The pros know their expertise and their audience like the back of their hands. Their understanding goes far beyond basic reader demographics or knowing what the popular Google searches are.
Readers can sense when an author truly understand them – which means they “know like and trust” you. And once you nail this, the rewards are immense.
Define who needs your help and how you need to help them
Make a list of types of people you have helped in the past professionally.
Define their main needs…
- What keeps them awake at night staring into space?
- What makes them angry and grinds their gears?
- What are they afraid of?
- What frustrates the hell out of them?
- What do they secretly crave?
- If they could wave a magic wand over their situation what would happen
Work out why it matters that they solve each of those problems and get the result they crave? Double check it through the eyes of your clients. Are all the ideas you come up with important… or nice-to-haves?
Think about how you solved those problems in the past. Can your expertise be shared in a book to become that “magic wand?”
Now you have your target audience to aim for and you know what they’re struggling with, it’s time to think about where you start to help someone who is stuck at Square One.
TIP: A little word from the wise, avoid getting tangled up with complex, advanced subject-matter for your first book. Sharing clear and concise good quality beginner’s information is fine to start with – trust me!
If you want some help planning your book, let me know.
