25 for 25: Audience
If you think your book is for everyone, it’s for no one.
This essay is part of my 25 for 25 book writing series. The lessons in this series are meant to simplify the book writing and production journey. You can find a guide with links to the entire series here.
Who is your book’s ideal reader? Please, don’t say “everyone.” It’s not for everyone. If you think your book is for everyone, it’s for no one.
Books can vary based on the educational level, the writing voice, the style of writing, the type of writing, the message, the intent … there’s so many different things that factor into the intended reader and the right audience for a book.
It’s important to dig deep and figure out exactly who your book is for.
What is their age?
What’s their location?
What’s their education level?
What’s their reading level?
What is their background?
What are their hobbies and interests?
What do they hope to get out of this?
Understanding your reader will help you write a book to meet their needs. Tapping into your book’s audience will also help you when the book is released. But if you don’t do the work to figure out your audience ahead of time, your book is never really going to reach its intended audience.
Whether that means picturing or naming that ideal reader, the deeper you can go on your audience, great!
Beyond figuring out who the book is for, figure out who the book is not for. You can actually share those perspectives in the book’s opening chapters to narrow down further on your actual audience. This can be an effective approach, especially for books on polarizing topics or topics that feature a wide range of books.
It’s nice to have tons and tons of people reading your book. But it’s better to have a high concentration of people who are really buying into your message. That’s what this is really about—them seeing you as a leader and somebody to believe in and support.
It’s so easy to get your message watered down when it doesn’t hit the right audience. So spend some time and figure out who your book is for, and you’ll have much more success in the end.
Watch this!
I cover audience in this video.