Welcome back to Nothing but the Words.

I’m your Author Coach, Candice L Davis.

While I love the craft of writing for its own sake, your book doesn’t really live its full potential until it connects with your readers.

Once it does, it takes on a life of its own. 

But who’s going to buy your book? Who wants to read it?

Imagine you’re writing a book on personal finance. College students versus retirees. Novices vs savvy investors. These are different books. One of my clients, Patrice Washington, wrote 3 books on personal finance. 

A lot of authors don’t want to nail down their target market because they think that limits their reach, but nothing could be further from the truth.

When you write for “everyone,” you end up with a boring, bland book. You can only write the kind of generic content that applies to everyone and is customized to no one. It doesn’t make for a great read.

Or you end up with a book that’s all over the place, trying to be all things to all people.

But when you nail down your one perfect reader, you can write to that person and other people will also want to read your book.

This is most obviously applicable to how-to books and memoirs, but it really applies to any kind of book you might be writing.

In reality, we all buy and read books that weren’t directly targeted to us. I can almost promise you I’m not Todd Herman’s or Ramit Sethi’s or Dave Ramsey’s target market, but I still buy and read their books. They connect with their target market and I fall into a secondary market with whom they also connect.

More important, often, than the demographics of your One Perfect Reader are the psychographics.

Age, race, gender, sexual orientation, income, location, profession, relationship status, these demographic might matter—or they might not.

It depends on the topic of your book. I still like to include them in a One Perfect Reader profile, but they’re often secondary to some other details.

Some characteristics of your One Perfect Reader definitely matter, and those things often fall under psychographics.

What problem does your One Perfect Reader most want to solve?

What kind of story inspires or motivates her?

What does he most want from a book like yours?

What’s her most important goal?

What keeps him up at night?

When I coach authors, we create a Perfect Reader profile. This is a profile of the one person who’s waiting for your book whether she knows it or not.

Don’t worry. Most of your readers won’t fit this profile perfectly, but that’s okay. This gives you someone to write to, so get as detailed as you want with this profile.

In addition to your Perfect Readers problems, goals, and desires, compile a list of her demographic qualities, like age, race, gender, ETC.

Again, don’t worry. People who don’t fit this exact description will still want to read your book. This profile will help you get specific in your language and content, but it doesn’t lock out other readers.

When you get to the marketing phase of your book, all of this information will be incredibly helpful. It will help you

If you have customers or clients or you’ve written books already, look at those clients r readers. Your Perfect Reader might be:

Your current clients, readers, or customers—the ones you most enjoy working with

People who aren’t ready for your services or products yet. In which case, your book can help them get ready to buy more from you

People who fit a new market you’re trying to reach

People who’re better suited for a new line of business you want to launch

If you don’t have buyers yet, there are other ways to nail down your perfect reader.

If you’re writing a how-to book or memoir, she’s likely a few steps behind you on the journey your book will take her on.

Or she has a problem your book can solve.

If you’re writing a novel, he’s obsessed with the kind of story you want to tell and there’s an underlying reason why it appeals to him.

Your action step for today: Take some time to figure out who your One Perfect Reader is. Write out a description of this reader, starting with what she or he hopes to get from your book.

What Makes Me Happy Right Now

Todd Herman’s book, The Alter Ego Effect is a game-changer.

Thanks for listening to Nothing but the Words. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you already subscribe, I’d be greatly honored if you’d leave me a review.

I’ll see you next time.