Don’t write your book …

…until you answer these two questions

Have you ever read a book and thought to yourself—this author gets me. They see me. You underline or highlight sentence after sentence. You feel understood, encouraged, even empowered. Like you’ve connected with a best friend.

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/

How do writers do that? How do they see into your soul, and find that vital connection? It doesn’t happen by accident. Writers who connect deeply with readers do so deliberately and with great intention. They begin with two essential questions.

What if I told you that your book, the one you want to write, could have this same impact on readers, if you answer those two questions before you start writing?

You want to write a book. You’ve got a great story, great ideas, amusing anecdotes, powerful information. But that’s just the beginning.

Before you begin to write, you need to give careful thought to two questions:

• Who will read this book?

• Why will they read it?

These questions address an often overlooked first step in writing a book: identify your target reader, and their motivation for reading your book.

When I work with clients who need my help as a collaborative writer or self-publishing guide, I begin by having them go through the Start Your Powerful Story Workbook (you can get a free copy of this resource by subscribing to this newsletter.)

This helpful workbook guides aspiring authors through a series of questions to help them determine their message, target reader, competing titles and their own qualifications.

Your book is not for everyone

Often, authors want their book to be for everyone. Many clients describe their target reader in broad brush strokes, often claiming theirs is a book for “everyone” or a half dozen wildly different readers.

I gently explain that “everyone” is a red flag that will make your book nearly impossible to write. Instead, you need to think of a specific person as you write. How are you helping that dear reader to grow, learn, laugh, relate?

Taking the time to get clear on your target reader, with specifics of age, education, stage of life, deepest needs, and more will keep your writing focused.

If you are writing fiction, your audience might be broader, because the primary purpose of a novel is often to entertain. But there are plenty of novels which might not appeal to you. That’s why so many sub-genres exist—because a person who likes to read horror might not like to read Amish romance or historical fiction or whatever.

Especially for non-fiction, you need to imagine your audience like a target—the type an archer might use when practicing with a bow and arrow.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/

The target might be large, but the very center is small. Similarly, your audience might be broad but the target reader is very specific. Books educate, inform, or entertain. Sometimes all three. Which will your book do, and more importantly, for whom?

I’ve written about this topic before—see this newsletter from about a year ago. https://keriwyattkent.substack.com/p/writing-for-readers

Writers often struggle to define their target reader because they want to reach a broad audience. But your target reader represents many people in that audience, and knowing who they are and what they need is the only way for readers (both the reader in the center of your target, and readers who might be just outside of that target) to feel like you’re talking to them. By writing for a specific person, you’ll find your readers—and not just the ones at the center of the target, so to speak.

Target reader as an archetype

You might want to think of your target reader as an archetype, which the dictionary defines as: “a very typical example of a certain person or thing.”

If you’re writing a book, for example, on improving your marriage, your target reader will be an archetype for men or women who are struggling in their marriage. But more specifically, it might be a woman around 35-45 years of age, who’s been married for more than seven years (typical point at which the honeymoon shine begins to dim), who feels dissatisfied with their marriage but wants to work it out. Depending on your content, this person might also have a few kids, they might be a Christian, they might work full or part time outside of the home, etc. You’re not writing for just one person, but you are writing for an archetype that represents a demographic.

That doesn’t mean that readers outside that demographic will ignore your book. But they’ll fall into the outer rings of the target.

Having a target reader in mind does not limit your audience but finds the common ground that your audience stands upon.

My target reader for my non-fiction has shifted over the years. For my first several books, the target reader was a married, college-educated Christian woman in her 30s, with two or three young kids, who found herself asking questions about her faith. She worked part-time, but also focused her energy on her children. She was vaguely dissatisfied (but wrestled with guilt about those feelings), a bit spiritual lonely, and intellectually hungry. She didn’t want to waste her precious bit of free time reading fluffy books or going through the motions. She needed to know she was not alone and not the only one asking questions. She longed for more than a superficial faith. She wondered how to nurture her own faith and emotional health when her days were consumed with caring for others.

As I got older, my target reader did as well, but essentially was asking the same questions and wrestling with the same desire to deepen her faith. And younger readers continued to read my books because they provided mentoring and a “big sister” sort of connection.

Often, our target reader is a version of the person we see in the mirror. Many times, especially when writing non-fiction, our writing springs from our own questions or struggles.

Once you know who your reader is, you can think about what your book will give them. What is their “why”? What do they need? What problem keeps them up at night? How will your book address that particular problem? What in your story or wisdom will resonate with them, helping them along in their journey? What will inspire them to pick up the book and read it?

The questions in my free Start Your Powerful Story Workbook will help you to delve deeper and answer this essential question. You can get a free copy by subscribing with the button below.

P.S. Want more on this topic? You can watch this teaching video from my writers’ group, which walks you through figuring out your target reader.