Last week I went to a play. It had been quite some time, maybe even pre-pandemic, since I’d been to a live performance. It was a stage adaptation of Il Marchese del Grillo, the story of a gentleman in Rome in the mid 1800s who likes to play jokes on people but when one goes too far, he risks losing his head in the guillotine. There’s plenty of singing, dancing, and frivolity so you know it will end well—and it does.
At the end of the performance, after taking repeated bows, the lead actor spoke directly to the audience. The play had a sold-out run at the end of last year and because of demand, they’d decided to do another run last week. The actor expressed his appreciation for his fellow cast members and the production company. His suave, baritone voice quivered slightly when he described his love of the theater. He spoke directly to a young boy in the first row, asking if the boy liked the performance, if he noticed a difference between seeing a live performance and watching something on the screen. He reached out to shake the boy’s hand. “You can’t do that with a screen,” he said.
Then he turned to the audience at large and thanked us. Without the audience, there is no theater, nor actors. It’s a mutual exchange between performer and observer.
As a writer, you probably know where this is going. Who are writers without their readers? Yes, you can write for yourself, but we call that journaling or keeping a diary. When you write a book for publication, you rely on an audience—your readers—and they rely on you. They want to know the knowledge you have to share, and you want to share it with them. But how do you know you’re writing the things they want to hear or that you’re reaching the right readers?
When I’m working with nonfiction writers, we talk about the ideal audience. I ask about demographics because that’s an easy place to begin: how old are they? Where do they live? What kind of job do they have? Do they have a partner or children? Then we dig deeper. I ask, what keeps the ideal reader up at night? Where do they hang out? What are they reading? How do they spend their spare time?
You want to ask yourself these questions when you begin working on your book. When your knowledge provides the answers your ideal reader seeks, you’ve got a good direction to follow. If you don’t think about your reader, you risk writing a book no one needs or trying to share it with the wrong audience. If you struggle to answer those questions, think about a client who you know needs your book immediately; describe them completely and write about the problem they have that your knowledge—and eventual book—solves. Or think about yourself ten or twenty years ago; what do you know now that you wish you’d known then? While you work on defining your reader, you’re also honing your book idea. Like actors and the theater audience, one struggles to exist without the other.
Not all exchanges are mutually dependent. You can be a writer without a book coach, however, I am not a book coach without writers. If you’re thinking about writing a nonfiction book or memoir, there are several ways we can work together. You can read about them on my new and improved website, which quietly launched yesterday. Please check it out and let me know what you think.