animate them and create more dynamic content.

The only thing you should pay attention to is avoiding overstuffing your ebook with interactive content.

Too much interactivity can be distracting for the reader, so you should find a balance between the pieces of static content and the interactive features.

7. Test and review

Never publish your content on ebook platforms before testing the functionality of the interactive elements.

So, make sure you open your ebook on different devices and platforms to see if it loads properly and everything works as it should.

At the same time, you can seek feedback from beta testers or pre-selected users. Through heatmaps, for instance, you can see where users navigated the most, as well as what they struggled with. 

As such, you can identify and fix any potential issues or improve the content before it even reaches your readers.

8. Publish and distribute

Once your interactive ebook is ready, you can publish it in the common PDF or EPUB format on a platform of your choosing.

The key to success is to market your newly published ebook on your website, on social media, and through email marketing to increase reach and awareness.

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That’s all we have for today.

Over to you!

With all the insights we gave you on interactive ebooks, you are now ready to turn your static ebook into a dynamic one that is sure to captivate your readers.

Just get creative and use the right tools to create an engaging reading experience for your audience.

And if you don’t know where to start, that’s absolutely fine!

Just book a free demo with Ceros.