Write a Nonfiction Book That Speaks to Your Audience | JustWriteBooks: Nonfiction Writing & Publishing Help

Write a Non-fiction Book That Speaks to Your Audience

Posted on 14 July 2010 by Victoria St. George

My very first non-fiction book proposal was for Smart Women Finish Rich, a trade hardback that eventually became a runaway bestseller and spawned a series of bestsellers, by David Bach. David had been a financial professional for several years and developed seminars for women who didn’t know much about finances and investing. His material was smart, funny, realistic, and perfectly suited to his target audience. From the very beginning, he knew his potential readers and did a great job of writing the perfect book for them. David continues to meet his readers’ needs in everything he’s written since.

Collaborating with David was a great lesson, one I continue to apply as a ghostwriter and editor fifteen years later. Whenever I’m working on a book or book proposal with someone, one of the first questions I ask is, “Who’s your reader?” Of course, knowing the target audience for your book is Marketing 101. However, if you take the question a little deeper, your knowledge of your reader can help you create a more powerful and effective book.

There are three reasons to know your reader/audience. First, for positioning. In today’s customized world, a reader looks for material appropriate to his or her particular life situation.

Who will be your primary audience? If you’re writing a relationship book, for example, is it for people just becoming romantically involved, getting married, having been married for a long time, or getting divorced?
Is your book primarily for men or women (knowing that women buy far more relationship books than men)?
What’s the target age range? If it’s women in their twenties—who were raised with the Internet, email, and the “short and sweet” form of communication—you should write differently than for Gen Xers or Baby Boomers.
What are the demographic and psychographics of the readers who will be most receptive to your material? If you’re writing a business book, is the target audience new entrepreneurs, middle managers, top-level executives, or new hires? What problems and/or wounds do your readers experience (and you will help them fix)?

The second reason to know your reader is to make your writing personal. The greatest compliment an author can receive is for a reader to say, “It was like you were writing it just for me.” Part of this comes from creating a clear, personalized picture of your ideal reader. A dear friend who has written several best-selling personal development books told me that when she was working on her first manuscript, she visualized her ideal reader as a woman in pink, fuzzy slippers, sitting by a fireplace. Every time she sat down to write, she’d call up the vision of the lady in the pink fuzzy slippers, and write for her.

Who is the ideal reader for your book?
Where will he or she be when they open your book for the first time?
Write as if you were sitting next to your ideal reader, telling him or her your story. This kind of personal perspective will help you keep your writing immediate, fresh, colloquial, and clear.

The third reason to know your reader is to make sure the information you’re presenting is what they need to know, and what they will understand. You can’t assume your readers know everything you do about your subject. After all, if they did, they might not be reading your book. If you truly know your reader, however, you’re more likely to explain what needs explaining, and to avoid explaining what they already know. For instance, a relationship book for couples who have been married for a while and want to recapture the magic will not have to include the perils and pitfalls of moving in together—something a relationship book for new couples might need to discuss. On the other hand, a newly married couple probably won’t need a chapter on renewing a routine sex life.

Imagine your reader perusing a chapter in your book.

What kinds of questions might he or she have about your topic?
Is there anything you need to define or make clear, especially if you have a different and new perspective on the term or subject? A business book for high-level executives may not need to define terms like market share, performance reviews, quarterly earnings reports, and so on. However, if your topic is integrity in business, you should define exactly what you mean by integrity and how it affects those areas. (By the way, I’m a big believer in over-communicating in your first draft and including definitions for anything and everything your reader might need to know. You can simplify or eliminate superfluous definitions in later drafts.)

One of my most important jobs is to be the readers’ representative, so I always try to put myself in readers’ shoes and write the book best suited to communicate the author’s material to them. Take a few moments at the start to get very clear on who your reader is, and you’ll write a better book—one with much greater potential for impact and success.

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