“Who’s your ideal reader?”
That’s a question I ask in the early stages of coaching an author through a book. Most of my clients give me a demographic description. That’s great, and we may need it later to determine the size of the audience, but you shouldn’t write to a demographic description for a couple of reasons.
Demographic descriptions don’t buy books. They don’t read them. They don’t change what they’re doing because of a book or tell their friends about that book. Only people do that. You want to write to a person.
That’s why the next question I ask is usually, “Do you know an actual person who is likely to buy the book, read it, do something different because of it, and tell their friends about it? I’m talking about a real, physical person with a Social Security number and a few bad habits.”
The answer to that question gives me a very good idea about how ready the person I’m talking to is to write their book. The people who know who they’re writing to can usually come up with several real people. But many prospective authors really struggle with this.
If you write to a real person, you can write conversationally. You’ll know if you should use jargon, what jargon to use, and when. If you know the real person you’re writing to, you probably also have a basketful of good stories and examples to share. Then good things happen.
Rod Santomassimo’s book Brokers Who Dominate includes the story of commercial real estate legend Jerry Anderson. One part of that story is Anderson’s quest to win the business of John Hancock, a huge national account. He used his book, one of the first successful self-published books, to demonstrate his knowledge. Here’s how Rod describes what happened.
“As he left, he gave the six senior asset managers from John Hancock a copy of his book, Success Strategies for Investment Real Estate: The Professional’s Guide to Better Service and Increased Commissions…
About a week later, the John Hancock executive called Jerry and said: ‘I’ve read your book, and you get it; you understand the business, and you understand us.”
The golden kernel ends that quote, “You understand the business, and you understand us.” When you know real people who are likely to buy and read your book, you’ve got a shot at writing a book that generates that reaction. Otherwise, it’s going to be hard going.
When you write, write to a real person who represents all the readers who will buy your book, read it, benefit from it, and tell all their friends. Do you know some people like that?