How to Analyze Reader Engagement by Chapter
Reader Pulse uses Robin to predict how readers will experience your book, chapter by chapter. It scores each chapter across five engagement dimensions, flags drop-off risks, and gives you specific recommendations to strengthen the weakest points.
Reader Pulse is available on paid plans. If you are on the free plan, upgrading unlocks this feature.
How Robin reads your book, what each score means, why results can change from one run to the next, and who can see your writing are explained in How Reader Pulse reads your book.
Opening Reader Pulse
- Open the book in Write.
- Open the Tools menu and choose Reader Pulse. With the full toolbar on, you can also use Analysis > Reader Pulse. The Edit page has a Reader Pulse link too.
- The Reader Pulse page opens, showing your book's engagement report.
If no analysis has been run yet, click Analyze My Book to start one.
The Reader Pulse icon in the strip on the right edge of Write opens a smaller panel for the chapter you are on, with an Open full analysis link to the full page.
Reader Pulse is a revision tool. While your book is still in drafting, the page shows Reader Pulse is a revision tool instead of the Analyze My Book button. It turns on when the book moves to Revising, or click I know - let me use it during drafting anyway to use it now.
Running an Analysis
Click Analyze (or Re-analyze if a report already exists) to start a new analysis. The process can take 1 to 3 minutes for a full book.
While the analysis runs, a progress panel shows each stage:
- Reading your book chapters
- Checking previous analysis
- Preparing content
- Robin is reading your chapter
What Robin is noticing
During the last stage, a What Robin is noticing panel appears and shows Robin's notes as they read: how they are weighing your genre conventions, each chapter's hooks, pacing, and emotional arc. This gives you insight into why each score was assigned.
You can navigate away while the analysis runs and come back later. It will continue in the background and the results will be waiting when you return.
Cancelling an analysis
To stop an in-progress analysis, click Cancel in the progress panel. The analysis will stop without saving results.
Understanding Your Results
Overall engagement score and trend
At the top of the results, the Overall Engagement score (0 to 100) sits alongside an engagement trend:
- Rising: momentum builds toward the end
- Falling: engagement drops as the book progresses
- Steady: consistent level throughout
- Variable: peaks and valleys across chapters
A summary paragraph explains the key strengths and the most important improvement opportunity across the book. Across the book shows your average for each dimension and names the weakest one as the place to look first.
Engagement curve
The Engagement Curve chart plots your chapter-by-chapter engagement scores as a line graph. Click any point on the curve to jump to that chapter's detail.
Chapter Scores
Each chapter is scored across five dimensions (all 0 to 100):
| Dimension | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Opening hook | How well the first page grabs attention |
| Closing hook | How strongly the ending compels the reader to continue |
| Pacing | Balance of action, dialogue, and description for your genre |
| Tension | Narrative stakes, conflict, and pressure |
| Emotional resonance | Reader investment in characters and situations |
An overall engagement score combines these into a single number per chapter. On the chapter cards, the two hooks are shown together as Hook, and emotional resonance as Emotion.
Drop-off risk
Each chapter also carries a drop-off risk label:
- 🟢 Low Risk - compelling for readers in this genre; they will continue
- 🟡 Medium Risk - noticeable weaknesses that weaken momentum
- 🔴 High Risk - multiple issues; a significant share of readers may stop here
Strengths, concerns, and recommendation
When you select a chapter, its detail lists:
- Strengths: specific elements that work well and keep readers engaged
- Concerns: concrete issues that risk losing readers
- Top Recommendation - the single most impactful change you can make
Click any chapter card to see its full radar chart (a visual breakdown of all five dimension scores) and its detailed feedback. From there, Re-analyze this chapter runs a fresh pass on that chapter only.
Re-analyzing After Edits
After making changes to your book, click Re-analyze in the top-right corner to run a fresh analysis. If you have added or removed chapters since the last report, a banner says "Your book has changed since this analysis was run." with a Re-analyze now button. Edits inside existing chapters do not trigger the banner, so re-run on your own after a big rewrite.
The date and time of the most recent analysis is shown next to the Re-analyze button.
Each full analysis replaces the previous report; earlier reports are not kept. To compare before and after a rewrite, click Print cards and then Print / Save as PDF to keep a copy before you re-analyze.
Robin Reasoning
After the analysis completes, a How Robin read your book card appears (collapsed by default). Click it to expand and read Robin's working notes: how they evaluated each chapter's genre conventions, hooks, and narrative arc.
Tips
- Trust your instincts first: Reader Pulse scores are Robin estimates, not verdicts. If a chapter feels right to you, that instinct matters. Use the scores as one perspective, not the final word.
- Focus on High drop-off chapters first: fixing one high-risk chapter often has a larger impact than fine-tuning several low-risk ones.
- Compare your Engagement Curve to genre expectations: a slow opening is more acceptable in literary fiction than in thriller. Robin calibrates their scores to your book's stated genre.
- Use it alongside Proofreading: Reader Pulse covers narrative engagement; Proofreading with Robin covers grammar and style.
- Re-analyze after significant rewrites: scores are based on the content at the time of the last run; editing a chapter does not automatically update its score.
See also: How Reader Pulse reads your book | Chat with Robin | Editing with Robin | Proofreading with Robin | Style Analysis