Connect to Your Readers and Create Raving Book Fans

Imagine a crowd of peopleyour ideal clients and readersreading your book and loving every word of it. Imagine them devouring every page, reading it again, telling everyone they know about how fabulous and life-changing it is, and then passing your book on to their friends and colleagues. Sounds great, doesn't it?

This is what every author wantsa crowd of dedicated, raving fans who can't wait to work with them. And, believe it or not, every author can have it. Connection is the key.

As a writer, the most important person in your work life is your readersthe people who pick up your book, buy it, and take the time to read it. Your readers are your audience, the people you are trying to reach, educate, and persuade. Therefore, you should always keep your readers in mind as you write.

Some writers feel this stifles the creative process-believing that if they just write what's in their mind, the audience will follow. And I can see how profiling your ideal reader for a creative type of book, like fiction or memoir, might not be as important. But even then, a writer needs to understand where every sentence they put on the page leads their reader. For self-help, business, and how-to books, though, knowing your reader is a critical piece of creating a book they love.

So what does that mean? Well, first you have to know your ideal reading audience. These are the people who need the information you can provide. Who are they? What are they struggling with? What's keeping them up at night? What do they need? What can you really do for them? Did they struggle with a problem that you overcame in your past? Regardless of what you're writing about and who you're writing for, you can ask yourself these questions about your audience and write in a way that speaks directly to their needs and wants.

If you don't know the answers to these questions, get out there and talk to the people you want to serve. Go to places they gather and hang out, and ask them about their biggest challenges. Do your homework and profile them. You may find you know more about them than you think.

Then as you write, you have to step into their shoes and look at the information you're presenting from their perspective. Keep their biggest, most stressful problems in mind, and write about how your ideas and strategies can ease their pain. Make sure everything you write about in your book relates to solving their most important problem. Communicating well with your audience will make your information resonate with readers. They'll feel like you truly understand what they're going through and you wrote your book just for them, which is exactly what attracts a crowd of dedicated fans who are dying to work with you and can't stop talking about your book.